The Seal Beach Lions Club continues to blaze a trail for the international organization.
About 100 Seal Beach Lions Club members, dressed in western garb had plenty to celebrate at its Awards Night and installation of new board members Saturday, June 16, at the city’s Marina Center. The club’s President Diana Bean that evening handed the gavel to Lindsay Safe, who at 31 became the youngest member of the Seal Beach chapter to ever hold the position. Drawing younger Lions into the local pride has been a theme for the club that has kept its membership rolls full while other service clubs’ numbers dwindle in these modern times.
“The Seal Beach Lions Club is now the largest Lions Club in all of California with more than 200 members and 125 junior members,” Longtime Seal Beach Lion Scott Newton announced.
However, according to Safe and other Seal Beach Lions, it’s not just about the numbers, but the “hands-on” volunteer work that are its real strength. Thus it was that Outgoing Lion President Bean exemplified those ideals on Saturday as she accepted the club’s Lion-of-the-Year Award for “her tireless efforts and event chairmanships this past year.”
Safe promised to continue the path of service and involvement while having fun as the Lions endeavor to make the community and the world a better place while easing suffering among the afflicted.
Safe, who grew up Temecula, has lived in the local area for several years and in Seal Beach for the past two of them.
“From a very young age, I fell in love with this city,” Safe told her fellow Lions on Saturday. “While living with my dad on the weekends, I spent time at Hennessey’s, at the old location, eating French fries with mayonnaise, mornings walking to get a cinnamon roll at Sweet Jills, sitting with a basket of wings at The Grill and afterward, stopping by Grandma’s for some ice cream.”
Safe found her niche in the Lions via her involvement with a sorority she joined at Cal State Long Beach.
“That is where I learned about giving back to the community,” said the English and journalism teacher at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton. “A friend of mine from school and I decided to join the Lions about three years ago and I just fell in love with it from the beginning.”
From the start Safe jumped in with both hands so to speak.
“Serving with the Lions became my happy place,” she said “It’s a place to give back, a place to be with friends and a place to escape the stress of life.”
Safe was an active member of the group whose invested many hours of elbow grease refurbishing the memorial other benches that adorn Seal Beach Old Town and the pier. She also helped plant trees and cooked and barbecued all over town for the PONY Baseball leagues and events such as Wings, Wheels and Rotors at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base.
“I also chaired the pancake breakfast and have been the co-chair of the fish fry,” she said. “I’m also the editor of our newsletter.”
Those activities are fun for Safe, but her real passion, she said, is being involved with the California Lions Friends in Sight whose mission is simply to “restore vision and prevent blindness.” The Seal Beach Lions have been collecting used and discarded eyeglass through the program to be distributed to the needy.
“It has had a huge impact on me to go out and work one-on-one on a first hand basis with the people we have been collecting glasses for and seeing them smile and the look on their face when they can see again,” she said.
In what many in the audience described as a heartwarming speech to wrap up the evening, Safe thanked her fellow Lions for allowing her to serve.
“I may be the youngest president to date, but we also have an incredibly young and passionate group of individuals willing and ready to serve you and our community,” she said. “I’m blessed to work with such wonderful individuals and look forward to continuing our success.”
Safe ended her speech by saying “I want to leave you with this thought from Helen Keller, ‘When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life or in the lives of others.’”
