Saturday, April 19, 2025
The Long Beach Lions Club — which is part of an international organization that is very active on Long Island, with chapters in many villages, towns and cities — has 40 members of their own that constantly do charitable work.
The club constantly holds events throughout each year, raising money for various people and groups. Most recently they held a karaoke night fundraiser on Feb. 28, ending the month in song, at Peter’s Clam Bar in Island Park. The event was set up to raise for two different — yet important — causes: service dogs for those who need, and to help repair a children’s park in Island Park.
President Alan Schwartz and the club have been trying to raise money to help repair the park on Waterford Road in Island Park for some time. He said the park needs a lot of repairs and, along with repairing it, they want to be able to add to it. The hope is to transform a grass area there into a brand-new pickleball court. They also have hopes to potentially create a dog park there as well.
The club has been raising money and sponsoring service dogs for whoever needs them for over 25 years. It costs about $6,000 for each service dog, and the club has sponsored over 60 dogs throughout the years. The karaoke night exceeded Schwartz’s expectations, and made each cause more attainable.
“We raised over $6,000,” Schwartz said, “We went in expecting $3-$4,000. We did better than we thought and we had a little over 100 people in Peter’s Clam Bar.”
Along with karaoke, the event featured live music, food and soft drinks, door prizes, raffles and a 50/50. Some of the raffle prizes included scratch-off lottery tickets, wine and liquor baskets and baskets from restaurants. There was also the chance to win a handful of autographed and game-used sports memorabilia.
Some of the memorabilia included an autographed jersey of Long Beach’s own — Charlie McAvoy — a signed baseball from former New York Met and Yankee David Cone and a signed Joe Torre baseball. There was also a signed picture of New Jersey Devil Jack Hughes, a game-used stick from New York Ranger Artemi Panarin, and several others.
“We have 40 members, and we have about 15 members from Island Park,” Schwartz said. “I am originally from Long Beach, but have been living in Island Park for 32 years now. I wanted to start doing things to get people involved in Island Park. I want to get the businesses involved in the community and get more members. The more the better.”
