[John Petrella]: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Method Happenings, a show for and about the city of Medford. And I am John Petrella, and the purpose of this program is to give Method citizens facts and information to help you make informed choices and to discover city services or businesses you may not have been aware of. And today's show is about the Lions International, which was founded in 1917, and is universally recognized for fighting preventable blindness. It's a great organization. And our guest today is Sharon Diaso, who is an active member of the local chapter. Welcome to Method Happenings. Thank you for joining us, Sharon.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Thank you, John and kind staff, for including me in your program today in the Lions Club. This year, I am vice president, and I think I am incoming president for the September 2026 year. Thank you. Very nice.
[John Petrella]: All right. We start the show off. Same way every episode, just tell us a little bit about yourself. Who's Sharon D'Oso?
[Sharon Deyeso]: Okay, I was born in Malden to John D'Eso of Everett and Camilla Torino D'Eso of Naples, Italy, and I've been a resident of the city since I was four. I won't tell you how many years that's been now because I don't want to get on that subject today. John, I attended Medford Public Schools. I joined clubs. I was very active in traveling. I became a student at UMass Boston. I'm a UMass Boston girl. I received my bachelor's degree in English. I received my master's degree from Suffolk University, trying to keep schools in Boston. and postgraduate from Northeastern and British Literature. I do remember great days in this building because I taught for five to seven years at the high school. I worked for 20 years before that with the stock market as a trading assistant. And now I'm just finishing my 11th to 12th year at Bunker Hill and helping a principal in this fine city.
[John Petrella]: Very nice. That's nice to know. All right, so next question naturally is, you know, talk about the Lions International. Who are they and what do they do?
[Sharon Deyeso]: I have to explain some misconceptions because a lot of people say, well, I'm looking up LCIF, or I'm looking up Medford Lions. What is the difference? So I thought today I would define LCIF, will you, and the member clubs. LCIF is for the Lions Club International Foundation. That term encompasses every Nook and Cranny club internationally around the world. That is the legal charter name for our fund. So Medford Lions is a chapter of LCIF. LCI is the same thing, and I can tell you a little bit about the 109 fine years, and in a simple sentence, let you know that people like yourselves who were very fond of businesses, established small businesses in Chicago in 1917. They were very successful, John. And a group of these businessmen, not being sexist at the time, of course, it just happened that way. And they wanted to get a cause going, not only for their community, but could they be going for USA? So they did. At their next meeting, they said, what is important to us and what does the world see as important? Eyesight. So their cause became eyesight, hearing, diabetes, and disaster aid. So if anyone looks up LCI or LCIF or find a club, Medford Lyons, you'll come across the same magnitude of great information.
[John Petrella]: Very interesting. All right, so we understand all that. What are the, I mean, today, what are the core initiatives? I mean, for the Lions chapter, what's the core? What is it that you're?
[Sharon Deyeso]: Interesting, I was thinking about this yesterday and also explained to Paul. There's a plethora of interests around the world. We have, just in the major cities of this country, 10,000 clubs or charters that have been given to local communities. Worldwide, there are 50,000 clubs internationally. So, each club would kind of gear itself to, if they had 38 members, they, of course, would be able to run more events locally and maybe including some nearby communities. The smaller the club, we find that if we do organize a couple of very popular events during the year, like Turkey Raffle that's very big for us in November, that became very popular. Monday night coming is our scholarship night that we just established. only five years ago. It's only granted to students who are either eye impaired, hearing impaired, John, or who have come across a very high physical handicap during high school, but still do good achievement and have high character. So every club is different. Another good example is Malden. A lot of people will tell me, oh, I know people in the Malden club. I see the McCappies once a year holding their cans with the logo. That's called Pennies for Sight. Every penny in all those cans, and I have helped in the past, will go to Eyes for Sight at Mass Eye Research. We'll be on Mass Eye in a year, Mass Eye Research. So every club designates its own needs. Now, Belmont is a very largely enrolled club. They give close to $10,000 a year to BUI research and also a scholarship. So they're all on the same aim, but they're done different ways. OK. Yeah. We mostly give to Mass Eye Research, Tufts Eye Research, BUI Research, Jocelyn Diabetes, and now Juvenile Diabetes in disaster aid in scholarships.
[John Petrella]: Well, that's quite a bit. I mean, obviously, you do some fundraising, and it's all, it really is. It's all great causes. It's nice to have that. That's good to hear. I don't think a lot of people would even think that.
