To the Journal editor:

We would like to thank The Mining Journal for your ongoing coverage of our club activities for the last 105 years. Chartered in October of 1919, the Marquette Lions Club has served Marquette and surrounding communities in a wide variety of ways. Our Marquette Lions Lakeside Park, just south of the Father Marquette statue, was the location of our first club meeting. Today, the site is under renovation and will become a gathering place for the community.

Our first club service project in 1919, was to acquire rock and gravel from local farms and the lakeshore to build stable footing on Washington Street up the hill from the harbor. It had been a wet summer and early fall resulting in the steep hill being so muddy that it was impassable for the horse-drawn delivery wagons. Members of the 1919 Marquette Lions Club shoveled and spread gravel, to create stable footing for the horse drawn delivery wagons to navigate the steep hill. In those days, our Marquette Harbor was a bustling shipping center.

And the horse drawn wagons were the most efficient way to get goods off-loaded from the ships, up Washington Street, to the thriving business district. As we look to Washington Street today and the rest of our beautiful community, it is exciting to know the Marquette Lions have helped lay the foundation for not only more accessible streets, but the progress our community has experienced to date.

The Marquette Lions continue to serve our community in meaningful ways. Our current ongoing service project is a refundable can and bottle drive. 100%One hundred percent of the funds raised from the generous donations of our community are delegated to provide assistance to our neighbors in need. This is just one of the many important projects we dedicate our time and talents to each year along with Project KidSight, the Childhood Cancer initiatives, efforts to address food insecurity and so much more.

We thank The Mining Journal for your ongoing support of this important community service project. Our Lions Club motto is, “We Serve.” We invite The Mining Journal and the rest of the Marquette Community to continue to partner with the Marquette Lions Club by promoting and supporting our refundable can and bottle drive and our many other events and service projects.

To make a donation of refundable cans/bottles, please call or text: 906-250-1596 or message the Marquette Lions Club on Facebook to request a donation pick up or learn more about our initiatives.

Together we serve.