You know the old Lions Club building on the boulevard? It’s the only building in Key West with a gold lion statue out front. (And before anyone sends me a snarky email, that’s a tiger in front of city hall.)
You may have noticed the building at 2405 N. Roosevelt Blvd. is looking sharp these days. It’s all spruced up with a butterfly garden out front and now a giant banner announcing bingo every Thursday evening.
It was bingo that brought me into the building at the end of February. Retired Judge Peary Fowler is on the board of the Key West Lions Club and Literacy Volunteers of America, which rents space in the Lions Club building. She caught me before the coffee had kicked in at a 7:30 a.m. Military Affairs Committee meeting, and asked if I would consider being a “celebrity bingo caller” the following Thursday.
What is the Key West Lions Club?
More than you might expect. It’s also been around much longer than most of us.
I remember as a kid, my mom and I donated my old eyeglasses to the local Lions Club, so poor kids with poor eyesight could have glasses that helped them.
That was the mission of Lions Clubs International, which formed in 1917 as a global service organization focused on improving communities through humanitarian projects, with a primary emphasis on vision. With nearly 1.4 million members worldwide today, they help communities with programs such as recycling eyeglasses and assisting with disaster relief.
The Key West Lions Clubs still reflects the same commitment to vision.
The local club was formed in 1938 — before World War II. In 1960, it opened the Dr. Jose Sanchez Lions Eye Clinic to provide funding for eye examinations, eye glasses and cataract surgery for low-income Florida Keys residents. Hard times forced the clinic to close for a few years in 2014, but a partnership between the Lions Club and Literacy Volunteers of America provided money for the club and space for LVA, which has helped more than 4,800 Key West residents learn English.
“Today, LVA classes are full and Lions Club membership is on the rise,” states the club’s website at keywestlionsclub.com. The Dr. Jose Sanchez Eye Clinic is now open every Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.
And now comes bingo every Thursday night. For those who have played. say, drag queen bingo, this is not that. This is serious. I mean it. The 45 or so people who played the night I was the caller have their own ink daubers and a practiced eye to scan nine bingo cards at once for any B4s. But it’s a lot of fun.
A $10 donation lets you play 10 different bingo games each Thursday night. The winner of each game gets $40 or $60, depending on the crowd size. You can bring your own drinks, and hot dogs, homemade pizzas and other snacks are available.
I’ll be going back soon, either as a caller or a player. I also have some old eyeglasses to donate. I’ll see you there.
