About Lions

Lions began in the United States in 1917 when a group of independent clubs responded to an idea presented to them by a young Chicago insurance agent, Melvin Jones.

The idea was one of service as a group to their fellow men without regard to politics, religion, race or in any way the personal interest of the members. This was heralded as a departure from the trend current at that time of forming clubs basically with a commercial motive. A conference was called of some twenty-five independent clubs on June 7, 1917, and from this meeting the organization was born.

From this modest beginning, the International Association of Lions Clubs has grown to be the largest service club organization in the world. As of April 30, 2000, Lions Clubs International had 1,436,764 members in 44,762 clubs in 741 districts in 185 countries and geographical areas.

The Calvert County Lions Club had its beginning in the spring of 1940 when two special organizational representatives of Lions International visited the county as part of a general organizing program. The representatives contacted some of the leading business and professional men in the county in order to determine if there was sufficient interest in this area for such a service oriented club. A formal organizational meeting was held May 2, 1940 at the Southern Maryland Inn located in the center of Prince Frederick. Under the sponsorship of the Upper Marlboro Lions Club an application for charter with 22 members was forwarded to Lions International. The charter, dated May 24, 1940, was presented to the Club at a meeting on June 27, 1940, at the Evans Pavilion in Solomons.

Over the years the Calvert County Lions Club has been dedicated to service. The Club has sponsored another Lions Club, Northern Calvert Lions Club (formally Twin Beaches) and the Calvert County Lioness Club. We have also had three District Governors, the late Lion Ewell Ward (1973-1974), Lion "Skeets" Finley and Ken Watson.

The late, Lion Ewell Ward was also a Melvin Jones Fellow.