Steve Harmon
David Bradford

DUNLAP, Tenn. -- Among the record number of new members of the Dunlap Lions Club this year are some who received club services in their youth and are returning the good deed.

Dunlap Lions Club President David Bradford said the 10 new members almost doubled normal attendance when the group met this month.

"It's probably the biggest gain in membership for the year of any year that we've had," Mr. Bradford said.

The local club has been around since 1945 and usually has 40 or so members. The recruits boosted membership this month to 50, a likely record, he said.

Mr. Bradford credited Dunlap Mayor Dwain Land with drawing most of the new members, but Mr. Land said he just gathered some people who wanted to give back.

Mr. Land said he joined after helping a woman get new glasses through the Lions. He said the woman had lost her job and was ill. She couldn't afford glasses, so Mr. Land contacted some friends in the Lions Club.

"She was just beyond overexcited that she got her glasses and she had told her one of her daughters that she really appreciated that I had called to get them for her," he said. "That just kind of touched me, and I decided that I would go and join (the Lions), and they accepted me."

New member Steve Harmon said he and his brother, Jeff, joined together "because we've always had a special place in our hearts for the Lions Club."

"In the late '70s, our dad had a major heart attack and open-heart surgeries and he was out of work for a couple of years, and we had it really rough at that time," said Mr. Harmon, 45.

"My first pair of eyeglasses, when I was a little kid, came from the Lions Club," he said.

"Plus, in the late '70s, at Christmas time, they brought us fruit baskets and brought us kids toys. It would've been a very hard Christmas that year if it had not been for the Lions Club."