[Sharon Deyeso]: It was a learning experience for me, Joe. Being here was a learning experience. I'm finding out all the nooks and crannies that you and your fine staff do for a fine public service. And I think what I've learned, too, is many things happen. I was coaxed into being a member about 10 years ago. Two people I worked with at a local realtor's office because I was teaching at the college, so I had a day free. And I knew these people at Wilson Cutler and Epstein Food Brokerage, and I helped out on Fridays. And a couple of local well-known brokers, I won't mention their names because I didn't tell them about today, kept saying to me, you know, you get around and you enjoy being with people. You should be a lion. I'm like, a commitment, or how am I going to party with my friends, or how am I going to correct essays? So after the second year, I decided to go to an event, and I learned so much. First off, when I went, it was a comedy night. And famous John McGillivray, who did move to Chelmsford, and then Hampton, and then has since passed away, was a dynamic member of Lions. He was so happy to see me. And I'm like, John, I didn't know you were in this club. He said, sure. I think there must have been 100 people there that night, John. I think I knew 20 of them. And I said, OK, how much are the dues? very reasonable Jews in Medford, I'm going to join, thinking I could sit back and do this and that. We're not demanding. But I learned through the last three or four years the dynamism that goes around with international alliance. And I can let you know two or three headliners that almost brought tears to my eyes, if you will. In the 50s, a war veteran was meeting with his buddy, who was a lion. And he brought his grandchild with him, who was blind. And the lion said, gee, I didn't realize that you had a grandchild who was blind. He said, yes, he's been blind since after delivery, post-delivery. And he said, really? So we didn't have a lot of funding at that time and weren't well known. And shortly afterwards, another lion met with his friend, and his grandchild was blind. OK. And so he said, you know, I'm going to look into this. So he contacted doctors who were familiar with infant blindness. And they said, what's different? Well, they realized over doing research that lions paid for. Right. that four out of five of these blind babies during a period of about a decade were preemies. Wow. So what was going on from birth to incubator in environment in treatment? The variable was the amount of oxygen being pumped into the incubator. They lured it. There have been very, very, very few diseases now of that kind for infants. I think it's remarkable. Yeah, of course it is. And I was, oh, wow, no, I really want to go to this club.
[John Petrella]: That's what happens. I know a lot of people. They're hesitant to get involved with anything.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Yes.
[John Petrella]: But then once they do, they end up, it's shocking how many old friends, people you know. That's right. And they now become good friends. And the thing is, you're accomplishing a lot of good while you're a member of the club. Exactly. It just makes you feel good. Yeah.
[Sharon Deyeso]: And we have fun. Yeah, that's what it's all about. We really have fun along the journey. Coincidentally, since being in Medford now for a number of years, I had to make a phone call a couple of years ago because we learned that Lion's Research, again, paid for the research for the non-curable retinitis pigmentosus. and they still don't have a treatment for that. So someone said to me, you know, there's a man in New England, he may be from near the Medford area, who received funding to go to one of the first treatments with an insertion of a retinal chip. and the accommodation of fine-tuning lenses. Here's his number, etc. I said, you know, maybe we should have him as a guest speaker for local clubs. It doesn't have to be a fundraiser, but let's teach our fellow Lions and neighborhood clubs about this man, you know, would he come forward? Some people don't want to talk about it. Right. So I called one night and I introduced myself and just that. And she, I, before we hung up, I said, you know, it'd be very interesting. Let's meet before the dinner. And I'm so glad you're coming with your wife. He said, oh, no problem. I said, well, naturally, and I don't mean this as kind of a pun, I will pick you up unless your wife wants to meet me. And he said, no, you can come to the house. He lived two blocks from me. So he's a wonderful man. He's very active in Medford. Anthony, he went around, we mentioned his name, Dratola. He has benefited from not seeing fine details, but profiles. And he was a wonderful speaker. And we congratulate him for making that brave step in that big surgery.
[John Petrella]: Very good. Now that we got people interested, how do they join the Lions? Can you give us an address, an email? that you can share with the audience. Okay.
