Shoe City Lions, Curves donate to Salvation Army

LYNN – The Shoe City Lions, in conjunction with Curves on Boston Street, donated bags of groceries to the Salvation Army this month thanks to a successful food drive held at both organizations.Curves owner/manager Cindy Green, who is a member of the local lions, offered members of the all-female health club $5 in “Curves Bucks” if they brought in a grocery bag filled with non-perishable foods to help keep the shelves stocked at one of the city’s largest and most frequently used food pantries.Curves bucks are part of the incentive awards program at Curves to keep members coming regularly so that they will take full advantage of all that the Curves exercise program has to offer. Curves members responded overwhelmingly to the incentive with approximately $800-$1,000 worth of nonperishable goods that were picked up by Joyce Preble of the Salvation Army on March 31 and the ladies loaded the Salvation Army van with bags full of groceries.Facing a drop in donations due to the rough economy, members of the Salvation Army were grateful for the help they received from the Lions and the members of Curves.”Lion Cindy and the ladies of Curves are so grateful that they were able to make a difference in the lives of people in their community,” said Lions Vice President Donna Hartshorn. “Cindy has brought her role as a Lion into her place of business, holding fundraisers to help many causes in the name of Lions.”As well as hosting the food drive, Green has turned her business into a collection site for recycled eyeglasses. Anyone can drop off glasses at Curves for the Lions eyeglass recycle program.Other projects that Green has done this past year using the power of her business include a collection for the local animal shelters.Due to trying economic times, many people are giving up their animals at a time when there is far less money and supplies to take care of them, overpopulating the shelters and making it more difficult for the mostly volunteer staff to keep up.Green was able to collect approximately $600 worth of food and supplies to help them in their operations.Since she ran the shelter project in November when the Lions would normally be collecting Toys for Tots for the district drive, Green decided to try her own collection at Curves.Green was able to collect about $400 worth of toys in a period of two and a half weeks in December.”Cindy’s work for Lions never stops,” said Hartshorn. “There is something going on each month. She ran a successful fundraiser for Multiple Sclerosis and received a beautiful certificate for her work and Curves just ran a successful Daffodil drive for the American Cancer Society during February. Cindy is a true Lion and continues her mission to help those in our community throughout the year.”As a member of Shoe City Lions, Cindy knows that the Lions’ motto, ‘We Serve,’ is much more powerful if it reads ‘We Serve Better Together.'”The Shoe City Lions will be holding its 5th Annual Fashion Show at St. Pius V lower church hall on Thursday, April 30 at 7 p.m. Ticket sales will be supporting Lions charities and St. Pius V charities. Call Donna Hartshorn at 781-599-1385 or stop by the St. Pius V pastoral center at 215 Maple St. for tickets.