CLAIRTON LIONS CLUB was the second Lions Club in what is now known as District 14-B, Allegheny County.  On April 11, 1922, a group of Clairton citizens met at the Clairton Inn (now known as the Penn Clair) with Lions International Representative A. L. Riggs, who addressed the group on the real meaning of Lionism to a community.  Following the address, the Reverend William L. Hogg, then serving as the Pator of the First Methodist Church of Clairton, was elected temporary Chairman, and Charles L. Menderson, a local pharmacist, was elected temporary Secretary.  A subsequent meeting was held at the Pine Run Methodist Church on April 20, 1922, at which Charles A. Lewis, an attorney, was elected Club President, and Roscoe H. Brunstetter was elected Secretary.

Lion A. Royston, Jr., President of the Pittsburgh Lions Club, our sponsor, presented the charter at a meeting in the Clairton Inn on April 27, 1922, and the Club members went to work immediately.  Resolutions were prepared and presented to City Council, requesting the appointment of a Civil Service Commission for city policemen and firemen, a City Planning Commission, a City Charity Department, and a City Park and Playground Commission.  In the 63 years of Lions Club activity that have followed, the principal thrust of the Club has been service to many types to the Clairton Public Schools System.  Lion Elbert C. Lehman, Secretary, sent us four single-spaced typewritten pages of detailed activities by years, but we will just list the highlights of some of the years here.

1924-25: The Club sponsored a contest for Senior High School boys and girls with the winners being selected on the basis of attendance, punctuality, scholarship, discipline, athletic ability, humor, courage and service.  One boy and one girl each received a $20 gold piece.  The Club also purchased a loving cup and displayed it in the High School with the names of the winners engraved on it each year thereafter.  This was the beginning of the Club’s Annual Senior Awards.  Wrist watches and certificates of accomplishment were adopted as awards in subsequent years.

1936-37:  2,000 children were provided with supervised recreation at the City’s playgrounds, and cash contributions were made to the Youth Movement.  An artificial leg was purchased for a Clairton boy.  Proceeds from a movie, amounting to $400, were used for the purchase of eye examinations and glasses.  A theater party was held on Christmas Day for 2,000 children.  500 children participated in a Club sponsored Easter Egg Roll in March.  A kite-flying contest was held in that month.

1939-40:  The Clairton High School Band won a prize of $125.00 in the Lions International Convention band contest in Pittsburgh.  The money was applied toward the purchase of new band uniforms.

1948-49:  The Club initiated a drive to raise $7,500 for the purchase of new uniforms for the High School Band.  In April 1948, a check for $7,514.03 was presented to the Clairton School Board, of which more than $4,000 had been raised by the Clairton Lions Club.  The Club’s first annual variety show was held in the High School Auditorium on March 31 and April 1.

1958-59:  On September 13th we held our annual band festival at the Stadium, in which eight bands participated.  On May 23 the Club sponsored the Clairton High School Band and the Honeybears in the Pennsylvania Lions Convention Parade in Pittsburgh.

1969-70:  The Club purchased and installed a new electrically illuminated scoreboard for Clairton High Schools Athletic Field, at the cost of $1,700.  (This was the second scoreboard purchased by the Club, having bought one in 1950.)  In May 1970, the Club contributed $1,000 to the Clairton Band Boosters toward the expenses of sending the Band and the Honeybears to Atlantic City to compete in the Lions International Convention Parade on July 1.  In June we presented our First Supplementary College Scholarship Award of $500 to a girl in the Senior Class.

1981-82:  In this, the sixtieth year of our work in Lionism, we paid for a scholarship to send a girl to a seminar on Environmental Leadership Training at the McKeever Environmental Learning Center at Sandy Lake, Pa.

Many members of the Clairton Lions Club have served District 14-B over the years, particularly Lion Elbert C. Lehman, who served as Zone Chairman, Deputy District Governor and Cabinet Secretary-Treasurer; Lion Evert F. Stabler, who was District Governor in 1946-47, and Lion William A. Lupher, who was District Governor in 1972-73 and Lion Clarence "Skip" Thomas who was District Governor in 1996-97.