Service Legacy
A stalwart of community service in Louisville is celebrating a major milestone this year. The Middletown Lions Club is gearing up to celebrate its 50th anniversary with events and community engagement.
Five decades of outstanding community service have proven to the greater Louisville area that the Lions are dependable and indispensable.
The Middletown Lions Club began with its first meeting in 1976, joining the roster of multiple Lions Clubs that exist in the Jefferson County area today. From the get-go, they have championed the Lions’ charitable philosophy as summarized by the organization’s founder, Melvin Jones:
“You can’t get very far until you start doing something for somebody else.” And the Middletown Lions have been doing a lot for those who need it in Louisville. Their areas of focus include childhood cancer, diabetes, disaster relief, the environment, youth, hunger, vision and humanitarian efforts.
The Middletown Lions Club is a member of the East Louisville Chamber of Commerce as a nonprofit affinity. They directly and indirectly support a plethora of groups and organizations, including but not limited to Crusade for Children, Dare to Care, Eastern High School, the Salvation Army and Visually Impaired Preschool Services Kentucky. Not only do they volunteer and donate money, but they also jump to help serve local communities devastated by natural disasters.
Vision is an especially important point of focus for the Lions in Louisville and around the world. The Lions tie their commitment to vision to a push made by author and activist Helen Keller when she delivered a speech at the Lions Clubs International Foundation Convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, in 1925. In that speech, Keller asked Lions Club members to be “Knights of the blind” and urged them to invest more in vision loss assistance. Since then, Lions Clubs around the world have considered vision loss a cornerstone of their donations and community involvement.
This is very much the case for the Middletown Lions Club as well. Middletown Lions engage with the community on the issue of vision loss through their vision screenings at the Kentucky State Fair and other local health fairs with the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation. The club also contributed to the charitable work done at Camp Crescendo every year. Camp Crescendo was a youth camp serving blind or visually impaired and deaf or hard-of-hearing children. As stated in a club communique, the Middletown Lions also “provide support to the Kentucky School for the Blind, provide vision screening for the workers at the backside of Churchill Downs, and help provide exams and glasses for those individuals in need.”
The dedication from the Lions Clubs to help combat vision loss in Louisville and Kentucky in general is especially critical since the state has one of the highest concentrations of blindness cases in the nation. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Kentucky ranks in the top 10 states for highest levels of visual acuity loss in the United States. About 2.8% of Kentuckians suffer from vision loss, which makes the commitments made by the Middletown Lions Club and its sister clubs ring all the more loudly and hit all the more deeply.
Since its first meeting in 1976, the Middletown Lions Club has not only grown in membership but also in the scope of its community involvement. As it prepares to celebrate 50 years, a centerpiece will be one of those community events: the Annual Charity Golf Scramble.
The 48th Annual Charity Golf Scramble hosted by the Lions Club has always been a cornerstone of its fundraising efforts, and this year will be no different. The scramble will be held Monday, June 8, 2026, at Weissinger Hills Golf Course. Last year, the Middletown Lions Club raised more than $12,000 to put toward its service projects.
Every year, the Middletown Lions Club chooses a major recipient to be the anchor of its Golf Scramble fundraising efforts. This year, the organization the Middletown Lions Club has chosen is SPARC Hope.
SPARC Hope is a single-parent resource center. What sets it apart from other similar organizations, however, is its commitment to helping parents through growth and education that goes beyond lump sums of money or donations of various items. As stated in a Middletown Lions Club communique, SPARC Hope’s “services help take the bumps out of the road to the American Dream by supporting and directing parents to overcome obstacles.”
Those interested in the Golf Scramble can get involved by either signing up to be a player or donating. There will be a litany of fun activities and prizes in store for those who choose to support the event, including the opportunity to make a stroke by firing a genuine golf ball cannon.
Donors and participants will also be given recognition on the Middletown Lions Club’s website, Facebook page and other publications.
The chair of the event, Bob Tisch, says, “While we know that the past couple of years may have been difficult for you and many others, we realize that our services are needed more than ever before, and we cannot continue these services without your ongoing help/support.”
The Middletown Lions Club continues to be deeply involved with the Louisville community while celebrating its 50th anniversary through several other events. One well-known example is the Middletown Concerts in the Park series. This recurring set of public musical events boasts food for the first 500 attendees, including brats, hot dogs, burgers and chips, which are provided by the City of Middletown and served by Middletown Lions Club members.
According to Marketing Committee Chair Lynn Harrelson, the Middletown Lions Club plans to cap off its yearlong 50th anniversary jubilee with a celebratory gathering that will involve important city officials and offer an opportunity to reminisce over the last five decades. This event will be “a way for us to tell our story and the history of what we do and why we do it.”
Further details will be finalized over the coming months, and anyone who may be interested in this or any other events can look for updates on the Middletown Lions Club website or social media pages.
Louisvillians are also encouraged to become club members or donate their time and finances toward helping the Middletown Lions serve those who need it most.
