One of the on going projects, since the Charter, have been the scouting program. From the inception of the club there has been concern and purpose regarding the local youth. In the early Thirties the club made sure that there was a meeting place for the Boy Scouts. By the end of the 30's decade they decided to erect a structure (known as The Scout Cabin) for a permanent meeting place. The WPA provided most of the labor on the cabin. The cabin was built in 1938 for Troop 47 while under the leadership of Scoutmaster Edwin W. Bailey. In 1944 the troop number was changed to Troop 400 with W.E. Neikirk as Scoutmaster. The troop changed to the Baltimore Area Council from the York Adams Council due to the new camping facility for area scouting at the Broadcreek Camp. One of the Charter Members of our club was in the Maryland legislature and was instrumental in passing laws for the construction of Broadcreek. His name was Marshall T. Heaps. Parts of the camp were located on his property.
For all these years the Mason-Dixon Lions Club has been sponsoring Troop 400. When they need financial helps or help for maintaining the troops existence we have been there. Many fine men have had their start with Troop 400.
In 1995 the Boy Scout Troop 400 was having structural problems with their meeting place (The Scout Cabin). They had several plans of action for solving their dilemma. One was to put up a new building behind the existing cabin. For this they had already excavated the hill behind the cabin. Another plan was to repair the backside of the cabin for which they came to the Mason-Dixon Lions for assistance. As sponsoring organization, since the Lions Club sponsored them, $3000.00 was earmarked for repair of the rear of the cabin. Upon closer scrutiny it was discovered that the other three walls were in as desperate need, only they were larger and would cost more to put them in respectable order. It was soon discovered that the need of a committee for further research would be necessary. The committee was made up of lions and scouters alike. It took a lot of work and a lot of help from the community to put up a new cabin for the boys. The cost of the new cabin is hard to estimate but it is in the range of $80.000. Volunteers provided all the labor from the lions club, parents, scouters, men and women of the community and local business. In the early part of 1999 the new cabin was ready for the troop to hold their first meeting.
In the 40's and 50's There was great concern to erect a bridge accross the Susquehanna River. The Tucquan Lions Club join with Mason-Dixon Lions Club to lobby, in Harrisburg, for this project to become a reality. They wrote a song to promote interest and sold "Sympathetic Certificate's" costing $1.00 to fund the venture. The Gazette and Daily wrote an article in 1950 about the Bridge Project which explains most of it.
Article
State check finds new bridge over Susquehanna due.
Lions Club representative says survey conducted by Highway Department shows volume of traffic would merit southern inter-county bridge.
A new bridge over the Susquehanna River linking southern York County and Lancaster County, discussed since 1934, came closer to realization with the annouuncement yesterday that the State Department of Highways has reported that volume of traffic would merit such a bridge.
The announcement was made by Samuel M. Fife, Airville, co-chairman of the inter-county Lions Club Bridge Committee which has been fostering the building of a bridge.
He said this favorable report from the state, awaited since a traffic survey was conducted almost a year ago, was submitted to the bridge committee at a meeting Tuesday at Airville Hall.
The committee, composed of members of the Mason-Dixon Lions Club of Delta and the Tucquan Lions Club of Pequea, Lancaster County, decided to arrange meetings sometime this month with commissioners of York and Lancaster Counties to discuss the proposed bridge.
Last July the State Highway Department made origin-destination counts on Lincoln Highway at the Columbia-Wrightsville.
The only way to cross the river by bridge south of Wrightsville is 40 miles away at Conowingo.
Former board approved span:
In 1945 the then Board of York County Commissioners, Walter L. Trout, Howard E. Eyster and James McDowell, voiced definite approval of the proposal that a bridge be built to span the Susquehanna from the Airville section of York to Holtwood.
However, early in 1949 York and Lancaster County Commissioners, meeting in Lancaster, declared that "Someone has to convince us that we should be justified in going into a proposition of this kind."
While favoring the construction of a bridge, the commissioners felt that a more or less localized group was asking for the bridge and doubted that the electors of both counties would approve a large loan for construction of the bridge.
Those who attended the meeting Tuesday in Airville were co-chairman Arthur Grove, E.T. Scheleen, Edward Shaffer and Leroy Hilton, of the Tucquan Club, and Emory Kilgore, William R. Brown, Arthur Robinson, Dale Kilgore, J.H. Grothe and Fife, of the Mason-Dixon Club.