Our History

Lions began in the United States in 1917 when a group of independent clubs responded to an idea presented to them by a young Chicago insurance agent, Melvin Jones. He believed that local business clubs should expand their horizons from purely professional concerns to the betterment of their communities and the world at large.

​

This was heralded as a departure from the trend current at that time of forming clubs basically with a commercial motive -- Jones' own group was the Business Circle of Chicago. An organizational meeting was held at a local hotel on June 7, 1917, and from this meeting the organization was born.

​

The association became "international" with the formation in 1920 of the "Border City Lions Club" of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Lions, identified afterward as the Windsor (Downtown) Lions Club. From that time on clubs were formed worldwide.