The Kingsport
Lions club was organized in 1946 and was sponsored by the Lions Club
of Bristol, VA. An organizational meeting was held on June 27
at the Kingsport Inn which used to stand where the AmSouth Bank
building is now located. The formal Charter Night occurred at
the Kingsport Inn on August 20 when the club charter was presented
by District Governor E. M. Kaylor of Chattanooga. Guest
speaker was Dr. D. Trigg James, pastor of Broad Street Methodist
Church. There were 25 charter members and the initial slate of
officers included W. B. Halbach, President, R. O. Peters, 1st Vice
President, Lake Butcher, 2nd Vice President, J. B. Regan, 3rd Vice
President and Hayden Huddleston, Secretary-Treasurer. Meetings
were scheduled for each Tuesday noon at the Kingsport Inn. The
club continues to meet each Tuesday at noon but now at Giuseppe's
Restaurant on East Stone Drive.
The major, although not sole, area of
service of the Kingsport Lions Club is sight conservation, that is,
helping to prevent blindness and providing services for those
already blind. In pursuit of this objective, the club arranges
for the vision testing each year of about 8,000 children in some 35
Kingsport and Western Sullivan County schools. A recently developed test
procedure which requires no response from the child is used to
test the vision of children in the age range of 12-60
months. The test results are sent to experts at the
Lion's Children's Center at Vanderbilt University where
experts can determine apparent vision problems with about an
85% accuracy. Parents are notified if there appears to
be a problem, and the children can be referred to the family
ophthalmologist. This service is offered to many
preschool and day care centers in the vicinity. Some of
the services for persons who are already blind are the Lion's
Recordings for the Blind which reads and tapes text books for
students; Leader Dogs for the Blind which provides trained
dogs for use by blind persons; Volunteer Blind Industries
which provides training and employment for blind persons at
our Morristown and Johnson City locations. From time to
time we have also made help available to the Red Cross,
Salvation Army, Boys Club, Girls Club and Fun Fest in the form
of a picnic for physically and emotionally challenged
individuals. In 2004 the local club with the help of
Lions Clubs International built a Habitat House for a family
with a disabled child. All Lions Club services are
provided without charge.
The club is a part of
District 12-N which is one of five districts in the state of
Tennessee. This District stretches from Mountain City to Harriman
and includes 42 clubs. The Kingsport Club has furnished four
District Governors in the past: Lake Butcher (1950-51), Cecil
Dougherty (1962- 63), Fred Kays (1983-84), Bob Miller (1987-88) and
Kingsport Lion Bill Moore served as District Governor in 2005-06.
The Lions Club is the world's largest service club organization with
more than 1.3 million members around the globe.
If
you are interested in membership, The
Kingsport Lions Club meets each week at noon on Tuesdays at
Giuseppe's Restaurant
ngsport Inn which used to stand where the AmSouth Bank
building is now located. The formal Charter Night occurred at
the Kingsport Inn on August 20 when the club charter was presented
by District Governor E. M. Kaylor of Chattanooga. Guest
speaker was Dr. D. Trigg James, pastor of Broad Street Methodist
Church. There were 25 charter members and the initial slate of
officers included W. B. Halbach, President, R. O. Peters, 1st Vice
President, Lake Butcher, 2nd Vice President, J. B. Regan, 3rd Vice
President and Hayden Huddleston, Secretary-Treasurer. Meetings
were scheduled for each Tuesday noon at the Kingsport Inn. The
club continues to meet each Tuesday at noon but now at Giuseppe's
Restaurant on East Stone Drive.
A recently developed test
procedure which requires no response from the child is used to
test the vision of children in the age range of 12-60
months. The test results are sent to experts at the
Lion's Children's Center at Vanderbilt University where
experts can determine apparent vision problems with about an
85% accuracy. Parents are notified if there appears to
be a problem, and the children can be referred to the family
ophthalmologist. This service is offered to many
preschool and day care centers in the vicinity. Some of
the services for persons who are already blind are the Lion's
Recordings for the Blind which reads and tapes text books for
students; Leader Dogs for the Blind which provides trained
dogs for use by blind persons; Volunteer Blind Industries
which provides training and employment for blind persons at
our Morristown and Johnson City locations. From time to
time we have also made help available to the Red Cross,
Salvation Army, Boys Club, Girls Club and Fun Fest in the form
of a picnic for physically and emotionally challenged
individuals. In 2004 the local club with the help of
Lions Clubs International built a Habitat House for a family
with a disabled child. All Lions Club services are
provided without charge.