Immigrant Twist on an American Tradition

In historic downtown Gaithersburg last weekend, members of the venerable Lions Club, in bright yellow aprons, offered up free vision screening and popcorn fresh from an old-fashioned machine.

Just one thing was out of synch with this scene of 1950s Americana: The Lions were all Latino.

As a large immigrant middle class emerges in the United States, its members are joining mainstream civic groups, which until recent years had nearly all-white rosters. Across the nation, Latinos and Asian Americans are being courted by the 88-year-old Lions organization and other civic clubs. The Montgomery County Latino Lions is one of four clubs in the Washington region with predominantly immigrant membership.

Ernesto Diaz of Rockville considers being a civic volunteer a sign that he has made it in this country.

"When you come to the States, you come with the mentality of making money and succeeding. You don't think about society," said Diaz, 55, once a waiter and now director of logistics for Balducci's, a gourmet food chain. "After you are here for years, you start to think about those things."

The immigrants, in turn, may be key to the service clubs' future.

The Lions organization has lost 80,000 members in the United States in the past decade, bringing total membership down to 420,000. Nationally, fewer than 10 percent of Lions clubs are predominantly immigrants, but their groups are among the newest. Members of the ethnic Lions clubs also tend to be younger than their counterparts: under 60.

"We need them," said Edward "Woody" Woodward, 70, governor of the Lions' Northern Virginia district. "Us old folks are going to be passing on."

Once a staple of white, middle-class life, civic groups such as the Lions, Kiwanis and Rotary have become better known as home of the ROMEO -- Really Old Men Eating Out. The average age, some members joke, is deceased.

As people have become more pressed for time, fewer can make a commitment to a monthly civic group meeting. A far wider array of social and professional groups has become available. Membership in Lions or Rotary clubs is no longer needed to burnish a résumé or forge business connections.

Many immigrants have a different view. In their home countries, groups such as the Lions and Rotary -- which have international chapters -- are still a symbol of middle-class society.

"I never thought I would be a Lion again," said Diaz, who is now the Latino club's president, or "King Lion."