Monroe Lions Club looks to increase membership

The Monroe Lions Club has dedicated itself to serving the community for the last 65 years, and is now looking for new members to uphold its mission and keep the tradition intact.

From food drives that benefit the Sky Valley Food Bank to community activities like the fishing derby at Lake Tye Park and providing scholarships to Monroe students, the Monroe Lions Club is passionate about helping people. The nonprofit organization holds fundraisers to support its efforts.

Although the Monroe Lions Club performs all types of service, there is a significant emphasis on providing assistance to individuals with visual and hearing impairments. The club's passion for the cause comes from a relationship established by Lions Clubs International in 1925 with activist Helen Keller, who was both deaf and mute. Keller challenged Lions to become "knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness,GÇ¥ and they accepted that task.

In alignment with that goal, the Monroe Lions Club seeks to provide glasses and hearing aids to those who can't afford them.

Lions Clubs International has also become a champion for kids faced with Type 1 diabetes, and the Monroe chapter has followed suit. The organization established a partnership with Camp Leo, a youth-oriented summer camp that helps kids with Type 1 diabetes to understand their diagnosis and move beyond it.

An estimated 10 percent of the Monroe Lions Club budget is dedicated to providing scholarships for Monroe youth to attend Camp Leo. The student they sent last year reported such a dramatically positive experience, they knew they wanted to up the ante.

"She was really thrilled,GÇ¥ said Lions treasurer Keith Reidel. "I think we affected her life.GÇ¥

This year they are sending two students.

Camp Leo executive director David Glenn attended the Lions meeting earlier this month in Monroe to give club members a better understanding of what Camp Leo is all about.-á

Type 1 diabetes is a life-changing diagnosis, he said. Sometimes referred to as insulin-dependent diabetes or juvenile diabetes, Type 1 diabetes occurs when a person's pancreas no longer produces a sufficient amount of insulin. It is completely different than Type 2 diabetes, which can often be managed by diet and lifestyle changes.

Only around 5 percent of diabetes cases are Type 1 diabetes, which is typically diagnosed in kids.

A person with Type 1 diabetes must use mathematics constantly to figure out how much insulin they need to take in order to accommodate the amount of carbohydrates they plan to eat. A child that wants to drink a smoothie or eat a cookie must carefully compute the amount of carbs in those foods and translate that number into the amount of insulin they need to take first.

A child with Type 1 diabetes makes 200 decisions per day about their diabetes, Glenn said.

According to Glenn, there are about 5,000 children in Washington under the age of 20 with Type 1 diabetes and roughly 400-500 new cases each year. The rate of disease is increasing quite dramatically, he said, and nobody seems to know why. There has been a 23 percent increase in Type 1 cases nationally, but in Washington that number is even higher, Glenn said.

"We don't know all the reasons why. It's very much a mystery and the researchers are doing their best to figure it out and also to come up with a cure,GÇ¥ Glenn said. "That's an important point also about Type 1, is there is no cure for Type 1 diabetes. So when you're diagnosed, whether it's at age two or 17 or older, it's a diagnosis for life.GÇ¥

Camp Leo, in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie Forest, offers overnight summer camps for kids with Type 1 diabetes. When Camp Leo was formed in 1991, it accommodated a total of 10 campers. Now, they are up to 300 campers across three camps; one for elementary-age kids, one for middle schoolers and another called Leaders in Training, which helps high schoolers become camp counselors.

"We have children from throughout Western Washington,GÇ¥ Glenn said. "We're the only overnight residential camp in Western Washington.GÇ¥

Camp Leo allows kids to be kids, he said, with access to numerous activities, including archery, a zip line, rock climbing, arts and crafts, hiking, swimming and camp fires. It also helps them learn new coping mechanisms to help deal with their diabetes.-á

"There's also a serious component of diabetes management and also connecting other children with each other, through almost like peer pressure,GÇ¥ Glenn said. "They see that other children are overcoming their diagnosis, managing their diabetes effectively, and it can encourage them.GÇ¥

The goal is for kids to become more confident and realize they are not bound by their diagnosis. Each cabin has medical staff and counselors on site, and many Camp Leo counselors have Type 1 diabetes themselves, Glenn said.

This year they are implementing a family camp for parents and their children.

The Monroe Lions are looking forward to hearing from the two young students that will have the opportunity to attend Camp Leo this July.

In addition to raising funds to support the club's health-related initiatives, the Monroe Lions are gearing up for the annual Trout Unlimited fishing derby at Lake Tye. Every year the Lions contribute cash and volunteer hours to help the event run smoothly. Last year, the shores of Lake Tye were packed with fishing poles as Sky Valley kids tried to catch their limit.

This year's fishing derby takes place Sunday, April 24.

The Lions are welcoming new members. Lions Club member Lory Tossey joined about a year ago, and has enjoyed the opportunity to serve her community in different ways. When making the decision to add a new service organization to her repertoire, she said the Lions appealed to her because its members have contributed so much to the Monroe community. Members like Larry Whitfield and Wayne Rodland have truly helped to build and shape Monroe over the years, she said.

Anyone interested in giving back to the community can become a Lion. For more information about membership, contact Wayne Rodland at 360-794-1140 or E.L. Hancock at hancockel@gmail.com. The Monroe Lions Club meets at 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of each month at Brookdale Monroe.-á -á

Donations to support the Monroe Lions Club's efforts, including funding scholarships to Camp Leo or donations to help support the fishing derby, can be sent to P.O. Box 956, Monroe, 98272.