Valley Fest
Weather permitting, the club is hosting Valley Fest Saturday, Sept. 16 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Chattanooga Valley Church of the Nazarene, 2853 Chattanooga Valley Road in Flintstone. Call LeBron and Nadine Carden at 706-820-9452 to confirm. There will be craft vendors, inflatables and pony rides, and concessions and pork skins will be available for purchase.
The Chattanooga Valley Lions Club may only have 22 active members, but that didn't stop the club from coming home with five awards from the recent 2017 Georgia State Convention - including the award for the No. 1 club in the state with less than 30 members.
From building baseball fields and collecting school supplies for children, to providing eyeglasses at no cost to those with vision impairment, the Chattanooga Valley club has been serving the citizens of Flintstone since its founding in 1970, said charter member and current past president LeBron Carden.
LeBron Carden and his wife, Nadine, said their club is particularly inspired by the mission that Helen Keller charged the international Lions Club service organization with in 1925: to focus on preventable blindness and the restoration of sight.
The Cardens took that mission to heart through their work with a local woman suffering from vision impairment. Though she had no health insurance and was unable to drive due to her eyesight, the Cardens were able to assist her through the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation, which works with a statewide network to provide access to low-cost vision and hearing services.
The woman, diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes, needed transportation to Dalton multiple times for surgery on each eye, as well as followup appointments. Each time, the Cardens were there to provide the transportation.
Months later, the Cardens received a letter of thanks, which was forwarded on to the award committee for the 2017 Georgia State Convention and earned the Chattanooga Valley club the coveted No. 1 club award, along with two other first place and two second place awards.
To learn more about the Lions Club, visit e-clubhouse.org/sites/chattanoogavalley.
Contact Katherine Staten-Sneed at 423-757-6579