By Brandon HENSLEY

The Crescenta-Cañada Lions Club will host an open house on April 17 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the club’s meeting place at CitiBank on Honolulu Avenue.

Art Rinaman, club president, said he simply wants people to know the Lions Club exists and that it is active in the community.

“The main goal of the open house is to have people come out and find out about our club to help the local community and internationally, too,” said Rinaman.

The Crescenta-Cañada Lions Club participates in supporting various causes throughout the foothills, including being a part of Kases for Kids, an effort that collects backpacks and luggage for kids entering foster care.

The club has been around since 1947, but Rinaman said recently the club has declined in membership numbers. Whereas the club has had around 40 members in the past, Rinaman said today there are just nine.

Rinaman has been a member for eight years, and this is the first open house he can recall the club holding. He said it has been thinking about having one since last year.

“The simple answer is the more people we have the more things that we can do,” he said.

For instance, the more fundraisers the club can hold means the more money it can give to organizations like Crescenta Valley High School’s Prom Plus or the Fire House youth center.

Guest speakers at the open house will include Mary O’Keefe from the Fire House and Cooper Iven, a CVHS senior and president of the CV Youth Town Council, who will talk about the skate park that is planned to be built in Crescenta Valley Park.

“I’m hoping for a lot of people,” Rinaman said. “That’d be nice. But you throw a party and wonder if anyone is going to show up.”

The club meets the first and third Wednesdays of each month in the conference room at CitiBank, 2350 Honolulu Ave., Montrose.

  Brandon Hensley