The end of the school year is fast approaching, and area food bank inventories will soon take a dip, as food-insecure families look for help in feeding their children during the summer months. Once again, Fairfax Lions Club stepped up to meet this community need.

At the Lions May 7th dinner meeting, many members generously responded to this need by digging into their personal home pantries and bringing shelf-safe food to the meeting. Food (canned chicken and tuna) was also purchased with the remaining Food Basket Delivery program account balance for this year. In total, Fairfax Lions delivered 144 pounds of nutritious food to Food for Others food bank on May 9.

We care – We serve!!

Fairfax Lions made our community more beautiful on Saturday, April 20, by picking up litter along our “Adopt-A-Spot” section of Pickett Road.  With unpredictable weather that morning, we had  breakfast at First Watch in the Fair City Mall.  At 8:45, the sun was out so all said, “Let’s do it!”  At the ball field, across from the intersection of Pickett Road & Old Pickett Road, we met other Lions and family.  We handed out “grabbers,” safety vests, and plastic garbage bags, and went to work.

Mission complete:  the entire job was finished by 11:30, including bagging up all trash in the large orange bags the City provided. Those bags were scheduled for pick up by 1:00 Saturday.  All Done!!!  Fairfax Lions – we serve our community!

On April 10th, the Fairfax Lions hosted – and supported – a Red Cross Blood Drive.  The best reason to donate blood:  every blood unit you give can save up to three lives.  (Blood in processed by the Red Cross into 3 parts – plasma/platelets/red blood cells – each saving a life.)  

Mark your calendars for the next blood drive:  September 23rd!

The Fairfax Lions Club hosted the “James Bland Music Contest” on Sunday, March 31, in the Old Town Hall in Fairfax.  Five vocal contestants and five instrumental contestants participated, representing Lions Clubs in there Northern VA area. Two vocalists and two instrumentalists were judged the winners and advance to the District 24-L James Bland Music Contest, on April 28.  Winners there advance to State Finals, May 17, where the VA Association of Lions Clubs will award 12  scholarships totaling $18,000. 

Photo:  1st Place Vocalist, Madeleine LeBeau of Chantilly HS, sings  ll Bacio by Luigi Arditi to a packed house.

On March 18-19, Fairfax Lions were invited to Fairfax United Methodist Church Preschool to screen student’s vision.  We screened 56 children, ages of 3 and 5, and referred 5 children (9%) for professional eye care follow-up.  We also screened the vision of 7 adult teachers with 1 referral.  We had screened youngsters at this location before, and it is  fun and rewarding service.  The children are interested in our screening process.  We try to explain to each child, in basic terms, the camera we use and what it does to check their vision.  One teacher told us the youngsters talked to each other afterwards about “the colorful lights on the camera.”   Good news: most of the youngsters had healthy vision; we were able to identify the few children needing a follow-up examination.

Photos:  (L) Screening a student, and (R) briefing results to teacher.

Sales Location:  near Fairfax Circle, intersection of Old Lee Hwy & Old Pickett Road (GPS: 3251 Old Lee Highway) by Home Depot. Look for blue & white sales van (provided by Craig Van Lines).

Discount coupon:  https://www.fairfaxlions.org/citrus-sale-notification/