Oceanside Sea Lions Club Presents 37th Annual Bowl for the Blind Tournament

The Oceanside Sea Lions is one of the over 48,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members in 200 countries around the world. Melvin Jones started the first Lions Club in Chicago in 1917. Oceanside Sea Lions Club was chartered in June 16, 1968.

Since 1925, when Helen Keller challenged the Lions to become the “Knights of the Blind”, sight conservation has been the primary mission of the Lions. Throughout the world, Lions have dedicated themselves to take up Miss Keller’s challenge. The Oceanside Sea Lions have taken this challenge to heart. Since the 1960’s (with the help of generous local eye doctors), we have furnished eyeglasses for thousands of children in the Oceanside, California area. In addition, we have sent several people to the Southern California Lions’ Eye Institute in Santa Monica for eye operations performed by highly skilled surgeons at little or no cost to the recipients. We have also referred youth and adults to VSP.

We also support many local organizations such as Local Schools, Lion Camps at Teresita Pines, Oceanside Pacific Kiwanis Beach Fun Day, Brother Benno’s, and more. As you may have guessed, all this takes time and money. To achieve these goals, the Sea Lions have two major fundraisers annually.

In 1981 Pam Pahnke brought the pageant to Oceanside Sea Lions Club. Since then we have sponsored the Miss Oceanside Pageant. This pageant provides scholarship and helps develop self esteem, confidence and poise, and in 2010 during Lion Zucette Lumabas’ presidency we added the Miss Teen Oceanside Scholarship Pageant. The event became known as Miss Oceanside & Miss Teen Oceanside Scholarship Pageant starting in 2010. Lion Zucette Lumabas included all pageant winners (not only the queens) to attend the events. The winners become goodwill ambassadors to the City of Oceanside, Oceanside Chamber of Commerce and Oceanside Sea Lions Club. Our next annual fundraisers are fun for the whole family: Golf Tournament and Bowl for the Blind. The Lions Club is constantly looking for new and fun ideas for fund-raising and new members to help us with this exciting undertaking.

If you are interested in seeing how the men and women of Oceanside Sea Lions Club work, please fill out the membership form, come to the meeting and support the citizens of your community.