Stillwater Noon Lions Club Celebrates 60 Years of Community Service

The Stillwater Noon Lions Club celebrated its 60th anniversary with a special recognition from city officials, marking six decades of community service that has touched countless lives through vision health programs, educational scholarships, and innovative fundraising initiatives.

Stillwater City Councilor Kevin Clark presented a proclamation signed by Mayor Will Joyce honoring the club's "extraordinary dedication to building a stronger, healthier and more compassionate community" since its charter in 1965.

The proclamation recognizes the club's enduring commitment to vision health, including providing free eyeglasses and eye exams for those in need, collecting used eyeglasses for global redistribution, and conducting Lions KidsSite vision screenings for school children.

The organization supports educational advancement through scholarships to Lincoln Academy, Meridian Technology Center and the Schools of Optometry at Northeastern State University and Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

Local community support extends to organizations including Daily Bread Food & Resource Center, Pioneer Pantry and the Salvation Army. The club also supports Lions Meadows of Hope, a foster care community providing safe homes for Oklahoma children.

During the celebration, the club presented a lifetime membership award to David Fairbanks, who has served as treasurer since 2002 and joined the organization in 1982. Fairbanks has sponsored 28 new members during his tenure with the club.

"This lion has a heart for service and he cares extremely deeply for this club," said Derek McCubbin, recognizing Fairbanks' contributions. "He believes we're extension of his family."

From carnivals, bicycle rodeos and fireworks to pumpkin patches

The club's fundraising efforts have evolved significantly over its 60-year history, adapting to changing community needs and circumstances. From 1966 to the early 1990s, the organization organized and financed Stillwater's Fourth of July fireworks display at Lewis Field.

"We took donations at the gate and that pretty much covered the cost of the fireworks," said Gordon Sloggett, describing the early years when club members actually set off the fireworks themselves before safety regulations required professionals.

The club operated carnivals for many years as a major fundraiser, with Walter Coffey noting they sometimes raised $10,000 in a week. "Our purpose was to use the carnival as an outreach to the community and for fundraising," Coffey said.

When the carnival ended around 2009, the club transitioned to fruit sales from 2010 to 2015, selling Florida grapefruit, oranges, Ohio apples, and Florida tangelos. Sales averaged $7,000 to $9,500 annually with profits ranging from $3,500 to $4,200.

The club's current major fundraiser, a pumpkin patch started in 2016, has grown into a significant community event. What began with $7,870 in sales the first year has expanded dramatically, reaching $24,800 in sales during 2020 despite COVID-19 challenges.

"We offer free activities. We offer free entry," said Cindy Cummings, describing the pumpkin patch's community focus. "It's gotten to the point where a lot of pumpkin patches, you have to pay to get into them. But we don't do that."

The pumpkin patch provides free wagon rides, carnival activities, and family entertainment while raising funds for service projects and scholarships. "Everybody is happy in the patch," Cummings said. "You may have a really bad day at work or just life in general. You come to the patch, and happiness is contagious."

The club played a crucial role in improving rural emergency services through a countywide project in 1996. Working with other Lions Clubs in Payne County, they raised $40,000 in less than six weeks to purchase 700 steel posts, 700 bags of concrete, and 1,400 road signs for the rural 911 system implementation.

"We thought this was going to be a long, drawn out thing, but, folks, in less than six weeks, we had raised the entire $40,000 and more," said Norman Filtz, who represented the club in the cooperative effort.

Historical service projects included bicycle safety programs conducted with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The program reached first through sixth-grade students in Stillwater elementary schools, combining safety education with hands-on activities.

"The most important service that we provided was the opportunity for the students to see that the state trooper, the police officers, was really their friend in time of need," said R.L. Beaty, describing the bicycle rodeo events.

Throughout its history, the club has met in six different locations, adapting to changing circumstances while maintaining its commitment to weekly meetings and community service.

The organization continues supporting Lions Meadows of Hope, with Bryan Larison noting the club's ongoing involvement in the 87-year-old organization that has been a Lions project since 1969.

"This club truly has stepped up," Larison said, recognizing members who have contributed "blood, sweat and tears" to building and maintaining the facility south of Perkins.

The anniversary celebration highlighted not only the club's service record but also the personal connections formed through decades of community work. Members reflected on lifelong friendships and personal growth achieved through their involvement in Lions Club activities.

As the Stillwater Noon Lions Club enters its seventh decade of service, it continues adapting its approaches while maintaining its core mission reflected in the Lions motto: "We serve."

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