50 years of service: The Alto Area Lions Club roars on

By Justin Tiemeyer - Contributing Writer

27 June 2025

The Alto Area Lions celebrated 50 years as a chartered club, on Friday, June 13, 2025, aboard Lowell’s Showboat VI. Bill Wieland, who leafs through one of two enormous scrapbooks, prepared by retired Kent District Library Regional Manager, Sandy Graham, is one of three remaining Alto Lions who has been there since the very beginning. “I was just looking at the charter,” Wieland says. “Seeing all the names, it does something.”

The original charter was signed by nearly 50 men; back in those days, women were not allowed to be members of Lions Clubs. When Wieland looks at the list of signatures, not unlike the Declaration of Independence, he no doubt sees scores of friends who have since passed on.

The other two originals are George Anderson and Richard Johnson, the latter of whom was not present due to health concerns.

The Lowell High School String Quartet plays Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” an appropriate period piece that might have been played the night those men gathered for the first time to devote their time and money to the good of their community. Later, the musicians play “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, which is even more on-the-nose. The song debuted mere weeks before the Alto Lions Club was incorporated on December 13, 1975.

Ken Adamy is the president of Alto Lions, and he is thrilled at how the 50th anniversary event has come together, speaking highly of the string quartet, catering courtesy of Four Chefs, and Elvis tribute artist Liam Doyle, scheduled to perform later in the evening. Adamy is the same age as some of the original Lions Club members, but he did not join until 2001.

As proud as Adamy is about the celebration, he is even more proud to be a member of an organization that puts so much time and money into the community at the local, state, and national level. “There’s 1.5 million Lions in the world, and I lost count after 200 countries,” Adamy said. “A large portion of every country in the world has a Lions group.”

What started as an organization for businessmen, or men of significant means, has changed over the years, and while Adamy could focus on the highly influential movers and shakers who have emerged from the Lions, his is a humbler perspective. He celebrates the fact that women gained the right to join Lions Clubs in 1987 and that anyone, regardless of their income, can now sign up. For Adamy, it is the work, the disaster relief, the fight against child hunger, and the community engagement, that makes a Lion a Lion.

Lions Club International was founded in 1917 by a Chicago businessman named Melvin Jones, and one of the greatest honors a Lion can receive is a Melvin Jones Award. Adamy put great care into keeping secret the fact that one important Alto Lions member would receive this honor by the end of the evening. “Everybody thought Bill Wieland had already gotten one,” Adamy says. “This year is the year he’s finally receiving it.”

As Adamy says this, the string quartet is playing a popular song by the Eurythmics. It is an instrumental rendition, but fans of the 1983 smash hit can hear the lyrics in their heads: “Sweet dreams are made of this.”

Between musical acts, Adamy threatens the audience with cheesy Lions-oriented jokes, proclaiming that he will not stop until someone rings “the bell,” only the bell in question has mysteriously gone missing.

“What does an evil penguin lay?” Adamy asks. “Deviled eggs - where’s my bell?!”

Eventually, Liam Doyle’s Elvis tribute begins. While Elvis was still around when the Alto Lions were formed, he did not have long; the so-called “King of Rock and Roll” died on August 16, 1977, in Memphis, four days before Doyle’s parents were wed. Doyle starts his set with “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” cleverly warming up the crowd with gifted stuffies before delivering the punchline: “I don’t want to be your lion / ‘cause lions ain’t the kind you love enough.”

Love enough, there was, when Bill Wieland was recognized with the Melvin Jones Award at the end of the evening.

“It’s 50 years too late,” Adamy said, “but better late than never.”