The first Lions Club was founded in 1917 in Chicago, Illinois by a businessman named Melvin Jones, who recruited other businessmen around the city to “address the betterment of their communities.”
This idea of businessmen providing service to their communities quickly took hold around the country and even extended overseas. Each club chose its own “causes.” As an example, one of the causes for the Casper Lions Club was to help alleviate the plight of malnourished children over the summer months, which culminated in their sponsorship of the summer Recuperation Camp at the foot of Casper Mountain, with the first children arriving on June 27, 1925.
Three days later, on June 30, 1925, at a Lions Club International Convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, Helen Keller gave a speech, urging the gathered Lions to become “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.”
Keller’s speech galvanized those present to encourage the Lions to take up that crusade.
Watch a re-enactment of Helen Keller’s speech at this video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfr6YO-zLZc