Lion President Samuel Singh receiving a token from Lion Leila Clarke-Daniels.
The Lion’s Club of New Amsterdam held its 51st Charter Night recently at the Lion’s Den, Vryman’s Erven, New Amsterdam. Several new members received their chevrons and were inducted into the Lion’s Club. Lion’s Clubs International (LCI) is a secular service organization with over 45,500 clubs and more than 1,368,683 members in 205 countries around the world and was founded by Melvin Jones in 1917.
Headquartered in Oak Brooke, Illinois, USA, the organization aims to meet the needs of communities on a local and global scale.
During the evening’s proceedings, as was the tradition and custom, the members gave three cheers, a toast and three roars for their guest speaker. The guest speaker at the event was University of Guyana Berbice Campus Director, Professor Daizal R. Samad, who expounded on Lions’s main purpose, to serve for the betterment of all.
“It is to lead us all along the path of righteousness and to alleviate want and suffering wherever and in whoever you may find want and suffering. Lions almost by definition are leaders”, he added.
“The Lions have always provided leadership, and leadership at its best is about service to people. Service to the young, the aged, and all in between. For true fulfillment lies not in gaining but in giving. And the greatest leaders have been those who have bowed the lowest in service. We see this in the Nazarene, in Lord Buddha, in the Mahatma, in Henry David Theroux, in Nelson Mandela, and so on”, stated Samad.
He outlined three qualities of leaders: Intelligence, imagination and integrity and asked the gathering whether there was a person in Guyana, or even one of our leaders who possessed all of the aforementioned qualities.
Prof. Samad extended an invitation to the Lions for any assistance or help that can be provided by UGBC, and said that any request for assistance will be granted and given.
“Women are involved fully, and the Lions have become more inclusive in many other ways. And therein lies the key to longevity: the willingness and ability to evolve, to stretch the skin to be more accommodative, as in the process of birth”.