The International Association of Lions Clubs was created in 1917 by a Chicago businessman named Melvin Jones. The International Association of Lions Clubs is today the largest service organization in the world with over 1.4 million members in more than 43,000 clubs in 701 districts, covering 182 countries, and geographic areas.

      Lions Clubs are not social clubs, although there are social benefits with membership. Lions club members donate their time, skills, and resources to raise funds for charity, giving both in their immediate community and internationally.

      The major focus of Lions fund raising activities is sight conservation. Other projects include pursuit of drug awareness in high schools, diabetes programs, hearing conservation, and other projects specific to individual needs of the community where the club is located.

      Lions adopted sight conservation as their major goal after a speech given by Helen Keller at the Lions International Convention held at Cedar Point, Ohin in 1925. At that time, Helen Keller challenged the Lions to become "Knights of the Blind". this challenge has become a rallying cry for Lions projects around the world.

      Individual clubs, sponser free eye screening programs and eye glass purchases for the needy. Each year, children in pre-kindergarten programs are screened for "lazy eye". In many countries, clubs sponsor eye surgery camps whete cataract surgeries are performed at no charge for those in need. Most clubs collect old eye glasses for distribution to the needy in other countries.

      The International Association of Lions Clubs is the largest non-governmental organization associated with the United Nations and the World Health Organization to raise funds for an international program of sight conservation. Over $148,600,000.00 has been reased by Lions all over the world to support "Campaign Sight First" in order to cure/prevent 40 million cases of blindness worldwide. Lions club serve humanity with a range of services from purchasing eye glasses for a child who's parent cannot afford them, to multimillion dollar programs to cure blindness on a worldwide scale.

      Locally, the Lions Clubs are the backbone supporting the Wilmer Eye Clinic located at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. Many futuristic ideas are being tested and dispensed to those with macular degeneration and those people on the fringes of complete blindness.