Mystic — To celebrate the 65th anniversary of its incorporation, the Mystic Lions Club announced last week that it was donating $65,000 to a wide range of community organizations and charities that help the blind.

The awards were announced last Thursday during the club’s "Night of Giving” celebration dinner at the Mystic Hilton.

For the past 65 years, the club has donated an average of $20,000 annually using proceeds from its numerous fundraisers that range from hot dog and pancake sales to wine and beer tastings and silent auctions and raffles.

“The Mystic Lions serve our communities, our nation and the people of the world. We are thrilled to donate $65,000 in honor of our 65th year of service to the greater Mystic community. As one of 46,000 clubs and 1.4+ million members, we are part of the world’s largest service club organization, our members do whatever is needed to help people. We serve the visually impaired and blind, the poor who need eyeglasses, neighbors who don’t have enough to eat and children with disabilities. And honestly, we have fun doing it all,” said club President Joe Gush.

He added in his remarks to the crowd at the celebration dinner, that “Lions are friends, family and neighbors who share a core belief: community is what we make it. Our motto is: “We Serve.”

The two largest grants of $13,250 each from the Lions Community Fund went to the Groton Social Services Food Bank and the Pawcatuck Neighborhood Center.

Other grants were $7,000 to the Riverfront Children’s Center, $3,000 to Camp Rising Sun, $2,000 to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, $2,000 to Sofia Sees Hope - Retinal Research Fund, $1,000 to Connecticut Radio for the Blind, $3,500 to Lions Diabetes Fund, $2,500 to Southeastern CT Lighthouse Community Center for the Blind, $2,000 to Connecticut Lions Eye Research Center at Yale, $2,000 to Lions Low Vision Center of Eastern Connecticut, $1,500 to the Lions International Disaster Relief Fund, $750 to the Lions Hearing and Speech Center, $1,000 to the Stonington Human Services Emergency Fund, $1,000 to the Mystic & Noank Library, $250 to the Stonington Free Library, $1,000 to the Groton Public Library, $1,000 to the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs, $500 to the Coogan Farm Nature and Heritage Center, $500 to the Noank Community Band, $300 to the Mystic Little League and $5,000 to the Mystic Lions Emergency Fund.