The Cherokee
Village Lions Club was chartered August 1, 1963 and currently has a membership
of 52. Cherokee Village is a semi
retirement community made up of members that have relocated to the village from
all over the nation and are ready and able to give back to the community.
The Cherokee Village
Lions Club's activities over the past 45 years has raised in excess of
800,000.00 dollars donating over 75% for the blind and other charitable
organizations and the balance for the benefit of local charitable
organizations. To raise this money, the club is involved in a variety of fund
raising activities such as.
(1) Annual
Golf Tournament - Last full weekend before Labor Day
(2) Spring
& Fall Carnival (May Fest & Autumn Fest).
(3) Annual
Hog Roast- which is held in late Spring
(4) White
Cane Day- Fall and Spring
(5) Yard
Sale - early Spring
The club is also
involved in numerous humanitarian services at the local, national, and
international levels including
(1)
Sight Screening School age Children in Sharp County.
(2)
Services to the youth
(a) Peace Poster - each Fall
(b) Liberty Day - each Spring
(3)
Providing glasses for the needy.
(4)
Rehabilitation for the blind and visually impaired.
(5)
Leader dog.
(6)
Recovery and support of Cornea transplants
We have several
members that have served Lionism in excess of 25 years and one in excess of 40
years and are also proud to have many members that have served Lion's above the
club level. <br>We are extremely
proud and honored to have given 20 Melvin Jones awards 12 of who are still
active in the club.
We are also
extremely proud to have 2 Past District Governors from our Club: Claude Shaver
1965 - 66 (deceased) and Wally Schultz 2006 - 07. We are also honored to have had Past District Governor Roy Buddhu
(deceased) and Past District Governor Loretta Taylor-Buddhu from other
Districts.
Our club is also
pleased to have many Dahlstrom, Silver Cane, and Crystal Cornea award winners.
Each Year our Club sight screens all
available Children in the four schools in Sharp county In the last 11 years
alone we have screened over 24,281 Children and provided vision care to those
who other wise could not afford such care.
Our Club is also well
known in the community for it's Medical Shed.
Wheel Chairs, Walkers, Canes, Shower chairs, etc are available to loan
to those who need them for short-term rehab.
We support many things
in the Community, such as: annual 4th of July Fire Works, community chorus,
Literacy Council, Family violence center, Women's shelter, Piece makers
Quilting group, who provide quilts to those in need, Village Pride (helps in
beautifying our village, Ministerial alliance, Senior Citizens Center, Story Book
Project (a group who go to the prisons and allow mothers and fathers to
reconnect with their children by providing books for them to read on tape,
which are then sent to the children), North East Arkansas Band and Dyeann's
House (a place for Children to stay when a critically ill parent is in the
local hospital)
Each Year we give
scholarships to local seniors
Each year in the
spring we celebrate Liberty Day with all the sixth graders in Sharp County and
in co-operation with Liberty Bank award prizes for the best essays from each of
the four schools.
Each fall we have a
Peace Poster Contest with the local school and award prizes for the top
artwork.
Our Club has a very active eyeglass-recycling program we
send approximately 75 pounds of glasses for recycling each year, thus insuring
that our "Old Glasses can see again".