Alpharetta Lions Turn to Hip Hop to Focus on Yellow Vest

When I think of the Lions Club, hip hop is not what I picture. Maybe I should, though. The Alpharetta Lions Club reports its members recently came together to create a humorous hip hop video on YouTube where the lyrics focus on what wearing the yellow Lions Club vest means to the community.

The entire video is linked to the club's website and includes rhymes like this:

“You know I dress to impress, fly as I can be;

Wear my yellow vest wheneva' doin' good deeds;

I might kick it in the park, bent ova' plantin' trees;

Or go collectin' eyeglasses to help the kiddies see.”

Uncharacteristic of Lions to say the least, this enthusiasm is flowing into the Alpharetta Club’s latest effort, a Wine Taste Gala and auction for sight conservation charities including the Georgia Lions Lighthouse, which served 7,500 uninsured and low-income Georgians in 2010. Lighthouse services include:  full eye exams, eyeglasses, eye surgeries, digital hearing aids, and vision and hearing screenings.

“We wanted to let our hair down and step it up a bit to create a truly top notch and enjoyable evening,” says Jason Blalock, Alpharetta Lions Club president.  “The Rockin’ the Vest rap on YouTube correctly emphasizes that ‘volunteering is our game.’  At the same time, we are committed to raise charitable funds and the YouTube video spirit and our Wine Taste Gala is just the thing to get things Rockin’ in Alpharetta.”  

• Gala date: Oct. 24, 6-10 p.m.
• Location: Dal Coure restaurant, Alpharetta
• Meal: 5-course Italian meal with wine pairings
• Tickets: $50
• Contact: Bill Staley, 404-290-4414
• Auction: Prizes ranging from value from $10 to a $4000 trip to Napa Valley.

“It will be an evening long remembered and most rewarding for our sight conservation mission.  We are looking forward to Rockin’ the Vest with our community, friends and neighbors so others may have the gift of sight.”

More than 50 years ago in the fall of 1953, a few Alpharetta citizens began the grassroots effort to form this chapter of the Lions Club.