LIONS CLUB
I was invited in the fall of 1946 to join the Plainfield
Lions Club. At that time its membership came from the three Plainfields and was
one of the oldest Lions clubs in NJ dating back to 1921. Unlike Rotary and
Kiwanis who met for lunch, the Lions’ thirty active members met weekly on
Wednesday night for dinner in the Park Hotel. As a community Service club, it
was mainly involved in the Boy Scouts and aiding the blind. At the turn of the century it still was involved with the blind.
In the
twenties, a lawyer, Harvey Rothberg donated a wooded area near Scotch Plains on the side of first Watchung Mountains
for the Scouts to have a local campsite.
The club had dug a pond as a swimming pool and had built several
shelters and a dinning/meeting hall on the site. The Lions would have an annual
picnic and a steak cookout at the site.
The club’s major fund raiser during the war
years and for several years afterwards was a semi-annual waste paper drive.
During the war this was a patriotic activity. Merchant members supplied the
trucks and all the club members collected and loaded the waste paper. There was
a great deal of camaraderie involved in these enterprises. We were tired but
had a great time.
When it became
unprofitable to collect old newspapers, the club had to seek other fund-raising
ventures. For a few years the club sponsored an annual AAU amateur boxing
tournament in the roller rink building on the corner of East Fourth St. and Watchung Avenue. This building, which was
near the old large gas storage tank, has since been torn down. The site was replaced by an extension of Fourth Street and a
police station.
Much to my
relief the boxing sponsorship was abandoned after three or four years. As
expected from me as a member of the club, I had volunteered my services as
ringside physician, but was never happy with the possible risks.
The club’s next
major fund raiser was an annual car raffle.
One of the members was a co-owner of the Studebaker agency, and provided
the car at cost. Although Studebaker was
never one of the most popular cars we were able to raise great deal of money
from these raffles.
In 1960-61 I
was club president. By that time, we had
reached a membership of about 140. Both South Plainfield and North
Plainfield had formed separate clubs. When North Plainfield
club was first formed in the early fifties, we had sincere discussion among
ourselves of terminating our affiliation with Lions and joining another
national service organization. Plainfield already had active
Rotary and Kiwanis clubs. The only other national services clubs to affiliate
with were the Optimists and the Ruritarians. The first was too small and had
little prestige, and obviously an organization aimed at rural areas was not
acceptable. Therefore, we swallowed our
anger at the national’s money-oriented policy to created new clubs in the
domain of existing clubs and remained Lions. Each of the Plainfield clubs had distinct personalities and
I never would have stayed as a member of the other two.
The year that I was president was the
most successful year financially in the club’s history. That success was not due to my expertise but
rather due to the committee chairmen-ships of extremely dedicated and capable
board members. We ran two car raffles
since the incoming president was a Methodist minister who not only was against gambling
but would not even attend our executive committee meetings if we held them in
our customary nook in the bar.
Many
years later that minister began to lose his eyesight and decided to leave the
ministry. He became executive director
of the Presbyterian nursing home near Atlantic
City. No longer a Methodist minister, He began to
enjoy his evening cocktail.
One
of the highlights of my years Presidency was a visit by Eleanor Roosevelt to
our club while she was in town. She only
stayed but a moment and was very gracious.
Plainfield
Lions Club from its inception made no religious distinction. Rotary and Kiwanis
did not admit Jewish members until the 50s. However, both had Afro-American
members long before the Lions. When I and another physician sponsored a black
surgeon for membership in the 80s there were more than the two needed blackball
votes. At that meeting I and an \other former president, an educator who had
very firm social opinions, told the club that we found racism unacceptable and
were immediately tending our resignation unless the club would reconsider the
vote. To our relief there was an immediate revote and no blackballing. That
doctor is still a member of the club and has served more than once as
president.
The
Plainfield Lions club is still in existence to this day. although its membership is only a handfull.
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