The Osceola Lions Club was chartered on August 12, 1941 with 45 members and was sponsored by the Murray Lions Club. The Club began as businessmen with the purpose of betterment of their community with civic improvement, safety, boys’ and girls’ clubs and organizations, and health and welfare including sight and hearing conservation. The principles continue today as the purpose of the local, State and International Lions Clubs organization.
The Osceola Lions Club has always been a SERVICE club, with many projects over the years from taking neighbors into town during war time when gasoline was rationed, to community blood drives, adopt a highway cleanup and other activities as requested such as helping with the first Little League Ball Program and sponsoring Red Cross Swim lessons for many years. These activities are now sponsored by the City of Osceola Parks & Rec department.
The Osceola Lions were actively involved with the development of East Lake Park by constructing the Hawks Nest tower and many of the shelter houses. Lions members also built shelter houses at Q-Pond, Weldon, Hopeville and the Clarke County Fairgrounds, and installed park benches along the Thomas Trail around Grade Lake.
Over the years the Club also made monetary donations: Osceola Library Building Funds, Rotary Bandstand Project, Clarke County Fairgrounds, The Village Early Childhood Center and purchased 25 American flags for the City of Osceola.
In the recent years, the Club has served our community thru Kid Sight screening, Peace Poster Contest and assistance with purchases of eyeglasses and hearing aids for persons in need. The Club also collected used eyeglasses and hearing aids for recycling.
For many years, the Osceola Lions Club concessions trailer was a landmark at the annual Fourth of July Celebrations, where we served corn dogs and funnel cakes from 1989-2019. The profits from the FUNdraiser allowed the Club to make generous monetary donations to our community, i.e.: Toys for Christmas, Osceola Food Pantry, scholarships for Clarke High School graduates, Osceola Fire Department safety program for school children, Youth rodeo, National Boy Scouts Association and various individual youth camps.
The Club proudly supported state and international Lions projects as well with annual donations to Education for the Blind, Lions Hearing Aid Bank, Cochlear Implant Center, School for the Deaf, Leader Dog Programs, Low Vision clinic, The Iowa Eye Bank and Camp Hertko Hollow (camp for children with diabetes). The Club sent gift cards to victims of the Missouri River floods.
Sadly, our membership has declined and we have been unsuccessful gaining new members. We sold the concessions trailer in 2020 to the Indianola Lions Club, who proudly use it at their events including but not limited to Balloon Days and the Warren County Fair. The Osceola Lions Club disbanded effective June 30, 2023.
Our final donations: Clarke County Historical Museum to assist with repair of stained glass windows; Clarke County Conservation to assist with the new proposed community center; Clarke County Fairgrounds for the county youth and other events of the community; Christian Church for use of their building for our meetings; Clarke County Hospital for their “Enhance Our Patients’ Experience” campaign; Ron Feehan to purchase new equipment for teaching CPR classes; Osceola Boy Scouts; and three Osceola area food pantries.