Rathdrum Lions Club to provide community dinner

The Rathdrum Lions Club invites the community to a free meal and to learn more about the organization Monday.

The spaghetti dinner is from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Lions clubhouse at the corner of Highway 53 and Meyer Road in Rathdrum.

After dinner, the public can stick around for a short meeting.

Lions Club International is a service organization with more than 46,000 local clubs worldwide. The Rathdrum club is one of several chapters in North Idaho.

“We help out in the community wherever we can,” said Mary Hassler, secretary for the Rathdrum Lions Club.

Hassler joined the club in 2014 in order to help with the Backpack Program, which supplies students in need with nutritious food to eat on weekends, when they aren’t fed at school.

The Lions Club also provides hearing aids and eyeglasses for those who can’t afford them, as well as vision and hearing testing for elementary school and home school students.

The club also provides free firewood to families who need help with heating and has even helped connect visually impaired people with service dogs.

These days, the Rathdrum club is about 40 members strong. But they’ll need more members in order to keep doing their work in the community.

“Our members are getting older and we need some new blood,” Hassler said.

The club meets on Mondays.

“You don’t have to go to every meeting,” Hassler said. “We like people to attend at least two meetings a month.”