Lions give $3K to Friends Who Share

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

Each year mem­bers of The Sun­bury Lions Club holds a Christ­mas Tree Sale on Sun­bury Square. After the trees are sold and bills are paid the remain­der of the funds are given to Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share, east­ern Delaware County’s grass roots, all-volunteer social ser­vice agency.

Friends Who Share Cen­ter Direc­tor Gene Wampler attended last Mon­day evening’s Sun­bury Lions Club meet­ing at Sun­bury United Methodist Church where he was pre­sented with a $3,000 check from the 2012 Lions Christ­mas Tree Sale.

“The Lions Club has helped us a whole lot this year,” Wampler said. “They pitched in and rebuilt our drop box stor­age bins, and the Christ­mas tree pro­ceeds come close to rent for all year.”

Wampler said the need for funds con­tin­ues to grow; that the Friends Who Share client list is up almost 20 per­cent over the last year.

“This really helps out,” Wampler said.

Lion Rick Eyman said the Sun­bury Lions are hon­ored to sup­port Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share.

“We used to use the Christ­mas Tree Sale pro­ceeds to pur­chase food bas­kets for needy fam­i­lies dur­ing the hol­i­days,” Eyman said. “Friends Who Share knows where the real needs are, and are more effi­cient at serv­ing those in our com­mu­nity who are struggling.”

The Sun­bury Lions Club is a Big Wal­nut com­mu­nity sta­ple that lends sup­port to a vari­ety of orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing: Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share, K-9 Com­pan­ions, Ohio Radio Read­ing, Ohio Quest, Camp Echo­ing Hills, News Reel, Cen­tral Ohio Lion’s Eye Bank, and Delaware Speech and Hearing.

The Sun­bury Lions also help Big Wal­nut stu­dents via ser­vice schol­ar­ships and band sup­port, and by help­ing to finance FFA and cheer­lead­ing activities.

Lions Clubs Inter­na­tional is the world’s largest ser­vice club orga­ni­za­tion with 1.3 mil­lion mem­bers in 45,000 clubs in 202 coun­tries and geo­graphic areas. Lions are men and women who vol­un­teer their time to human­i­tar­ian causes. Founded in 1917, the association’s motto is “We Serve”.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Sun­bury Lions Club visit their web site at < sunburylionsclub.org >.

The Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share Store at 216 High Street, Sun­bury, is open to those in need on Wednes­day morn­ings from 9 until 11:30 a.m., and dur­ing the evening on the sec­ond and fourth Tues­day of each month from 6:30 until 8 p.m.

On the sec­ond Sat­ur­day of each month, senior cit­i­zens can visit the Friends Who Share Store from 10 a.m. until 12 noon. Vol­un­teers help out at the cen­ter from 9 a.m. until 11:30 every Mon­day morn­ing. The store accepts donated items on Mon­days and Wednes­days from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m.

To vol­un­teer, to donate needed items or to make a finan­cial con­tri­bu­tion to Friends Who Share projects, call 740)-965‑9596. Cash dona­tions may be sent to Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share, P.O. Box 424, Sun­bury, 43074.

Posted by Gary Henery on Mar 6 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.