[Sharon Deyeso]: I always tell people, like I have it in students, you don't make a statement, you don't make a commitment, unless you know your facts. So if they go on to LCIF, all in caps, They will bring up one or two pages, even a menu bar, where they can learn about a club somewhere, they can learn about causes, they can learn about special events that have been done. We have even supported people who were running a wedding. very, very poor community in Uganda. So all that is on LCIF. If you want to go into www.lionsclub.org, you'll see a finer and smaller imprint of what's going on in different clubs. In contact information for maybe presidents of malls in Belmont or Auburn, we divide it into districts. Also, anyone who wants to can email me at sharondeso, all one word, s-h-a-r-o-n-d-e-y-e-s-o at yahoo.com. I'm not shy about giving out my cell phone because there's a lot of people whose computers break down, who are older, and they'd like to come to our events, 781-572-5130. We've also included seniors, John, in our big foster care night, which we just had in March. It was an outstanding success. We included 130 items to donate to Plummer House in Salem. They will be part of our turkey raffle. in the fall because we love the kids.
[John Petrella]: Great. All right. So is the Method Lions Club, what are you currently planning? Any events coming up? Projects in the work? What's going on in the coming months?
[Sharon Deyeso]: Well, we decided, and we're going to vote on this next meeting, We should consolidate the turkey raffle, which is quite popular, and the foster care night, because my theme in the fall, in November, is giving thanks. To count our blessings, bless our eyesight, and to consolidate the funding that evening. And of course, we'll put flyers again around the city. We're going to have a real membership collaboration effort this time to expose us. Because a lot of people still think the Lions is this real old club where you hold a can, see boxes that collect eyeglasses. Number one, answering your question, we still have a drop-off box in the former Brookline Beacon Bank now, right in Medford Square. If you turn right around when you come in in the lobby, you'll see an eyeglass drop-off box. There's also a very decorative bag in the main lobby of City Hall when you walk in. You can leave hearing devices there and also eyeglasses. We're no longer taking cases. OK. Sadly, in the US, even though these are processed and sterilized, these are given to foreign countries because the health department, and I'm going to write a letter also to Bobby Kennedy now, because up to this date, they can't reuse, reprocess anything near the eyes in Massachusetts ophthalmologist offices. But they all are good used. Right. Believe me. Yeah. I hear you.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. strange some of the rules.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Yes, yes, we'll get through it.
[John Petrella]: Yes, I know you will. All right, one of the programs I know a little bit about, not much, is the Leo program. You know, and that's all about how the Lions support local kids. Correct.
[Sharon Deyeso]: We're a small club. We did have 13 members. Right. We lost a couple. The wonderful president of Brookline Bank, Warren Ramirez, was a very dear lion of ours. Right. And I also brought Baby Leo Lion is Leonardo. He's our Leo mascot. We have a huge Leonardo that we bring to our events. We're going to approach the high school this year in junior highs to have students form a Leo club. We're not a demanding club. We'd like to be able to come up here and meet a very formidable capable maybe group of two or three Leo's. Swear them in. But don't forget they get fine letters of community service. Oh, yeah, that's right. At the end of the year. And we're going to be very proud to do that. Included in that will be the age group is usually 13 to 18. There is an older Leo club, John, that is 19 to 30. That's kind of faded because we try to recruit them into regular Lions because a lot of them have dynamic jobs. We have such a wonderful country with many avenues for youth. So we're hoping that this avenue to eyesight will attract young people for a good charity here. And that will also, there'll be the adverters for the Peace Poster Contest, and we have a ball with that. We leave that up to the art department, and now it will be Leo's. I think it's by October 1st, we have to have a theme that's given to us by LCIF worldwide, and the teachers and our club members will vote on the two or three best posters, and they will go on to national champions. Yeah, so it's nice. It's a nice.
[John Petrella]: They get cash rewards. Nice effort, yeah. Yeah. Very nice. All right. Lions Give Sight, when I was growing up, The Lions sponsored vision screenings, elementary schools. They did a lot of that. You psyched the kids? Yes. I mean, we got it every year at elementary school. They helped equip hospitals, I know, clinics. You know, and so much more. That was just a small part of it. But I do remember all that. I mean, everybody remember it that went to school back in those days. That's right. Is that still a big focus? Have you changed it?
