By Devan Mighton
Since their founding in 1917, Lions Club International has been a worldwide leader in building communities and philanthropy. Conceived of by Melvin Jones in Chicago, IL, as of January 2020, Lions Club is a worldwide enterprise, boasting 46,000 chapters and 1.4 million members across more than 200 countries and geographical regions.
“Our club has been in Belle River for 78 years—it started in 1945—that is when our club was formed,” explains Belle River Lions Club president Tyler Dozois. “The Lions Club, itself, is over 100 years old. It’s actually the biggest charity in the world.”
Dozois, who is the current and youngest-ever serving Belle River Lions Club president, has been a member for 10 years. His club currently has 41 members to its credit. Through a variety of local events, such as May’s Stroll the Street event and the Sunsplash Car Show in July, the local Lions Club supports a bunch of local initiatives, such as guide dogs, childhood cancer and diabetes fundraising, and an annual bursary at Belle River District High School.
The Lions Club recently participated in Belle River’s Stroll the Street event on May 12. Camped out at the Foodland parking lot, Dozois says that the Lions cooked and prepared hotdogs for $4 each. The money goes to the club for its local fundraising initiatives and projects.
“[Our patrons] thoroughly enjoyed it,” says Dozois. “We were busy—so that’s a good thing.”
In July, the Lions Club will be participating in the Belle River-On the Lake Sunsplash Festival during the event’s Classic Cruise Car Show. Sunsplash runs from July 13-16, with the car show taking place from 4-8 pm on Friday, July 14.
“The biggest thing that our club is known for is that we support Leader Dogs for the Blind, which is out of Rochester Hills, MI,” explains Dozois.
Leader Dogs for the Blind is a guide dog training organization founding 1939 by Lions Club International members Charles Nutting, Don Schuur, and S. A. Dodge of the Uptown Detroit Lions Club.
As a not-for-profit organization, Leader Dogs runs a breeding program that chiefly works with Labrador and Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, and crosses of those breeds. Dozois says that each dog can cost $50,000 to breed and train, costs that are eliminated through fundraising so that the dogs can be donated to those who are blind, visually impaired, or even suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Dogs who are deemed unsuited for guide dog work are instead steered towards service, detection, veteran, and court advocacy dog organizations.
On an annual basis, the Belle River Lions Club donated $2,500 to the Leader Dog program and also maintains a kennel at the dog school in Rochester Hills. Dozois estimated that roughly 3,500 dogs from this program have been distributed locally.
For more information on the Belle River Lions Club, please visit their website at https://e-clubhouse.org/sites/belleriver/.
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