Seton Hall's Lions Club celebrated its charter night on Sunday, Dec. 22 in the Main Lounge with a fundraising dinner with family, friends and special guests.
"I am proud to welcome these Seton Hall students into Lions Club," said South Orange Village President Alex Torpey. "I will be proud to have such a fine group serving their community and people all over the world."
Members of the South Orange Lions Club have been trying to start a club on campus for the past seven years, according to the club's president, Maame Pokuaa Owusu-Afriyie. The members congratulated the students of the new service club and promised to work hand-in-hand with them to better the community.
Lions Clubs International District Gov. Joseph Kika presented members of the new club with certificates and pins.
The charter night also helped raise money for the New Horizon Special Needs School in Ghana.
Owusu-Afriyie said she plans to help Seton Hall students serve their community and people all over the world through the club.
Others in attendance were Assemblywoman Mila M. Jasey, Seton Hall alumni and members of other Lions Clubs in New Jersey, according to Owusu-Afriyie.
According to the Lions Club website, it is the world's largest service club organization with nearly 1.3 million members in approximately 46,000 clubs in more than 200 countries.
Zachary DeVoe, sophomore and membership director of the Lions Club, said he joined the club because his brother has an eye disease, choroideremia, which is a genetic retinal disease that progressively will rob him of his vision.
"For nearly 100 years, our Lion members have worked on projects designed to prevent blindness, restore eyesight and improve eye health and eye care for hundreds of millions of people worldwide and I wanted to be a part of it," DeVoe said.
For more information or to get involved with the club, contact the club president at lionsclub@shu.edu.
Madelyn Abdalla can be reached at Madelyn.abdalla@student.shu.edu.
