The Cedar City Lions Club was chartered on December 22, 1930 — five years after the Cedar City Rotary Club and deep in the era when Iron County's economy ran on mining, ranching, and the first stirrings of what would become the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Lions International's model is service through civic events, and Cedar City Lions has run that model for more than ninety years without interruption.
The Annual Calendar
Three events define Cedar City Lions' community presence in Iron County. The Kite Flight for Reading and Sight runs literacy programming alongside the Lions' international focus on vision care — the dual emphasis puts books and eye exams on the same event calendar, which is a signature Lions combination. The Great American Stampede Rodeo is the club's largest annual fundraiser, a Western Utah staple that draws both locals and regional visitors. The Cedar City Independence Day Parade is one of the most attended summer events in the county; the Lions run the organizing logistics.
The Vision Care Thread
Lions International built its international identity on vision care, and Cedar City Lions carries that local. The club provides eyeglasses for low-income residents in Iron County — a service that sounds modest until you consider that rural Southern Utah has limited optometry access, and the price of corrective lenses can be prohibitive for working families. Scholarship programs for youth leadership and holiday food drives round out the service calendar.
Cedar City Lions in the 435
For a register of locally rooted Southern Utah organizations, the Cedar City Lions Club is the community-service anchor of the Iron County civic calendar — a ninety-plus-year club with a rodeo, a kite festival, and a parade at the center of its annual identity.