In 1998, two friends, the businessman Luis Fernández Álvarez and the notary Ángel Luis Torres Serrano, met as members of a branch club of the Service Organization Rotary Club, founded in 1905 in Chicago, USA. For several years they actively collaborated as members of this entity in favour of their community established in the city of Gijón (Principality of Asturias, Spain).
At the end of 2002, they considered that their expectations of service are not fulfilled in this institution, and they left it having in mind one day to retake their ideal of collaboration and help to the community through another structure. Without knowing it, at that moment they began to give form to a new group that two years later would begin to lay the foundations of a new club of service, where they are able to develop all its potential and to give entrance to new friends and companions who share its intention.
For that reason they create a group to which they join, among other companions, Carmen María de Gaínza, Francisco Javier Rúa, Javier Mario de la Riera, Marisa García, Francisco Mayo, Miguel Morán, Alex García-Rendueles, Alfonso Rimada, Luis Castañón, Félix Quintana or Gustavo Blanco, among others; and between all of them, they decide to constitute themselves in Association and form a club attached to another international organization, the Lions Clubs, founded in 1917 in Chicago, USA.
On April 16, 2005 at 9:00 p.m hours they received their charter, milestone framed in a charity dinner held at the Marieva Palace Restaurant, with the aim of joining efforts for two humanitarian projects in which the club was immersed, “A City for All” (an entity linked to the social and labor insertion of people with disabilities in the environment of Gijón and its surroundings), and the construction of a small neighborhood of houses for people who had been left with nothing after the tsunami that devastated Sri Lanka, the “Neighborhood of Gijón”.
The following year, the Lions Club Gijón Foundation was created. On May 20, 2006 this association celebrates a new charity dinner with the intention of raising funds for the humanitarian project “Los niños del Hogar de San José de Gijón”. In addition, a campaign is being promoted to collect used glasses that are in perfect condition and can be recycled, obtaining more than 2,500 pairs of glasses that were delivered to the international organization Messengers of Peace, also of Asturian origin and founded by Father Angel.
Only a year later, the club faced a very important appointment with the city of Gijón and with all Asturias, raising all kinds of aid and efforts for a charity gala so as to get resources for “The House of Life”, then called “Bruno Salvadori Lions Foundation”, which owes its name to the International President of the International Association of Senology, Professor D. Bruno Salvadori of Milan, father of breast conserving surgery. Nowadays, this organization is sponsored by the Synergy Clubs International Foundation and chaired by a club member, Carmen María de GaÍnza, assisted by Áurea Fernández.
For the next few years:
– The second mass collection of used glasses to collaborate with Messengers of Peace is promoted.
– The city of Gijón is presented to the Sri Lanka neighborhood of the same name, which features with their 16 houses and the families that inhabit them.
– The “Bruno Salvadori Lions Foundation” is supported in the realization, for the first time in Spain, of a specialized coaching program for women and relatives of people affected by breast cancer.
– A major effort is being made to disseminate a new solidarity campaign against breast cancer in Asturias and Spain. For a week a bus toured the city of Gijón with a group of women from the foundation, distributing thousands of leaflets to promote breast self-exploration. The initiative was an absolute success.
-The mayor of Gijón, Paz Fernández Felgueroso, inaugurates the installations of a new Foundation formed in Asturias with those who are responsible for it.
– On Sunday 19 October 2008, International Breast Cancer Day, the Jovellanos’theatre in Gijón will release the premiere of a solidarity musical that is unique in Asturias and Spain. The act had a great repercussion and the theatre was filled up.
– The club is dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of an extensive program of activities to fight against breast cancer in Asturias, collaborating with the National Congress against cancer held in the enclosure of the International Trade Fair of Asturias on 15, 16 and 17 October. In parallel to this, the Foundation presents the Gijón Manifesto which reaches all corners of the country and with several work sessions dedicated to the women. Public reading of the document counts on the participation of all the promoters of this initiative that is unique in Spain in the context of a medical congress of these characteristics.
– 20,000 dollars are provided for the construction of a community center called “City of Gijón” in Hambamtota, Sri Lanka, which complements the “Gijón Neighbourhood” project.
– Homeless people of Gijón are supported through Diocesan Caritas.
