SERVICE

Rounding up on the three pillars of Lionism (the other two being Leadership and Fellowship) is Service. Many people (Lions as well as the public) assume that this is the reason behind Lionism. The sole reason...? No, not for me. For those who wish to give service, that is very noble. If he/she wishes to do so fulltime, become a social worker. Unfortunately, however noble our aim, most of us have to work to earn enough so that, after taking care of our personal and family needs, we can meet the needs of our society and community. Therefore we become Lions (or give to charity). There is no right or wrong in doing charity. It is a decision of an individual's heart. What irks me are those who claims to do charity or service (especially by becoming a Lion) so that he/she gets rewarded for doing so.

Charity and service should be personal and between yourself alone and the recipient of your charity. No one should have a say as to how much you give and to whom you give. Basically, it should be up to your conscience (personal or God-driven) to act. When a donation collector approached a fellow Lion and me at a coffeeshop, I declined to donate because I know that up to 90% of the donations will never reach the center the man claims to represent. My friend, who is aware of the situation, still donated RM5 because she said she pitied the collector who was old and that this is better than begging. And just because one is rich does not mean that he/she must be more generous. In fact, I realized that often riches and selfishness tend to go hand in hand.

Anyway, the issue is about Lions who blatantly show off their charity or act of service, often and whenever possible in the mass media or in the public eye. Worse are those who give a different kind of service: lip service - pledge but never fulfill! While the gratitude of the recipient should be our only reward of contribution, looking at our award system, I am afraid that quite a number carry out service activities do it for the sake of an award. And many openly do so by padding the figures (blowing up the amount collected, sometime including third-party donations and not yet excluding expenses) to look good. A clearer standard would be net raised.

While on this subject, a President (hey, congratulations to all Presidents who start their term of office today!!!) asked if he and his club's efforts will be recognized by the District at the end of his term (see what I mean by doing it for the sake of an award??). It seems that he is not in the DG's good books because he supported the DG's opponent during the last convention. I told him to do his best for the sake of the people we serve and not to expect any award. If any award comes along, it is in addition to the much more meaningful reward we gain when another person's life has been changed by our simple and unselfish act of charity or service.