Located in Oxnard, California, the Oxnard Noontimers Lions Club is celebrating its 52nd year. We meet at Noon every Friday at the Oxnard Residence Inn by Marriott by the River Ridge Golf Course.
Our club is co-sponsoring a golf tournament with the Channel Islands Lions Club on Friday, September 5, at River Ridge in Oxnard. For just $125 you can participate in the Texas Scramble starting at 8 AM and then feast on a fabulous lunch with door prizes, silent auction and more. Proceeds go to the charity accounts of the two clubs and will be used in the community.
If you are interested in participating, please send us an email.
Lion Karl Dame passed away at his home in San Martin on June 22, 2008. Lion Karl was a 50 year member of the Oxnard Noontimers Lions Club, a Past President and an extremely active member until health issued forced him to move in with family up north. For many years he hosted the Bored Meetings in his home.
Lion Karl was an attorney and a long-time partner of another Noontimer, Lion Loyal Frazier. Before that he was Oxnard's City Attorney.
It was impossible to be around Lion Karl without laughing. He told great jokes, but more importantly got everyone around him to tell good jokes, too. There was always a party around Lion Karl. The world is a sadder place.
If you know of anyone in the Oxnard area who needs help with vision or hearing issues, please contact us. If you know of someone in another area, be sure to contact the local Lions club for assistance. The Lions have been helping the vision and hearing impaired since Helen Keller spoke at our International Convention in 1925. We provide glasses and hearing aids to kids in schools who otherwise would be at a disadvantage. Funds from activities like the Golf Tournament (see above) are used for these kinds of activities. Helen Keller spoke to the Lions International Convention in 1925 and challenged the Lions to become "Knights of the Blind." All Lions clubs in 200 countries around the world try to make her dream come true. Recently, Lions International raised $200 million for Campaign Sight First II, which aims to wipe out all preventable blindness on earth. It's a tall order. The first Campaign Sight First saved or restored vision for 27 million people. Unfortunately, there are still 37 million afflicted. Our second campaign hopes to do even better.
Lions help out in other areas, too. After the tsunami struck south Asia in 2004 the Lions community responded immediately. If Lions International were classified as a nation, we would have been the fifth most generous provider of aid on earth. We were actually more effective than that, as all of the aid was coordinated with local Lions clubs. We built homes where Lions bought the material and most of the labor was donated by local Lions. Had we paid for labor, of course, the money wouldn't have gone as far.
Our Honorary Noontimer, Father Eugen Nkardzedze, continues his work in the bush in Cameroon. We have sent one huge cargo container of stuff for his church, but the crooks in Nigeria hit him with so much in taxes and bribes that we won't do that again. It cost more to get it into Cameroon than we spent on it. Considering that it contained a new ATV, camcorder, laptop computer and other stuff, that's no small bribe. We do, however, continue to send smaller care packages and money. If you are looking for a dedicated, hard-working priest who is setting up schools, digging wells, bringing basic health care and building his church, you can't do better than send checks or supplies to Father Eugen.
We have been in contact with the Lions Club of Padukka, Sri Lanka, and our board has approved twinning our club with them so we can begin person-to-person aid through their club. Because all Noontimers are volunteers as are the members of the Padukka Lions, so all donations go 100% to the recipients. This is the most effective way to get aid to those in need.
Our District, Lions 4-A3, had a fund-raiser to create a glasses recycling center at Avenal State Prison. We plan on collecting glasses donations, sending them to Avenal for cleaning, repair and identification of prescription and then forward them to our twin club for distribution to the vision impaired in Sri Lanka. We also have some tentative plans to provide wheel chairs to the Padukka Lions, although we haven't yet found a cost-effective way of getting them there. Anyone with ideas, please use the Announcement and Information link on the bottom of every page on this site and let us know.
Donations from the public are certainly welcome for our local sight-preservation efforts, Father Eugen in the Cameroon or for the people of Sri Lanka through the Padukka Lions.
| Date | Event | Location | Time | September 5 | Channel Islands Lions and Noontimer Golf Tournament | River Ridge | 8 AM start |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 26 | District Governor's Visitation | Our Place | Noon |
| October 11 | Health Faire Setup | Our Lady of Guadelupe Church, Oxnard | 10 AM - 3 PM |
| October 12 | Health Faire Screening | Our Lady of Guadelupe Church, Oxnard | 10 AM - 3 PM |