A Win-Win Situation for Lions' Charities and Supporters

It was a Night at the Races and a Monte Carlo Night for the Whitehall Community Lions Club on Saturday.

The gymnasium was buzzing with visitors eager to bid on silent auctions, eat good food and try their luck on table games and horse races.

All of the proceeds from the event will go to charities that the Lions support.

“Annually, we raise about $14,000,” said John Frombach, former president of the Whitehall Lions.

One of the Lions’ original charities was helping blind people obtain seeing-eye dogs for free. However, the organization has branched out to serve many charities.

“Our motto is, ‘We Serve,’” said Elaine Frombach, current president of the Lions, “so we try to serve in our community as well as around the world.”

As with the American Red Cross, the Lions are contributing to assist with relief efforts in Japan following an earthquake there and resulting tsunami and nuclear disaster.

“When we find out there’s a need,” Elaine Frombach said, “we do what we can and invest a lot in the local community as well.”

The Lions are working with Whitehall Mayor James F. Nowalk and borough council members in planning an upcoming Trash Cleanup Day on Saturday, April 30, in observance of Earth Day.

The area’s Boy Scouts Troop 323 members are also frequent collaborators with the Whitehall Lions. While not present at the event, the scouts were involved in both setting up and tearing down tables for Monte Carlo Night.

“(Troop 323) will be there picking up trash on Cleanup Day,” said Randy Hillard, troop chairman and volunteer at the Monte Carlo Night. “We’ll be working on Baptist Road from Giant Eagle up to the (Brownsville Road and Baptist intersection).”

Also volunteering at the event was Barb Gross, who was selling tickets for one of the games. Gross and her husband, Dave, who are members of the Whitehall Lions, are both blind. When they are not volunteering for the Lions, the Grosses are avid bowlers.

A big event that the Lions have specifically for the blind is White Cane Day, which will be held on a Saturday to be determined in May at the corner of Route 51 and Brownsville Road in Brentwood Borough. The Lions are still working on securing a date permit for that event. White Cane Day solicits money to support vision missions.

“Elaine is trying to get—rather than just money—hands-on service projects,” John Frombach said.

One such hands-on project is the Lions’ recent participation in Operation Reach Out. Together with employees of the Greater Beneficial Union, the Lions assembled more than 1,400 boxes of needed items this past November and shipped them to U.S. military members deployed overseas.

“Our board of directors decided they had to do something for servicemen,” said Lion Diane Gallagher, who is also a GBU employee. “And we will keep doing this as long as we have people over there.”

On Wednesday, June 1, the Lions will wrap up their program year with their Charter Night at , where they will be honoring Elena Ashoff, a student at  who had the prize-winning entry for a peace poster.