[Sharon Deyeso]: Well, in the 70s. There was a lion who used to have a used furniture business. And when he was slowing down, like many of us, he gave his van to the lions and allowed, we have many residents from Mass Eye and Ear who volunteer their time, and also local ophthalmologists in different cities. Since then, we've spent millions on the iMobile. So there are probably some rural areas that would still love Lions to come in and do some volunteer testing in their communities, John. But this iMobile has to be now. You have to really reserve it weeks and months in advance. But they will go to a community, and they will give free eye testing at a certain point in time. It's very famous. people now who write to me and ask, we're residents at such and such hospital. I'm going to major in ophthalmology. Do you have work for me? And we honestly don't have an internship through member clubs. So I refer them to doctors in the community who I know. And hopefully Lions, every little bit helps that you can widen the scope of all these people who are doing different jobs. Yeah.
[John Petrella]: The van, I mean, to me, that's a great thing. It is. Would they come to any city?
[Sharon Deyeso]: Yes. Well, Medford had them maybe about five seasons ago. OK. And we had a very nice turnout. We also had the fire truck there that day to attract kids to come and do the ice cream. We haven't had iMobile in a while, because now we're down to about eight members. So to orchestrate the whole day and know that people are available to help. That's the thing. That's the thing. But we did have people from Malden, because we do help them, who came also. It also poured that day. So some people, yeah. Well, that's part of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so we're having also an auto show the same day. Right. And a lot of people came to see. And of course, once it started raining, those people take those high-end cars out of the lot. Right. And don't want it. They don't want them getting. So we have two events this year, Turkey Raffle and Foster Care. in November, usually two weeks before the holiday. And now we'll have our senior scholarship in May or June, depending on senior events. Our next event is this coming Monday. Coincidentally, I was thrilled, not only nervous and excited, but thrilled that I was being here today. That's Monday night. Right.
[John Petrella]: I was going to ask, didn't you just Maybe correct me if I'm wrong. Maybe it was a year ago, but I do remember. Didn't you just do a scholarship? Last year.
[Sharon Deyeso]: It's been a year already, John. A year. Wow. We only grant our scholarship to a high-achieving, high-character senior who has an eye impairment, like I said, or hearing. And that's done once a year? That's once a year. Wow. We went to award night. We were at award night two weeks ago. Rebecca Oliveira was the recipient. Wow. Yeah.
[John Petrella]: A year. It's already gone by.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Can you believe it? I know.
[John Petrella]: And the next one's coming up, I'm sorry, when? In November. Okay. Yeah, we take a break in the summer. Right. Well, I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. I mean, it sounds like, you know, Your group, and I know it's a lot of people, I realize that. And I know, as is a lot of other groups that we've had on the show, everyone's looking to get, I don't know, like more youth involved, I guess. Do you find you're having any Are you getting some younger people involved? Well, it works two-folds.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Most clubs, and I can even mention like Rotary and Kiwanis. Right, that's what I mean. The real backbones of most of these clubs were ages 35 to 60. People who came to the community and developed businesses or people who had children in school and wanted to become active and visible in the community. People through their parishes who wanted to get something extra than church. that they were in. Now they're so busy with extra academics, tutoring, music classes, soccer games, baseball games, that we lost a lot of people who did have interest, who came to one or two meetings. We even had a great ophthalmologist who helps us with things. He said, Sharon, I'm so busy right now, and I moved to New Hampshire. I can't come to the meetings, but I'm glad anyone you know or are associated with the Lions, I will gladly give a discount in my shop. So he's working with us that way. Some people have moved, some people don't drive at night anymore, and some people sadly have become ill or passed. So that's the hardest thing. So we thought maybe with a lot of academia returning, hopefully, to the USA and international studies, that we can come up a couple of us. Are you welcome to join us? Yes. I've been joining a lot of things since we started doing this show. I really have. And maybe Leo's could come and we could tell them you could be on the media air and speak to people about becoming part of this.
[John Petrella]: Yeah. No, it's just like I say, I know what you do. And, you know, I mean, they've been around, you know, for a long time. And we were kids. I mean, just go to school in Medford. They really did. They did some wonderful things.
[Sharon Deyeso]: No kidding. Things that I didn't even know about until I stopped going to meetings and really looking into school things. We have a very, very nice proud town, I feel, and I'm glad to still be helping one of the principals two days a week, right? That's great, yeah. Yeah, and like yourself, this is like giving to the community. I will add a point here that's talking about not youth, but getting youth involved, looking at the beautiful picture that we had of famous lions. Right. I did not know that until I started going to a couple of meetings. Going back to how to be a lion. Come to a meeting. You don't have to become a member. You may say, you know, I want to help with the turkey raffle. Can I make some raffle baskets? Could I bring my children that night? So to boast of Boston. Larry Bird was a lion. Larry Bird, he was a lion. Yep. Jimmy Carter was a lion. Helen Keller was a big proponent of lions. She dubbed us the Knights of the Blind. That's right. So these things, along with the man about maybe 30, 40 years ago, who finalized and got through Congress, White Cane Day. It was a lion who, a few years before that, was walking at night and saw a blind man trying to cross the street with a black cane. He ran across, helped the man, and went to his club and said, we have to do something about this. We need to support white canes. They got them foldable, and now we distribute the white canes. It's amazing what little things will do. The President of the United States thereafter and Congress passed White Candle.
