History:

The Sydney Lions Club was formed in December 1952. It was the first Lions Club established in Sydney and the twelfth in Australia. The Charter Night was held at Windsor Gardens, Chatswood on 6 March 1953 with 30 charter members and 150 people present. Charles Copeland was the first President; assisted by Bill Berge Phillips; Ken Watson and Terry Fairbairn.The club formed a Ladies Auxiliary with Mrs. Copeland as President and Mrs. Berge Phillips as Secretary.In the 1950s, the Lions Club of Sydney raised funds for polio victims and for orphans, both causes which (thanks to science and education) are little needed today.Other beneficiaries of the Club's efforts over the years include the Royal Blind Society, Legacy, Sydney Hospital, and Sydney Eye Hospital, Diabetes Australia and Asthma NSW.Our current projects support children and youth through assistance to disadvantaged schools and other worthy causes such as the Emergency Department of Sydney Hospital and Sydney Eye Hospital

Lions Code of Ethics:

• To show my faith in the worthiness of my vocation by industrious application to the end that I may merit a reputation for quality of service.
• To seek success and to demand all fair remuneration or profit as my just due, but to accept no profit or success at the price of my own self-respect lost because of unfair advantage taken or because of questionable acts on my part.
• To remember that in building up my business it is not necessary to tear down another's; to be loyal to my clients or customers and true to myself.
• Whenever a doubt arises as to the right or ethics of my position or action towards others, to resolve such doubt against myself.
• To hold friendship as an end and not a means. To hold that true friendship exists not on account of the service performed by one to another, but that true friendship demands nothing but accepts service in the spirit in which it is given.
• Always to bear in mind my obligations as a citizen to my nation, my state and my community, and to give to them my unswerving loyalty in word, act and deed.To give them freely of my time, labor and means.
• To aid others by giving my sympathy to those in distress, my aid to the weak, and my substance to the needy.
• To be careful with my criticism and liberal with my praise; to build up and not destroy.

Lions International Purposes:

• To organise, charter and supervise service clubs to be known as Lions Clubs.
• To coordinate the activities and standardise the administration of Lions Clubs.
• To create and foster a spirit of understanding among the peoples of the world.
• To promote the principles of good government and good citizenship.
• To take an active interest in the civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community.
• To unite the clubs in the bonds of friendship, good fellowship and mutual understanding.
• To provide a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided, however, that partisan politics ans sectarian religion shall not be debated by club members.
• To encourage service-minded people to serve their community without personal financial reward and to encourage efficiency and promote high ethical standards in commerce, industry, professions, public works and private endeavours.