-We work in collaboration with the International Society of Senology and Pathology, creating a specialized unit in mammary pathology in a depressed area of Guatemala.
– We are working on the opening of a third similar club in Asturias.
– The album of the international artist Encarna Salazar, member of the Spanish group Azúcar Moreno, is presented in Gijón in support of “The House of Life” and its fight against breast cancer.
– Luis Fernández Álvarez, Founding President of Lions Club Gijón Foundation, is elected national president of Lions Spain Foundation, and his achievements in the Principality of Asturias are recognized by all his colleagues in the national network of clubs.
– Caritas Gijón was given 47 computers to use in Diocesan Caritas centers, more than 1000 toys for the most underprivileged children, and a minivan for the Caritas La Santina Center.
-A collection of funds is initiated to send aid to Haiti with adequate infrastructure in the Dominican Republic.
– It is supported a dental aid quantified in more than 500 hours of work, for more than 700 people, most of them children without resources, in Cameroon.
-The special mention and recognition “Melvin Jones Friend” is presented to Her Royal Highness Princess Letizia, the current Queen of Spain, for her commitment to humanitarian service.
-The 2008 Society Award was received from the Spanish Society of Senology and Breast Pathology within the framework of its XXVII Congress.
– Recognition to the work of the Lions Club of Gijón by the “Agrupación de Hostelería” of the city.
-It is estimated that more than 360,000 euros in aid were raised during this period.
In 2010, the presidency of the Lions Club Gijón becomes held by the companion and member of the club Tasio del Reguero, who manages it with success and efficiency, uniting all the companions in bonds of friendship and camaraderie, strengthening and promoting innumerable humanitarian and cultural projects, and consolidating the help of the club to the “House of life”. In this new stage the club continued developing new projects and activities:
-The National Solidarity and Sports Open Lions Club Gijón was held at the Asturian Centre.
-The special mention and recognition “Melvin Jones Friend” is presented to Father Angel for his commitment to humanitarian service.
-II SOLIDARY MUSICAL CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL was held at “Los Fresnos” shopping center.
-I Solidary Lyric Gala was held, with the support of “The House of Life”, “No Child without Dinner” and “International Opera Studio (IOS)” (which works with young international promises of bel canto and the world opera scene) to generate synergies in the fight against breast cancer and child malnutrition.
– The “I National Congress on Justice, Health and Communication” is organized at the Gijón Conference Center. Sponsored by “Lions Club Gijón Foundation”, “Forum of Magistrates”, “Judges Francisco de Vitoria”, and the “Independent judicial forum”. Gathering numerous Magistrates of the Spanish Supreme Court, several Members of the General Council of the Judiciary, several presidents of different medical fields, both national and international, and important national journalists. Apart from that, the Association of Bruno Salvadori Lions Foundation, organizes the first fashion show with women with breast cancer, in favor of the activities of “The House of Life“.
– Donations were made to Jove’s Research Unit to continue working on uterine stem cell treatments.
– Cooperation with the International Opera Studio through patronage.
-Support continued for the pageants held by the women of “The House life”.
– The “Peace Poster Prize” was awarded to 350,000 children from all over the world. Winner takes a trip to UN headquarters in New York.
– A vehicle was donated to “The House of Life”.
In a parallel plane to the Lions Club Gijón, the companion and member of the club Doña Carmen ,María de Gaínza García consolidated “La Casa de la Vida” (The House of Life). Under his guidance, several activities and events were carried out with the aim of helping the patient to fight against this illness both physically and psychologically. The results obtained have shown a real success, an association referring to national and international level, that collaborates with multiple medical organizations and with several hundred women that attest to their excellent work, the help that provides, and the great social work that develops. “La Casa de la Vida” has generated a new concept of volunteering in the face of such a widespread and complicated problem as breast cancer.
Today, in 2019, the Lions Club Gijón Foundation, with the list of experiences cited behind it, but as nonconformist as in its beginnings, in the defense of its fundamental and constitutional rights and values, and with its firm commitment to service, has decided that it is necessary to make a new turn and open a new stage in its development, to be able to advance, generate new projects, continue with the old ones to increase its work. That’s why Lions Clubs Gijón Foundation has evolved into Synergy Clubs International.
