The Kyiv Lions Club has elected Californian John Jones to be its next president for a one-year term.
Jones, a former U.S. naval nuclear engineer, is a veteran of Kyiv and the region. He first went to Russia in 1988, as part of his bid to see 150 countries by the time he was 40. He says that “curiosity got the better of me; I wanted to see if all the stories of an evil empire were true.”
As a fluent Russian speaker, he was in demand and spent 10 years decommissioning weapons of mass destruction. He came to Ukraine so that he could tick off another country on his list. “Visiting Kyiv on a cold November weekend wasn’t perhaps the best time to see the city, but I was so struck by the warmth and generosity of the city that when my hosts invited me back I had no choice but to come and it has been a love affair ever since.”
Jones succeeds Karen-Marie Kragelund and was the only candidate seeking the presidency this year.
Jones is one of the founders of the multi-nations social network group that brings people of different nationalities together to socialize and communicate.
“What I have learned in all my years of travel is that when people communicate they realize not what divides them, but what unites them and that together they can move mountains. This is what I want to do as president of the Kyiv Lions Club.”
The Kyiv Lions Club “is a fine institution that has been a pioneer in social responsibility in Ukraine. Through the hard work of the members, all of whom are volunteers, they have over the years raised over $3 million, every cent of which has been used for very worthy and needy causes. I want to continue down that path and perhaps excite more people to join and to put something back into society,” he said.
“We have an annual program of fundraising events that will start under my watch with a charity yacht regatta at the end of July and continue with Kozak Night in September, a charity concert in December, Burns Night in February, a charity golf event in late May and I hope my year will conclude with an outdoor classical concert around the summer solstice,” he added. “In addition, I want to introduce a monthly social get-together as an adjunct to the official monthly members’ meetings to introduce new volunteers to the concept of the Lions and to giving back to those less fortunate in society.”
Kyiv Lions Club is part of the largest business charity organization in the world with 1.4 million members in 44,000 clubs in 179 countries. It is also one of the largest clubs in Eastern Europe. The club is financed entirely through the annual fees paid by the members, thereby enabling all the money raised to go to worthy causes involving children in need, education, the care of the sick and incapacitated and support for the elderly.
