Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula attended meet.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: The President of the international Lions Clubs, Barry J. Palmer, visited Edison, New Jersey last month for the induction of 54 new members for the community’s Edison Visionary Leo club, a service community geared towards mentoring youth for community service
The Edison Visionary Lions Clubs itself has been around only since 2010, but has already been a crucial party behind serving the community’s social and humanitarian needs. The Lions were critical in helping the disaster relief efforts in the wake of Sandy, and have also provided food, clothing, and shelter relief to hundreds of the community’s homeless.
Present at the induction ceremony, which took place on February 14 at the TV Asia studio in Edison, was New Jersey State Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, TV Asia CEO H.R. Shah, and Tom Lankey, the Mayor of Edison, New Jersey.
Chivukula and Shah are both former members of the Lions organization – despite the former saying at the ceremony “Once a lion, always a lion!” – with the latter having been a member of the 1974 Hoboken Lions and Chivukula accepting an honorary membership into the service club.
Also at the event were Edison Visionary Lions Clubs president Mahesh Chitnis, former International Director Bob Moore, past council chair Bob Virgadamo, District governor Winster Ceballos and Nancy Jakubczyk, former District Governor John Kobland, Cabinet treasurer Anu Chitnis, Chairman of Lead India 2020 Hari Eppanapally, Jugesh Soni, Virendra Tavathia and Seema Jagtiani.
Palmer also took the time to recognize the Jersey City gurudwara for its humanitarian efforts, specifically its contributions to the Lions Clubs International disaster relief fund. The Lions organization bestowed upon the gurudwara its Melvin Jones Fellowship, which was accepted by Darvesh Dharayan, Atma Singh, Rina Bajpai, Kajol Bishnoi and 10-year-old Ojas Chitnis, the youngest recipient of the award in the Lions’ 97-year history.
According to the organization’s press notes, the Lions Clubs has 46,000 clubs and 1.35 million members all over the world, making it the largest community service and outreach organization internationally. Their Leo Clubs number 5,800, spread out among 140 countries worldwide.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com