[John Petrella]: Right, yeah, yeah. It's a lot. So we did that. Well, you do a lot of these things. That's what I... That you don't know about. No, right. It happens a lot. There's a lot of great things that get done, method, all over the place. Yeah. There's a lot of great clubs. Oh, they're wonderful. Yeah. I see these clubs. I see a lot of the people involved. They all do tremendous work. And it's nice to see. And you want to see, I mean, the Lions, for example, since 1917, and they're still going strong today. Yeah, 50,000 clubs now.
[Sharon Deyeso]: Right. I mean, that's great. Yeah. Now, MLER, after we were talking about referring to just a little while ago, nationally and internationally for eye research up to date, I think at the year end 2025. Don't quote me, but I think that's the right year. The tally now is if they look it up in LCI or LCIF, people are going to see all kinds of flashes and kudos and $1.3 billion. Right. That's incredible. So it is incredible. We're incy, but it makes me feel proud of a really meaningful big thing.
[John Petrella]: Very nice. Yeah. All right. Listen, we could go on forever. We're going to be wrapping up. But I have to ask you one question. I know you brought something, an invitation. Do you want to read that before we go off the air?
[Sharon Deyeso]: I'd love to do that. Yep. It was just really, really nice to see you in a different light here, John. Oh, thank you. It was great to have you on. Thank you. I want to thank Paul Geraghty, the staff here, the high school, and John Petrella for the fine work that they do in our community. This is a little incy part of it. It's not about me today, people. It's all about eyesight and other valuable parts that we use in our bodies that we try to help. It was great because I said, great timing, John. Monday evening, we're having our wonderful scholarship night. We usually have it earlier, folks, late May or early June. But there were so many events going on now in the high school that we had to time it June 15. Our recipient was Rebecca Oliveira, lovely girl. And you are all cordially invited to the Medford Lions Scholarship Night this coming Monday. We have a nice guest speaker. Actually, we're going to have two. We speak briefly because we're too busy trying to socialize and eat. We are proud to announce an award to a high-achieving, high-character senior who has an eye or hearing impairment or has encountered a sudden physical impairment in high school. June 15, Medford V.A.W. Thank you so much, Commander Steve McLaughlin. Great man. You have to meet him at one point. 6 to 8 p.m., we suggest a donation of $25. And again, anyone interested, come to one of our club meetings. The date will be announced eventually. You'll see the flyers. It's always the third or fourth Monday of the month at Avellinos. And you can RSVP me, Sharon Diesso, at Yahoo. All sized donations are acceptable. But we'd love you to come and be part of our crew.
[John Petrella]: Thank you so much. Sharon, thank you so much. Thank you, Paul. It is that time again. I want to thank Sharon for joining us. on Method Happenings. And Leopold. And Leopold, too. I'm sorry. I want to wish continued success for the Method chapter of the Lions International. They just do tremendous work for all of us. I also want to take a minute. I want to thank everyone who has been watching the show. And especially thank you for your feedback. And the other thing is, if you'd like to appear on the show, You can contact us, the show itself, at methodhappenings02155 at gmail.com. And you will be able to watch replays of this program on Method Community Media, Access Channel, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It's usually 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. please check out our website, MethodHappenings.com. And on that website, you can now either view or listen to the podcast of this program. So now you can listen to it and you can take it with you, actually. You can find all of our shows on YouTube. Just go to YouTube.com, search for Method Happenings, and please like and subscribe to our channel and videos. You can also find us on Facebook at Method Happenings. And we also now have our own subreddit, whatever that is, which you can find us so much. You can find us at reddit.com slash R slash Method Happenings. So for the Method Happenings team, Thank you, Sharon, and Paul, Marco, Bruce, and James, who do such incredible work. I'm John Petrella. And remember, Medford, stay informed. Thank you. Have a great night. Ta-da!
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