At our Lions Club meeting on May 18th, Blanche Anderson of the Fairfax Zonta Club told us that globally, 21% of girls are married before they turn 18. 

Early marriage has many bad consequences for the child bride.  They include: early end to education, lower wages and poverty, and higher risks of divorce/high-risk pregnancy/and disease and illness. 

Blanche provided links to several web sites to better understand the problem: www.unchainedatlast.org and. www.stopchildmarriages.org www.tahirih.org and www.tahirih.org and https://www.zonta.org/Web/Programs/ISP/Ending_Child_Marriage

The Lions Clubs International “Kindness Matters Service Award” is given to only 20 Lions Clubs worldwide (of over 48,000 Lions Clubs). Fairfax Lions Club is honored to receive this award for our service to help relieve hunger in our community over the past year.

Fairfax Lions Club celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, with our “70 for 70” campaign. Club members were asked to generate donations of “70” …dollars, food, service hours – to help members of our community who are “food-insecure.”

On May 10th, we met at “Food for Others” (a Fairfax community food bank), and presented a Club check for $7070, individual donor checks totaling $1000, over 700 cans of food (weighing 791 lbs), and Power Packs (weekend meals for school age kids).

Thousands of local children have almost nothing to eat between their Friday lunch and Monday breakfast meals provided at school.

Fairfax Lions are collecting food for those kids, so they do not go hungry on weekends and arrive at school on Monday well-fed and ready to learn. WILL YOU DONATE FOOD – in POWER-PACKS (see below), on these Fridays:  3/26/21; 4/9/21; 4/23/21; 5/7/21; 5/21/21; 6/4/21.

Bring POWER PACKS to the American Legion Post 177 parking lot (on the above dates, between 8:00 am – 9:00 am).  Look for a white Ford F-150 to drop off your donations.  Address: 3939 Oak St., Fairfax, VA 22030. Fairfax Lions take all donated food to “Food For Others.”  

Putting a Power Pack Together:  Use a 2 gallon size Ziploc Bag. Include shelf-stable, kid friendly and single-serving sized items. Each pack must have: 2 breakfast items, 2 lunch items, 2 dinner items, 2 snacks, and 2 drinks. 

INCLUDE IN EACH PACK – 

Breakfast: Oatmeal Packets, Cereal (Individual Sizes); Granola Bars, Nutri Grain Bars

Lunch/Dinner (two for each meal, so a total of four items):  Chili Cups, Mac & Cheese Cups (single-serving), Tuna/ Chicken Salad Kits with Crackers, Chef Boyardee Ravioli 

Snacks: Fruit Cups (in juice NOT syrup), Cheese & Crackers, Granola Bars Fruit Snacks, Dried Fruits 

Drinks: 100% Fruit Juice, Capri Sun Juice Boxes, Shelf-stable Milk.  

Please DO NOT include:  Peanut butter or items that include peanut butter, candy, Pop-tarts, Vienna sausages, glass containers, high sugar items, apple sauce cups with tinfoil lids, or bottled water.

Main Street Child Development Center is our partner for distributing holiday food baskets to local families.