On the lookout for local lions,
and a tireless booster moves on

If you travel to +42 degrees, 23.216 and -082 degrees, 53.863, you’ll find a couple of statuary lions. In fact they are the lions flanking the entrance to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. They recently joined hundreds of other lion statues featured on Waymarking.com.

If you take a picture of yourself with the Alger House lions, you can post it on the site, which is devoted to noting points of interest, historical and otherwise, around the globe. One category is lions, 614 of them scattered across 25 pages. The Alger House lions made the list Jan. 28.

You have to wonder who collects this stuff, organizes and posts it with pictures on websites. Other lions that have made the list include a lion drinking fountain in Lufkin, Texas, the Mitty Monarch in front of Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., and a couple of lions in front of a fire station in San Jose, Costa Rica. Oh, and a pair of Lions Club lions at Joe Adamo Memorial Park in South Porcupine, Ontario.

There are also four lions noted at Scott Fountain on Belle Isle, a lion statue at the McMath-Hulbert Solar Observatory in Oakland County and the Lions of Quonset, whatever that is, in Holly.

The Lions notable by their absence are the Detroit Lions, but perhaps that was deliberate.

Bumper stickers

Grosse Pointe retired attorney Hudson Mead offers a play on the “Honk if you love Jesus” bumper stickers. He says they should read: “Honk if you love Jesus. Text if you’d like to meet him.”

Community Service

Perhaps overshadowed in the feel-good atmosphere on the Fourth Annual Pointer of Distinction Awards was the recognition that Chamber President Mary Huebner – who with Jane Lightfoot founded the organization five years ago – was stepping down as president.

Huebner deserves a community service award for her yeoman work in organizing and developing the organization to sell the strengths of the Grosse Pointes and their businesses. In five years the Chamber has grown to 390 members and regularly schedules events to promote all the Pointes, and to encourage local businesses to do business with each other.

Her work has provided our communities with a huge asset in these tough economic times.

Lightfoot, co-executive director at the beginning, later moved on to other activities. She told reporter Bob St. John when the group was organized: "The five Grosse Pointes have so much to offer people. The Grosse Pointe Chamber of Commerce will be aimed at helping couples see just how much of a benefit it is to their lives if they move here and how businesses can come here and grow."

"We have a little bit of everything in the Pointes," Huebner told St. John back then. "It is a shame people have to leave the Pointes in order to shop, and we want those people and all of our Grosse Pointe residents to stay home and get their shopping done. We will help promote that."

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