It’s that time of year again. The Clinton Lions Club is hosting their biannual fundraising event — a fish fry.
Striving for service, their goal is to not only serve the Sampson County community, but others across the world.
The local service organization will be hosting the fry, Thursday, April 27, at the Agri-Exposition Center. The club has been around for more than 50 years.
As the world’s largest service club, the more than 1 million national members work to help local communities and the local club isn’t any different. According to Clinton Lions Club member Diane Westerbeek, the project the club is most known for is the collection of eyeglasses.
“We help locally,” Clinton Lions Club member and Register of Deeds Eleanor Bradshaw said. “We have been doing more locally over the years.”
Westerbeek said the club has collection containers spread around Clinton to collect used eyeglasses and lenses to be processed and sent around the world to help those in need of assistance seeing.
The bi-annual fish fry helps support this project, she added, as well as the many other projects the local club is involved in. All proceeds from the fundraising event go towards the purchase of eyeglasses, tuition for camp for visually impaired, eye examinations and a fishing tournament.
The local Lions Club also provides scholarships with some of the proceeds from the fish fry, as well as providing funds for the Backpack Buddies program that assists nearly 250 children in Clinton City Schools on a weekly basis.
“There are a lot of services offered through the Lions Club,” Westerbeek said.
According to Westerbeek, Backback Buddies sends qualifying children home with a gallon size bag full of food every Friday afternoon to help with feeding over the weekend. Some students in CCS, grades K-6, are sent home with the food every week while school is in session.
“We only have these two fundraisers every year,” Westerbeek said. “So, it’s very important for the community to support us. Everything we collect goes out locally.”
Fish plates will be catered by Sandpiper Seafood and include fish, slaw, potato salad and hushpuppies. Plates will be available for dine in or take out. Tickets may be purchased in advance from and Lions Club member of can be purchased at the event.
Service will be from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and 4-7 p.m. at the Agri-Exposition Center.
The Clinton Lions Club is also looking to grow membership. For more information, contact a current Lions Club member.