The Englewood Lions continued its 80-plus year tradition of service to the community March 20 at a reconition program by presenting donations to 15 area charities.

Englewood Lions President David Pelegrino presided over the program that recognized the charities and presented them with the donations from the club.

In his introduction, he noted the Englewood Chapter is part of Lions International, the oldest service organization in the world. Currently, there are 1.3 million men and women in 205 countries who are member of Lions International.

Lions International is probably best known for its programs aimed at preventing blindness. Last year, chapters around the world performed vision screening for more than 27,000 three- to five-year olds.

Pelegrino said the screening detected vision problems in about 7 percent of those tested and, in most cases, Lions chapters provided the funds for additional testing and glasses where they were needed.

The Englewood Lions conducted vision screening for youngsters in Englewood and Sheridan. The club provided more than $5,000 to provide follow-up exams and glasses for 135 children and a few adults who couldn’t afford the testing and treatment, Pelegrino said.

Pelegrino then moved ahead with the program as the Englewood Lions distributed checks totaled $19,400 with about a third of the amount going to the program to provide eye exams and glasses to needy children and adults.

The charities honored included the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank, The Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute, the Anchor Center for Blind Children, funding for the Lions scholarships for Englewood schools, the Englewood Education Foundation, the Family Tree House of Hope Family Resource Center, the Salvation Army of Englewood, Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, Inter-Faith Community Services, Children’s Learning Center at Englewood United Methodist Church, the Arapahoe Santa Claus Shop, Englewood Arts for the summer drama program and the Colorado Lions Camp.

The Englewood Lions Club was chartered in 1926 with 28 members. Over the years, its membership has varied and, at one time, topped 100.

The club has always actively sought to serve the community. For example, during World War II, school lunches didn’t include milk but the Englewood Lions provided the money so every child in Englewood schools received a free half-pint of milk with lunch.

Another Lions project took shape in 1946 when the club built the city’s first swimming pool. It was located in what was then the city park and operated until the property was sold in 1968 and became the site of Cinderella City Shopping Mall.

The Lions also provided another amenity at the former city park as they installed and ran the miniature train ride.

In the late 1960s, the train and track were moved to Belleview Park, a park created as a result of the money received from sale of the former city park location.

Although the original train was replaced and its replacement has since been replaced. The train still runs although the Lions gave up operation and the city now runs the popular ride throughout the summer.