Long Beach's Lions Club to host karaoke night fundraiser

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The Lions Club is an international organization that is very active on Long Island, with chapters in many villages, towns and cities. In Long Beach, there are nearly 70 members of their own that constantly do charitable work.

The club holds all sorts of events and fundraisers throughout the year, with their next being at the Long Beach VFW on Sunday, Jan. 21. The VFW, at 675 W. Park Ave., will be turning into somewhat of a karaoke bar from 5 to 9 p.m. There will be songs to be sung, food to eat and prizes to win. Attendees will be able to enter the raffle giveaways for a number of gift baskets.

“We’re going to raffle off baskets,” Lions Club President Allen Schwartz said. “Maybe we’ll give a few more prizes in the middle of the event and we’ll do a 50/50. But the tip is to get in and have fun.”

The musical night will cost $45 per person and spots must be reserved by Jan 17. Money can be sent by check to the Lion’s Club, at P.O. Box 243. More payment information can be found at LongBeachLionsClub.org.

“Hopefully, in two weeks, we’ll know more but we want to do a casino night where we raise big money for the city, he said.”

The group went to the Chamber of Commerce’s Casino Night at the Allegria Hotel last year, also raising money for dogs. Schwartz said at that event that the naming rights to sponsor a dog costs $6,000 and so far, they’ve sponsored over 30 dogs for whoever needs them. They have been raising money and sponsoring the dogs for about 25 years. They’ve been raising a lot more money the last decade.

“The last 10 to 15 years, we really started raising a lot of money for the dogs,” Schwartz said. “But it started really going well the last couple of years.”

Along with the dogs, the club has raised money for many other groups and foundations. At a previous event, they raised money for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. The foundation helps cover the cost of attending post-high school, undergraduate and career and technical education programs for the children of those in the military.