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Minot Lions celebrates 100 years

Club leaves mark with service, friendship

By JILL SCHRAMM 5 min read

From supporting the poor with potatoes to recycling more than a million pairs of donated eyeglasses, the Minot Lions Club has been helping its community and impacting the world for the past 100 years.

Nine years after Chicago insurance agent Melvin Jones consolidated a group of business clubs into what eventually became Lions Clubs International, the Minot Lions Club was founded by 32 charter members on Sept. 26, 1926.

A common theme among today's Minot Lions members is they joined through a club member's invitation and stayed because of the club's mission.

"I feel like we make a difference for not only our community but beyond, and we have a lot of fun while we're doing it," said Dennis Sommers, a Lions member for 48 years.

The club's department of shenanigans keeps the meetings at the Park Center lively. From throwing cream pies in fun or snipping neckties in two for tripping up on trivia questions, the antics break the ice before guest speakers present on serious issues that range from health-related topics to current events.

It should be noted members are forewarned to wear old, unwanted ties and concede in advance to a pie to the face, although Sommers admitted his aim was bad at one meeting and his pie inadvertently hit the guest speaker, Ward County Sheriff Art Anderson.

Nadine Holmly joined 34 years ago when invited to serve as pianist for the round of singing that starts club meetings.

"I love it. I love the camaraderie," she said of the club.

Although down from its peak of more than 100 members, the club has about 45 dedicated members today.

Going on 55 years with the club, Mark Rasmuson, the club's second longest member behind Tom Probst at about 59 years, said what he has enjoyed the most is the people.

"When I first joined, it was mainly men," he said. "Look at now. Women are majority members. They keep us active."

Diann Hanson became the club's first female member in 1987.

"Everybody was warm to having women members," Hanson said. She added she was drawn to join the Lions because her stepfather was a member, but it was the Lions Clubs International's mission around vision that appealed to her.

Much of the money raised by the Minot Lions has gone to assist community members who need help affording eyecare and eyewear through a partnership with Johnson Eyecare & Eyewear.

Minot Lions has supported the service dog training conducted in Jud and Leader Dogs for the Blind in Michigan state. In the past, the club has provided transportation for campers with blindness to attend a camp at Camp Grassick. It also provided transportation for eye tissue needed for corneal transplants when calls came from a Bismarck hospital.

Club members have participated in "Dining in the Dark" events, hosted locally or by other clubs in the state in partnership with the N.D. Association for the Blind. During the meal, individuals with blindness assist blind-folded participants as they experience what it is like to be vision-impaired.

The club may be best known in the community for collecting eyeglasses, a project estimated to be approaching 1.5 million pairs since inception.

Terry Narum, a long-time Lions member before his death in 2021, championed the program, first setting a goal to match collections to the state's population, then around 650,000, and later to reach a million pairs. The local club categorized eyewear prescriptions for many years until giving its equipment to the Bismarck club to handle that task for glasses sent overseas for reuse.

The club has a "100 Glasses in 100 Days" campaign in progress through Oct. 30. Area residents are encouraged to recycle glasses by dropping them in the collection box at Minot Public Library.

The club's work is made possible by the support of the community.

In one of its earliest fundraisers, in 1927, the club sponsored a show at the Strand Theater to benefit the poor. Admission to the show was three potatoes. The collected potatoes were distributed to the hungry.

The primary fundraiser from the 1940s through the 1990s was door-to-door lightbulb sales. Lions peppermints also were sold at the counters of numerous Minot shops.

"I was in charge of our Lobster Fest, which was a Valentine's Day event that occurred over about 15 years. I chaired that for 13 years," Sommers said. "After the Lobsterfest, there was a German Fest, where we had a chef come in and prepare German food. We had a Beer Fest for several years."

The club sponsored a Garlic Fest for a time with the help of Lion Gary Price, who raised garlic. Another fundraising activity has been handling tickets at an annual craft show at the fairgrounds. The club more recently held Slothathons featuring a slow, half-mile walk with games along the way and prizes awarded.

Minot Lions celebrated its anniversary this year with floats in the State Parade and Minot State University Homecoming parade, an open house at the Ward County Historical Society's Pioneer Village and a booth at Minot Public Library's Fall Into Reading.

Anniversary events culminated on Friday, Oct. 2, when club members gathered with fellow Lions from as far away as Canada at the Moose Lodge to celebrate 100 years of service, friendship and fun.

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