History
While Lions Clubs International is celebrating its Centennial this year (2017) the Cupertino DeAnza Lions club is nearing its half century of existence. In 1969, some of the then current members of the Cupertino Lions Club joined up with some new lions, adding up to 25 people, enough – according to Lions International by-laws – to form a new club. The new club was chartered on 1/12/1969 and incorporated in the State of California as a 501c7 tax exempt corporation on 6/3/1981. The club that spun off the ‘DeAnza Lions’ became the ‘Cupertino Host Lions Club’.
Lion George Fernandez was heading the fledgling club as its first president – he was principal at Cupertino High School. During those years, he enlisted Lion Norm “Eli” Eliason for the good cause. Lion Phil Lellman came on board in 1976 and Lion Al Knox joined in 1981. Lion Jim Gould joined in the same year same as lion Eli (1985), while Lion Bill Reed, our oldest fellow lion (in years!) came to the club in 1991.
Lion John Smith joined in 1993, but he had already years of Lions experience in the UK where he had been a member of the Lechlade Lions Club since 1982. Lion Don Lang, another veteran lion and now our main connection with the Odd Fellows, became a member in 1996.
One of the DeAnza Lions first fund raisers was to sell fireworks at the annual 4th of July parade. The booth was on the corner of Wolfe & Stevens Creek where the Vallco Shopping Center is. Needless to say this fundraiser did not last long, as in the early 70ties possessing fireworks became illegal.
Lion Prez George originally wanted to form a breakfast club, rather than a dinner club like the Cupertino Lions had created; they would have dinner, a brief meeting, and then play cards late into the night.
It was Lion George who started the Food Drive by getting turkeys donated and giving them to needy students at Cupertino High School. He used to leave the thawing birds in the P.E. office for students to come and pick them up. You can imagine how messy and smelly this was.
Lion Bill’s first experience was a Thanksgiving and a Christmas food drive for young families. At that time, the club also did a Flea Market fund raiser at De Anza College and held one of the earlier Golf tournaments at the Boulder Creek Golf Club,
The pre-cursor to the golf tournament – which began in 1987 – was a charity trap shoot at the Sunnyvale Rod and Gun Club. The first golf tournaments took place at the Deep Cliff golf course in Cupertino and were additions to the Trap Shoot.
Lion Eli recalls that the club made some money on the Trap Shoots, but it was a dangerous mixture of booze and shotguns. Lion Jim Gould finally talked the club 1987 into putting on a golf tournament instead.
Another signature fundraiser started in 1998 when Lion Jim chaired the first Crab Feed, now in its 23rd year and still a major source of income.
The DeAnza Lions have always been supportive of Camp Costanoan, now known as Camp Via West. The club helped maintain a petting zoo, a nature garden and the fire pit. Lion George was big on horse riding, so he borrowed horses from the nearby Garrod farm and for a while enabled horse-back riding for the campers.
Although it was Helen Keller, blind and deaf from age 2 onward, who in 1925 challenged the Lions to become “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness” at an international convention in Ohio, it was not until July 4th, 1987 before females were officially admitted to Lions Clubs. Now they make up about 25% of Lions Club membership world-wide.
It has to be said that the DeAnza Lions Club lost a few members when it allowed female members to join, as some Lions felt that the Club should remain a ‘good ole boys club’. However, these days, we are one 40+ strong family with old and young, male and female fellow Lions getting on famously and the next generation ages 3 – 15 attending evening meetings and experiencing the spirit of the lions.
Apart from fundraisers and charitable activities (you can read about them in here) the club has been putting on a number of other events and social functions which provide ample opportunities to have fun and enjoy the camaraderie of a service club.
In 2017 a new exciting event was scheduled for August 26th – We dubbed it “R4D”, Ride for Diabetes; a charity bike ride in support of the fight against diabetes! The event was underwritten by Lions Clubs International and the American Diabetes Association and it was a major historic milestone for the DeAnza LIONS CLUB!
History of Thanksgiving Food Drive
Honorable member Jim Gould’s recollection and description of the early days of the DeAnza Lions food drive. A small effort turned into a big deal.
An English Lion in the DeAnza Lions Den
Respected member John Smith’s 2015 Charter Night keynote speech includes a description of the early days of the DeAnza Lions. Very interesting stuff.