Pictured, at table, from left, Roger Rowland, Jean Weller and Marlin Carr; standing in front row, from left, Nichole Taylor, Shanon Dickey, Silver Lake Lions Club President Kevin Hohman, Mike Weller and Jacob Johnson.; standing, back row, from left, Rob Clark, David Dickey and Jason McGlennen. Photo credit to Sandy Rowland, co-treasurer.

SILVER LAKE — The Silver Lake Lions Club will be holding an open house from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 1, to celebrate their 80th anniversary.

The open house will include refreshments and giveaways. Bingo will start at 6 p.m. with a guaranteed $1,000 jackpot.

The Silver Lake Lions Club was chartered on Sept. 18, 1937. Founding board members were C.I. Bashore, H.P. Rager, Russell Kerlin, Paul Sittler, A.R. Ramey and J.L. Jontz. Currently, they have 23 members who meet on the first and third Monday of every month.

Silver Lake Lions Club offers bingo at 6 p.m. on Saturday nights. Doors open at 5 p.m. In April and October there is a guaranteed $1,000 giveaway on the last jackpot of the night. They also have fish fry fundraisers the second Saturday of the month from August through April. Money raised from these fundraisers goes back into the Silver Lake community and is used to assist with things such as the community Easter egg hunt, Silver Lake youth league, Memorial Day ceremony, the Silver Lake festival, Kosciusko 4-H auction, Silver Lake volunteer fire department, Christmas decorations and city banners.

Sandy Rowland, Silver Lake Lions Club co-treasurer, states that the Lions Club building is also used for senior services, Summer Bible School and 4-H club meetings.

Anyone in the community is invited to join, and the club is always looking for more volunteers.

Lions Club International is the world’s largest service club organization, with 1.35 million members in over 45,000 clubs in more than 206 countries.

The Lions Clubs International Foundation has awarded more than seven hundred million dollars in grants to support Lions humanitarian projects around the world since 1968. LCIF was also ranked the number one nongovernmental organization in a 2007 study by The Financial Times