May 2024

Local entrepreneur and restaurant owner Shane Jackson, along with five others, plans to form a chapter of the international non-profit service organization Lion’s Club International in Trinidad to support communities that need assistance.    The small group will host a membership drive at Tequila’s Family Mexican Restaurant on June 3 to offer information to people interested and hopefully increase membership, as they plan to start the beginning stages of making their dream a reality.  “I think Trinidad needs help,” Jackson told The Chronicle-News while referring to a growing population of local unhoused or homeless people, prominent drug addiction, and the need to bring support to disadvantaged youth.  “I think one the best ways to do it (to help those groups) is to bring a service-minded organization to town that already has all the blueprints, the background, the insurance, the 501c3s, all the required federal paperwork already in place to bring Trinidad some good, with like-minded and like-hearted individuals, who want to help the community.”  Established in 1917, Lions Clubs International has existed for over a hundred years and claims to be one of the largest service organizations on earth, serving over 200 countries and containing more than 1.4 million members (more than the entire population of Colorado Springs and Denver combined).   In a press release, Lions International invited people to join the formation of the Trinidad chapter.