A family that serves
Generations of Carrs in the giving business
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The motto of the Lions Club is simply, “We serve,” and the Carr family has given more than a decade of service to community needs related to sight, hearing, diabetes and youth — the philanthropies of the club.
The Carrs say they do this because it’s the right thing to do and also because it’s fun and rewarding.
David R. Carr Sr. is 81 and has been a member for 55 years. His father was president of the Saratoga Springs Lions Club in 1942, setting a family tradition of involvement: Carr became president in 1966 and his son, David R. Carr Jr., has been a Lion for 25 years. Carr Sr. owned stores on Broadway, but his volunteer work with the Lions was almost a second job.
“I was always interested in sight issues,” Carr said. “I had a friend who could hardly see the ground he walked on.”
As founding secretary of the Albany Lion’s Eye Institute, Carr was instrumental in the creation of one of eight such establishments in the United States. The founders asked for donations even before they had plans for the building, he said.
In one year, the institute sees 35,000 people, 5,000 of whom are children, he said. The club pays for eye exams, glasses and medication for adults and youth who cannot afford them. Each year, the club collects and recycles thousands of pairs of used eyeglasses that improve sight for impoverished people around the world.
“We do a lot of good, but we don’t blow our own horn,” Carr said. “The reward is satisfaction in the work you’ve done.”
He once helped another Lion move a blind woman into a new apartment.
At the end of the day, she said, “I’m so tired,” and the Lion just picked her up and put her in her bed, covering her with a blanket. “God bless you,” she said.
Besides work with the club, Carr also has been involved with the YMCA, United Way, Downtown Business Association and Chamber of Commerce and he is past president of the Saratoga Springs City School District Board of Education.
“If it happened, I was probably involved in it,” he said.
For all this, the Lions Club honored him in 1992 with the Melvin Jones Award, named for the organization’s founder and given to the member who most exemplifies Jones’ personal code of, “You can’t get very far until you start doing something for somebody else.”
Carr Jr., 52, who served as club president in 1996, won the Melvin Jones award this year.
“The Lions Club is like a family business for us,” Carr Jr. said. “I’ve been involved my whole life.”
Carr Jr. is an L.A. Group associate principal, and his Lions work includes cochairing the Duathlon fundraiser, a run-bike-run to be held Sunday, May 26. He is president of the Saratoga Springs Soccer Club and on the St. Clement’s Building and Grounds Committee. He and his family have volunteered as bell- ringers for the Salvation Army.
“All community involvement is important to the award,” Carr Jr. said. “I feel gratified. It was unexpected — there are a lot of people here who deserve it.”
Club President Bill Gibeault said the Carrs are at every event, doing good for all the right reasons.
“They serve others selflessly, and they have fun doing it, too,” Gibeault said.