I arrived early for the Lions Club bi-monthly meeting at Joyce’s Family Restaurant on Main Street. Without waiting for more than a “Hello,” Mike Frieda, the club President and my contact person, got up from his table conversation to introduce himself and Phil Proctor, the club historian.
The Club Historian
I soon learned that Phil’s father was one of the 1941 founders – a charter member of the club, who had a farm machinery business. Phil has celebrated his 90th birthday, but could easily pass for 70, his age when he joined the club. He explained that the club was chartered in 1941, sponsored by the Apex Lions Club. Phil was a radar technician in the Strategic Air Command. Phil’s father was a lifetime Lions Club member and when Phil separated from the military, his father asked him to join the club. Instead, Phil joined the Jaycees, but as he put it, “After I got to be an old man, I had no more excuses.” Phil retired in 1998. They have children and grandchildren. Two sons live here and a daughter lives in a suburb of DC. With his father’s reports and his own memories, Phil makes a fine club historian.
Club History
Like all Lions Clubs, Fuquay-Varina’s not only helps the blind in the local community but also supports research for the blind. Wikipedia posts that Chicago businessman Melvin Jones founded Lions Clubs International in 1917 and it now has 1.7 million members across 46,000 clubs in 190 countries. But Phil provides a human touch to the facts. Jones had joined a business networking group, but as an already effective salesman, he was interested more in the fellowship than in the scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours approach of that group. Convinced that such clubs could also provide community service, he and his wife Rose wrote to similar groups across the country to organize a meeting in Chicago. Lions Clubs International was the outcome of that meeting. But the long-recognized service of the Lions to the blind waited another eight years.
At the 1925 convention, the keynote speaker was Helen Keller aided by Anne Sullivan. Phil’s explanation that she asked the group to become “a knight for the blind” spurred my interest in digging up more of that speech. Lions History Bachelor Course 101 reported the following:
The final paragraph of that 500-word speech was: “The opportunity I bring you, Lions, is this: To foster and sponsor the work of the American Foundation for the Blind. Will you not help me hasten the day when there shall be no preventable blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided? I appeal to you Lions, you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness? I thank you.” The Lions applauded wildly. A motion was made to make Helen Keller an honorary member. It was seconded exactly 100 times. The same honor was accorded to Anne Sullivan.
Just three years later, Lions Clubs throughout the world helped to make the white cane a safety aid and symbol for the blind recognized by governments around the world, including ours.
Club Activities
Phil mentioned that a lot of the money that the local club raises stays here. The sale of Christmas trees is a key project of the group. The trees come from western North Carolina and years ago it took four men and two trucks to bring them to Fuquay-Varina. Since the supplier is sometimes not so well organized, they occasionally have to stay the night before the cutting and baling is finished. Food, lodging, and 24-hour limits on rental trucks cut into profits, so club member Dan Houck now drives up in his own truck and makes a couple of trips to bring back 450 trees, sometimes with the help of the tree farmer. For years the Lions have been selling the trees at a lot on the corner of Main and Smithwood (across the tracks from Home Depot). A challenge for the tree sales came up later in the meeting under New Business.
About this time, a member came around selling raffle tickets. I didn’t know what they were for, except that I suspected it to be for a good cause. So, I chipped in to buy a few tickets. Next, Mayor Byrne came to the meeting and Phil told me I would be treated later with a good story about the day he joined the club.
I also asked Phil about club diversity. In 1987, the Lions Club International became the first major service organization to invite women. Fuquay-Varina’s club even had a woman president six years ago and it has had a black president as well. There is also no restriction regarding religion. Everyone is welcome who has a club sponsor invite him or her. There are numerous members well below retirement age. One sitting near me said that he has only been in the group for a few months. Monty Reichert and Dan Houck recruited him. He has a farm and “Dan the hay man” does his hay.
The club has two major fundraisers a year: the Christmas tree sales in the fall and a golf tournament in the spring. Some of the money goes to sending locals to Camp Dogwood on Lake Norman. It is a recreational facility located on Lake Norman in Catawba County that operates a recreational program of 10 one-week overnight sessions for adults with blindness and visual impairment. The Fuquay-Varina club sends two adults to the camp each summer. It also provides sighted volunteers and trips for the blind to the annual fishing tournament for the blind in Manteo.
The club helps other individuals in the community as well. Quite a few adults and kids have problems that they didn’t know about. Each fall, club members give free-to-anyone eye and hearing tests in the Wal-Mart parking lot. They provide a results form that people take to an eye or hearing specialist and on some occasions will even pay for an eye or hearing exam.
Fuquay-Varina Mayors
The next item on the agenda was Members’ Contributions. Mayor John Byrne stood up to tell the story Phil had enthusiastically anticipated. John’s induction in the Lions was done by Phil’s father 30 years ago. He recalled:
“Everyone was dressed in coat and tie. Those guys looked forward to dressing up because that meeting was a big deal for a very prestigious organization. I was a young banker and people at that time were moving away from town, unlike today when it is growing so fast. I was working at Fidelity Bank and everybody knew my name. Tom brought me to the Lions Club. We were meeting at a place that has since been torn down. The Club moves around to various local restaurants. That night we went to 401 Seafood near Ten-Ten Road. They had a stage there on Saturday night, but the Lions Club met on Thursday Evenings. This was a special meeting for the swearing in of new members and Tom Proctor presided. At the appointed time, they invited me to go up on the stage. When I got there, Tom Proctor’s tone changed – this was a serious event. Do you promise this? Will you do that? Each question required a solemn affirmation. I thought I was being sworn in to the French Foreign Legion. I told my wife that night that I was not sure what I got myself into.”
After 30 years and still able to tell the story with a smile, John Byrne now knows what he got himself into. In fact, many Fuquay-Varina mayors have been members of the Lions Club and much of the town’s history is woven into club activities.
Current Events
Club contributions to Fuquay-Varina history are still going on. So, here are some current highlights. At the last meeting, 22 members came to Bass Lake Park to hear the naturalist describe the park and its expansion. The program lasted 30 minutes before ending with the passing of a snake around the room. Firehouse Subs supplied the dinner. The next meeting’s topic will be a lawyer speaking on “Elder Law.”
Under New Business, it was revealed that the club got notice this weekend that it will lose its tree lot after this year. The land is under contract, but the closing won’t be until the end of this year. They have been looking for the last three or four years for an alternative place. Mayor Byrne mentioned that if the land next to Garibaldi’s is not used for a new restaurant, it could be possible. The current lot owner did offer his front yard. It would be good for the club to have a nice place of at least a half-acre that they could be in for a few years. Anyone with other ideas should contact club President, Mike Frieda at hfrieda2006@gmail.com.
Finally, it was time for the 50-50 drawing and as the guest, I was told that the job of picking the ticket was up to me. Objecting that I was not an unbiased participant met no relief, because every other person in the room had also contributed. So, I shut my eyes, reached into the jar, and in a real Jack Horner move, blindly pulled out one of my own tickets. I turned back my half of the pot with the proviso that they do not send me a 1099 for the income. I knew it would go to a good cause.
