About Us
The Lions motto is We Serve! and since organizing in 2019, the Barrington Lions Club has initiated a number of ongoing service projects including: vision screening in the Barrington schools; community cleanups at local parks and at the beach; food drives, fundraising activities, and a community garden plot to support Tapin; annual outdoor projects at a local group home; collecting used bicycles, eyeglasses and hearing aids which are refurbished and distributed to individuals in need; and volunteering at community events. We also support the RI Lions Sight Foundation which assists individuals who have visual impairment.
The Barrington Lions Club has various fundraisers to support these service projects. 100% of funds raised are used for charitable purposes.
If you are a service-minded individual looking to participate in a variety of volunteer projects, the Barrington Lions Club welcomes you to join!
Membership
Why join the Barrington Lions Club?
You want to engage with the Barrington community
You want a variety of volunteer opportunities
You want to partner with other Barrington non-profit organizations
You want to meet service-minded neighbors, dedicated to making a positive impact
You want new opportunities to use your current skills
You want an opportunity to develop leadership skills
You want to be apart of the worlds largest humanitarian service organization!
Officers
Officers 2024-2025
President: Doreen Burgers
Vice President: Jolene Mueller
Secretary: Katherine Mahoney
Treasurer: Edward Rakeman
Membership: Heather Tompkins
Director: Molly Crocker
Director: Andrew Wood
Prior Year Presidents
2023-2024: Cat Horn
2022-2023: Cat Horn
2021-2022: Doreen Burgers
2020-2021: Doreen Burgers
2019-2020: Doreen Burgers
History
History of Lions Clubs
Melvin Jones
Before there were over 1.4. million Lions around the world, there was one man with a vision. He was a salesman from Chicago, Illinois, USA, named Melvin Jones. Driven by a dynamic personality and a heart filled with kindness, he helped create a service movement over 100 years ago that’s still thriving today.
Melvin Jones was an insurance executive who joined the Business Circle, a businessmen's luncheon group, and was shortly elected secretary. This group was one of many at that time devoted solely to promoting the financial interests of their membership. Because of their limited appeal, they were destined to disappear. Melvin Jones, then a 38-year-old Chicago business leader, had other plans.
"What if these men," Melvin Jones asked, "who are successful because of their drive, intelligence and ambition, were to put their talents to work improving their communities?" Thus, at his invitation, delegates from men's clubs met in Chicago to lay the groundwork for such an organization and on June 7, 1917, Lions Clubs International was born.
Melvin Jones eventually abandoned his insurance agency to devote himself full time to Lions at International Headquarters in Chicago. It was under his dynamic leadership that Lions clubs earned the prestige necessary to attract civic-minded members.
The association's founder was also recognized as a leader by those outside the association. One of his greatest honors was in 1945 when he represented Lions Clubs International as a consultant in San Francisco, California, at the organization of the United Nations.
Melvin Jones, the man whose personal code – "You can't get very far until you start doing something for somebody else" – became a guiding principle for public-spirited people the world over, died June 1, 1961 at 82 years of age.