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Members of the DeSoto Lions Club meet at Ernie Roberts Park Saturdays at 8 a.m. to clean and beautify it. – Photo courtesy of the DeSoto Lions Club

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(The Dallas Examiner) – “Where there’s a need, a Lion is there.”

This motto embodies the spirit and legacy of the DeSoto Lions Club, a local chapter of the Lions Club International – one of the world’s largest service organizations, with over 1.4 million dedicated members of 49,000 clubs. Lions are committed to making a difference in communities worldwide, turning compassion into action wherever help is needed.

Having celebrated its 75th anniversary on Sept. 21, 2024, the DeSoto Lions Club is as old as the city of DeSoto, incorporated March 3, 1949, as well as the DeSoto Methodist Church and WFAA.

“We would love to have new members such as city officials to join us,” said former DeSoto fire chief and Lions Club President Fred Hart Jr.

Having a home in the bedroom community of Southern Dallas County ­– known for its scenic greenspace, gardens, rolling hills and creeks – the club is always looking for opportunities to serve the community, a mission the DeSoto Mayor Rachel Proctor could get behind as a member, according to Hart.

It’s also what lead Belyne Bland-Xochihua, a member of the DeSoto chapter for nearly seven years and a dedicated part of the Roberts Park clean-up crew.

“I am really on board with the Lions Club because that’s what I do. I’m all about service and helping others,” Bland-Xochihua said. “I used to work with the chamber of commerce, and they needed someone to represent them at the Lions Club. We were members of all the different clubs around, and so someone else took the Rotary club and I took the Lions Club.”

She said her parents had been lions at one time, so she was very familiar with the organization’s work and its mission.

The DeSoto Lions Club services include helping youth, tackling hunger, free eye exams, assisting those with vision problems, aid for animals and helping to keep the environment clean and fresh.

“Right now, we are buying glasses for elementary school kids that can’t afford glasses,” explained Hart Jr. “The school nurse lets us know if she is aware of students who can’t get glasses due to financial needs, then we will pay for the eye exam and the eye glasses and this year, we have done about four. We do this because we don’t want any students to sit in class that can’t see well due to vision issues and can’t learn because of it.”

Hart noted that DeSoto High School alumni, such as two-time Super Bowl champion defensive player Von Miller of the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams, are also heavily involved by giving back to children with low vision by donating eyeglasses.

“Our people have DeSoto pride,” Hard stated. “We have graduates of DeSoto High School that come back and want to give back because of city pride and are proud to be from DeSoto and so are people from the area as well.”

The organization is committed to servicing the immediate needs of a child and their family.

“We support any child with a disability,” she said. “We have a Lions Camp that we do every summer that we open up for not just the kids, but we also have a family camp where their parents could come. And if they have siblings, the siblings can come as well. It is just an opportunity for them to just be kids without being reminded of their disability. So it helps them get some more confidence and just some surety.”

For the past 60 years, the organization’s community service has included providing scholarships to high school seniors, stocking the local food pantry, supporting local animal shelter and participating in community projects such as the Great Days of Service and Christmas parade.

“The DeSoto Lions club also donated the land to where the city’s library was located; that land has now been converted to DeSoto Senior Citizen’s Center,” Hart said.

Additionally, they take a crew of volunteers to clean Ernie Roberts Park at 8 a.m. every Saturday morning.

“We adopted Ernie Roberts Park about two years ago in the Spring when the city redid the park and we donated one of the musical instruments located in the park in the children’s area,” Hart said. “It is an interactive park where children can play with musical instruments in the kids’ area, and we just decided to adopt the park. We were one of the first cities to adopt a park.”

Currently, the organization is in need of more members and volunteers to join the park cleanup effort.

“We have a wildflower area or garden where we’ve been planting wildflowers and letting them grow,” she said. “It’s actually really beautiful in the summertime, and it takes about an hour. We clean it, and then we normally talk afterwards and stuff. It’s just a way for us also to just engage with people who come jogging and walking their dogs in the morning time. And then we also work with the city of DeSoto, with their recreation department as well.”

At 59 years old, Bland-Xochihua is one of the group’s youngest members.

“We’re always looking for more members and volunteers. Anyone is invited and encouraged to come to our meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays at Acapulco restaurant, at noon,” she said. “We do need to have more people and younger people within the group to carry it on. They can always make donations, monetary donations to the club, as well as collect old eyeglasses and turn those into us too, so that we can recycle those.”

She is proud to serve her community because of its unique qualities.

“The camaraderie, the businesses seem to support one another, and I think that makes a really big difference,” Bland-Xochihua said. “The [DeSoto] City Council members and all are involved in the city. They’re not just sitting at a meeting. They are involved within the city, and that makes a difference as well.”

Getting involved doesn’t have to be difficult and it has its benefits.

“It is definitely a way to kind of dip your toe in and to get involved with the community and give back,” she added. “So I encourage everyone. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the Lions Club. We have several different clubs around for people to join and just to get involved with the group and to help your community.”

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