CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Camp Jack kids and staff; Douglas and Melissa Wahl; Kathleen Baldwin; Jose Cruz; a Lions High School Baseball Tournament team.
“I feel like it’s my duty to pay back this country. And Lions can be whatever you put into it.”
Convention by deaf-and-blind activist Helen Keller. She asked the Lions to “... constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness.” The Downtown San Diego Lions Club supplements the cost of hearing aids, and it recently helped pay for cochlear implants for a young child. Literacy programs are another funding interest. Jose Cruz says during his 16-year tenure as CEO of the San Diego Council on Literacy, the Downtown Lions have granted more than $35,000 to programs that buy books for children in low-income families in Central San Diego. The Lions High School Baseball Tournament is the oldest and biggest such tournament in the United States. It was founded in 1951 and is considered a premiere sporting competition. Under current leadership by Judge Pete Gallagher, the annual tournament brings as many as 130 teams to San Diego from the U.S. and Canada.
The Downtown Lions also have college scholarship funds and support housing services provided by the San Diego Rescue Mission and Veterans Village of San Diego. Wahl also points to 2022 campaigns like: a Used Shoe Drive for the San Diego Center for the Blind; a Materials Drive for Fisher House at the Naval Medical Center; and a holiday party that benefits Toys for Tots. “The big picture is that service clubs can do great things,” Wahl says. “The reality is also that we need more members. We need joiners.” Prospective joiners can get more information at: sandiegolions.org.
SAN DIEGO MAGAZINE CHARITABLE SD GIVING GUIDE 2023 88
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