Over the last 50 years, the Lions Club of Grand Cayman has been consistently visible in the Cayman Islands with members’ signature yellow vests seen at many an event.
This year, the club celebrates its golden anniversary.
Beginnings
The Lions movement started with Melvin Jones, a businessman in Chicago. When he joined a networking luncheon club for businessmen in Chicago called the Business Circle, he quickly took the lead in recruiting new members and persuading backsliders to rejoin. But something about the club’s business-only focus didn’t square with Jones’ different, larger vision. That vision grew within the US and came to the Caribbean in the 1960s and shortly thereafter to Grand Cayman.
The late Peter Balls was among the group who travelled from Jamaica to form the club in Grand Cayman. Soon, local men were recruited, and the club received its charter on 6 Oct. 1972. The charter president was Lion Thomas Hurlston, with the first board made up of Barry Phillips (1st VP), David Arch (2nd VP), Gaston Maloney (secretary), Richard Graham Taylor (treasurer), and Rex Rankine (assistant secretary).
Lions Community Centre
Even though the first members were visionaries, not one at that time anticipated the huge success that the club would become. It found a permanent home in 1990, which was developed into a multipurpose facility to serve the community. The Lions Community Centre is still actively used today for concerts, pageants and cultural events.
Groundbreaking programmes
Throughout the last 50 years, the club has – with the support of the community – completed such projects as the Lions Eye Clinic, the Lions Pool, sight screening of schoolchildren every year, and gift deliveries to people on Christmas Day.
The club’s ongoing signature project, Sight Conservation, has reaped untold dividends. The Lions Eye Clinic was built in 1992, and receives ongoing assistance from the club, which provides much needed equipment and resources.
Other special projects have included helping to build homes for the elderly and needy, as well as sponsoring the Lions Annual Spelling Bee.
Built in 1985, the Lions Aquatic Centre has facilitated access to affordable, competitive-level swim training for a generation of talented young swimmers. Since this past summer it has taken on a very special place in local sporting history as the early training ground for two of Cayman’s Olympians, the Fraser brothers.
Accolades
The Lions Club of Kingston, in recognition of the Cayman chapter’s longevity, remarked, “We have watched you grow and prosper with the special affection that a parent has for its offspring. At fifty, we reluctantly concede that the child is expected to supersede the parent and establish its own list of accomplishments. Your list is long and significant in its contribution to the welfare of the Cayman Islands.
“Congratulations on this milestone, and may you ever continue to make us proud to say ‘That’s my child’.”
The future looks bright
What started out as an all-male club in 1972 now has a gender-diversified membership, with the first two female members inducted in February 2003 and the first female president installed in 2009. Today, 40% of the club’s active membership is female and many have served at a leadership level throughout the years.
Michael Havlin, the 50th president of the Lions Club, said, “Our first 50 years has been astounding, and as the 50th president, I extend thanks and sincere gratitude to all past and present members and the entire family of supporters, sponsors and donors for helping us to achieve this wonderful milestone.”
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