by Jay Copp

Mississippi Lion Vicki Bond lives near Jackson, more than three hours from the Gulf Coast. But like other Lions not directly affected by Hurricane Katrina, the disaster nevertheless was a defining moment for her as a Lion.

Seven weeks after the hurricane, Bond already had made a dozen trips to the coast to deliver supplies, unpack trucks, and clean and repair the damaged homes of Lions. The Gulf Coast was a frenzy of relief activity. One day saw the arrival of a truck from Connecticut Lions filled with saws, hammers and nails donated by Stanley Tools. The next day Wisconsin Lions showed up with a truck packed with school desks, paper and other school supplies.

When an urgent need arose, somehow a guardian angel seemed to show up at the same time. A medical team from Cleveland working day and night found themselves running dangerously low on basic medical supplies. Bond received a $1,000 check from a Lions club outside the state and promptly made sure the doctors and nurses had what they needed to continue their efforts.

“The support we’ve been getting has been phenomenal,” says Bond, a past council chairperson. “But I hope we never have to repay it. I don’t want anybody else to go though what we’ve been through.”

Lions Respond
Lions in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama have set up warehouses to help storm victims. In Lake Charles, La., Lions are using a government building where a vice district governor works. “We’re getting two or three truckloads a week [from other Lions elsewhere],” said Michael Kennedy, council secretary for Multiple District 8. The Gulf Coast also has seen the arrival of volunteers. Lions in areas of Louisiana that escaped damage have been traveling to affected areas to clear debris.

Lions in the Gulf Coast have been kept busy channeling the generosity of non-Gulf Coast Lions, who in some instances have been supported by LCIF.

• A 14-person Lions Disaster team from Nevada and California loaded pick-up trucks and motor homes with food, clothing and supplies, headed east to Mississippi and set up a central command post at the Gulfport Lions Deaf Center. Quickly realizing that families in need had no way to come to them, the Lions broke in to four-person teams and traveled deep into rural areas to deliver supplies. Grateful recipients said the Lions were the first relief personnel they had seen. The Lions, who had to battle hordes of nasty mosquitoes, also helped the distressed residents with debris removal.
• The Waverly Lions Club in Iowa resolved to gather 1,000 pounds of construction-related tools and supplies such as hammers, saws, nails and screwdrivers for a Lions warehouse in Mobile, Ala., that is serving hurricane victims. Other clubs in the Waverly club’s zone were challenged to match that amount.
• Spearheaded by the Liberty Lions Club, many Lions clubs in Indiana filled a semi-tractor truck with food, clothing, baby supplies and toilet paper and had a trucker drive it to the Lions’ warehouse in Mobile.
• Lions from District 1-A in Illinois set a goal of US$100,000 for LCIF’s Katrina Relief Fund. Each of the district’s 89 clubs were asked to contribute US$1,000.
• Lions from District 2-S2 in the Houston area provided vision screenings for 3,000 evacuees at the Reliant Center and the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. About 2,000 of those screened were fitted with replacement eyeglasses. LensCrafters and Wal-Mart partnered with Lions on the Lions Eyeglasses for Katrina Evacuees Project. The Lions Eye Bank of Texas trailer is now being used to reach evacuees in other locations who may need eyeglasses.
• The daughter of Past International Director Jack Weber persuaded her students at a Long Island, New York, school to donate the funds they raised for Katrina victims to LCIF. The amount is expected to be several thousand dollars.
• A mobile eye van set up shop in October at the Hancock Medical Center in Bay St. Louis, a formerly picturesque coastal town in Mississippi where 95 percent of the homes were damaged by the hurricane. LCIF teamed up with local Lions, Vision Service Plan and the University of Alabama at Birmingham to provide hundreds of storm victims with free eye exams and glasses. Among those serviced at the van were a teenager who lost his glasses when the storm hit and his mother, whose glasses were broken when she took part in a clean up. “We both needed glasses desperately. He won’t have headaches and I can see. Very cool,” Ellen Carter told a local TV station.

LCIF and UNICEF Partner
LCIF joined with UNICEF in helping Katrina victims, the first time ever the U.S. government permitted the United Nations group to offer assistance on U.S. soil. Lions provided children in Mississippi whose schools were destroyed with UNICEF’s “school in a box.” The kits contain 39 types of school items including books, pencils, erasers, scissors, chalkboards, plastic cubes for counting and a set of three laminated posters (alphabet and multiplication and number tables). The kit allows a teacher to establish a makeshift classroom almost anywhere.

Lions delivered 23 kits, each of which serves 80 children, to the St. Martin school district, which had two of its three schools destroyed, and Bay Waveland school district, which has only one school open out of six. The school superintendents who received the kits “expressed their deep appreciation for our efforts and asked that we keep them in our prayers,” said International Director Howard Jenkins of Mississippi, who, along with Past International Directors Al Brandel of New York and Lowell Bonds of Alabama, spearheaded the effort to help the schoolchildren. Jenkins and Bonds serve on the steering committee set up by LCIF to coordinate Katrina relief. Lions are one of only five distribution organizations for the UNICEF kits.

LCIF Twins Clubs
LCIF has received more than US$3 million to date from Lions for Hurricane Katrina relief including nearly US$500,000 from Japanese Lions. Additionally, LCIF has committed US$270,000 from its own funds. LCIF will use the funds to address unmet needs of those affected by the hurricane including: 1.) providing shelters with unmet substantial needs such as food, clothing, personal hygiene items and bedding, 2.) offering health services such as eyeglass distribution, and 3.) meeting needs of Lions camps and facilities housing victims of the disaster.

LCIF encouraged clubs from outside the Gulf Coast to twin with clubs from the Gulf Coast on hurricane relief. LCIF posted on its special Katrina Web site names and needs of clubs in Mississippi and Louisiana and through e-mail messages asked Lions interested in helping to contact the Gulf Coast clubs directly. Within two days of the posting of six Mississippi clubs, 21 clubs made arrangements to help. They agreed to send money, provide toys for the holidays, send supplies, replace club paraphernalia and travel to the Gulf Coast to fix the club houses or do other relief work.

Hurricane Katrina was followed by Hurricane Rita toward the end of September. There was widespread damage. LCIF approved three US$10,000 Emergency Grants to allow Texas Lions to distribute vouchers for food, clothing and medicine.

It will take years for communities in the Gulf Coast to rebuild and recover. Lions in the region will be confronted with a vast array of community needs, but they know that Lions elsewhere will boost their efforts. For that, they’re grateful. “I thank God for all the Lions that have come forward to help,” District Governor Ann Sanders of 8-L in Louisiana told LCIF. “I have had phone calls from all over the U.S. and was very glad to hear from them. I also have received e-mails from across the ocean. God bless you all and all at International.”