Over one million Lions are serving the world one community at a time. Our local Muleshoe Lions Club rolled up their sleeves and took action and had a rip-roaring year in 2018. We leaped into the year by celebrating with Watson Junior High student, America Pontoja. She had won our local Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest last November and had advanced to the district level. America won 1st place after competing with over 300 contestants! In March and April, we were preparing for our annual Roseday. The profits from our sale go to help children in the area with eyeglasses and to sponsor kids with disabilities to go to Texas Lions Camp.     Thanks to our wonderful community we sold 108 dozen roses this year. To celebrate our Independence on 4th of July, we decorated a float and road in the parade and featured our Queen, Kyndal Miller. We also had a raffle for a Remington 270 rifle, which Johnathan Hall won. As August began, we were proud to sponsor Raynee Scolley to attend the Texas Lions Camp. While at camp she received an award for Most Improved Understanding of Diabetes. Texas Lions Camp is the largest camp in the United States for kids with disabilities. They serve about 1,500 campers per summer. We then leaped off into another school year with our annual vision screenings for students of Muleshoe I.S.D. In 1925, Helen Keller addressed the Lions at their international convention and urged them to become “Knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.” Since then, lions have become renowned worldwide for their efforts to improve sight.

Locally we use a special digital eye screening camera. This camera captures two digital images of a child’s eye. When they look into the camera, they see shiny bright colors and they often ask to see their picture. The school nurses were very appreciative of our screenings. It usually takes them several weeks to screen all students in their school, but with our “camera” it takes a morning or afternoon. Dr. Redwine is wonderful in helping us with eye exams and eyeglass prescriptions if needed. We were able to help several families receive glasses for their child. In September 1st Vice-District Governor, James Belk, came to our meeting to honor our own Lion, Jimmie Kay Moore. She goes above and beyond for our club! In November we started receiving posters from Watson Junior High School students for the Lions Club International Peace Poster Contest. This year’s theme was “Kindness Matters.” It’s a saying that encompasses the way Lions view and serve the world. It’s a powerful sentiment that everyone knows yet is too often lost. And who better than our youth to remind the world of this powerful and important message. We had over 70 students enter their poster. Our winner was Kailey Diaz. Some of the student’s art posters were displayed at Aim Bank. We had several entries in our Speech and Essay contests as well. We would like to invite anyone to help us serve our community! Muleshoe Lions Club meets on the 1st and 3rd Thursday at Muleshoe Country Club at 12:00pm. We will have an exception to this time in January because of the holidays. Our next meeting will be January 10th. If you would like more information, please contact Garry Shipman at 477-8899 or Earl Behrends at 315-1030. We would like to thank our community for an amazing year! Wishing everyone a blessed and happy New Year! WE SERVE!