What is the Melvin Jones Fellowship?
My small College Place Lions Club has a penchant for
supporting the Lions
Club International Measles Initiative which vaccinates children in the
world’s poorest countries. Matching funds from, first, The Gates Foundation and
now the Gavi Foundation and others turn the $1,000 we donate into $2,000 and
that money means 2,000 children need not suffer the blindness or death that
frequently goes with the measles in impoverished countries. “Over
1 billion children have been vaccinated. Children in more than 80 countries
have received vaccinations, reducing measles deaths by 90 percent in nearly all
countries.”
Vice District Governor Crystal Walk tears up every time she
talks about it. She is a mother and a grandmother and stopping children from
suffering really motivates her. As treasurer of our College Place Lions Club she sees
that donating to LCIF is a line item in our annual budget. Tears will follow.
Donations to LCIF have over nine years allowed our club to
honor four of our members with Melvin Jones Fellowships. As I travel across the
District, I see the tiny little understated
Melvin Jones pins on the vests, jackets and shirts of some of the Lions I meet It warms my heart to think about their
selfless service in the cause of Lionism.
A UK
Lions report explains that “the Fellowship, which was created in 1973,
takes its name from the founder of Lions Clubs International (LCI), Melvin
Jones. It is an honor--not an award. The fellowship was established as LCIF’s
highest form of recognition to acknowledge an individual’s dedication to humanitarian
service.
• Fellowship donations are largely responsible for
successfully launching the Lions’ aggressive global attack on preventable and
curable blindness--the LCIF SightFirst program.
• Fellowship donations, combined with other unrestricted
gifts, provide funding for constructing and equipping medical facilities.
• Fellowship donations support vocational assistance
programs that teach skills to disabled persons, giving them an opportunity to
live productively and independently.
• Fellowship donations help fund reconstruction projects
following major disasters.
• Fellowship donations have been used to provide homes for
children with special needs and homes for the elderly.
...and the list of humanitarian projects goes on.
Thousands of lives have been dramatically touched by the
good works that are funded with fellowship donations.
■ When
any individual,
Lions
club, or district donates US$1,000 to LCIF for a Melvin Jones
Fellowship, an inscribed plaque and a lapel pin are presented to the specified
individual. It is not a requirement that
the humanitarian so honored be a Lion. Any individual, Lions club, or
district may choose to donate unrestricted funds in increments of at least
US$100, over a five-year period. When contributions total US$1,000, an
individual named by the donor(s) becomes a Melvin Jones Fellow.”
19F Clubs and individual Lions have many different ways that
they raise money to donate to LCIF and the Melvin Jones Fellowships. Whatever
the way, whomever they honor, and however the plaque and pin are presented is
second in importance to the absolute charitable good that our 19F Lions are
doing for people around the world.
You Guys Are Great!
