Our Mission
To volunteer our time and provide financial assistance to the disabled, underprivileged, elderly, and youth of our local communities and internationally where appropriate, particularly related to sight and hearing in accordance with the mission of Lions Clubs International.
History
The Bellingham Central Lions Club was founded in 1923 and has served the people of Bellingham and Whatcom County with pride and distinction in the decades since.
Like Lions the world over, our causes include the eradication of preventable blindness and deafness. We do this in the international arena through LCIF, the Lions Club International Foundation, investing hundreds of millions of dollars fighting river blindness and other preventable diseases. We collect and recycle used eyeglasses, operating thousands of clinics annually wherever the need may take us. Here, at home in Bellingham, we provide free vision and hearing exams, and eye glasses and hearing aids to the needy.
We also operate the Wheelchair Warehouse, where we loan out a wide variety of medical equipment to people in the greater Whatcom County region. At any given time, there are over 3,000 items out on loan.
We have a number of active fund-raising programs. The money that we generate through these programs is returned to the community through numerous programs that support the needy, our schools and youth, and handicapped people of all ages.