[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 153 (Thursday, September 22, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S4965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                CENTENNIAL OF THE NEW BRITAIN LIONS CLUB

 Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, today I rise to recognize the 
New Britain Lions Club as they celebrate 100 years of devoted community 
service and positive impact on countless families and organizations in 
New Britain, CT, and the surrounding area.
  The New Britain Lions Club is one of the five original Lions Clubs 
organized in Connecticut. Since their founding in 1922, the Club's core 
focus has been to meet the needs of children, although they have 
touched the entire community over the years. As a testament to their 
far-reaching impact, President Herbert Hoover sent a telegram in 1930 
which read: ``There is hardly an institution or community effort where 
the New Britain Lions Club has not been involved, including the 
library, Salvation Army, Scouts, sports, the American School for the 
Deaf, community festival, and literally scores of others.''
  The Club has developed leadership skills in its membership and ten of 
the Club's members have served as District Governor, displaying 
extraordinary leadership ability and helping establish programs that 
continue to this day to serve New Britain. Among these leaders was Lion 
Thomas Leonard, one of the founders of the Connecticut Lions Eye 
Research Foundation--CLERF--Lion Howard Wry, who began the annual 
eyeglass collection and initiated the New Britain Lions Emergency Food 
Bank in 1981, and Lion Otto Strobino, who served as President of the 
Lions Eye Research Foundation and initiated the planting of the Lions 
Memorial Forest at the University of Connecticut. The New Britain Lions 
Club has set the standard of excellence in Lionism through their 
history of exceptional leadership and commitment to public service.
  Over the past 2 years, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 
pandemic, the New Britain Lions have continued to operate their free 
eye clinic, oversee the local Warm-The-Children program to provide 
winter clothes for children in need, and facilitate vision screening 
services to over 5,000 school children in the New Britain Public School 
system.
  Their most recent initiative is a collaboration with Connecticut 
Children's Medical Center, Yale New Haven, and the Meriden YMCA 
Mountain Mist Camp to create a weeklong Diabetes Camp to help children 
and young adults manage the disease. In addition to their local impact, 
the New Britain Lions Club has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars 
for the Lions Club International Foundation to reach those in need all 
over the world.
  As the New Britain Lions Club celebrates its centennial this 
September, I applaud them on their extraordinary contributions--not 
just to the city of New Britain and State of Connecticut, but to our 
great Nation and the world. I hope my colleagues will join me in 
congratulating the New Britain Lions Club on 100 years of committed 
public service.

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