It’s celebration time for an organization that has been in many Maritime communities for 100 years.

Lions Clubs started in Chicago, then caught on in Windsor, Ont. Today, there are about 46,000 local clubs around the world, and 1.4 million members.

“To say that Lions Clubs have continued to serve without interruption for 100 years, speaks to the strength to volunteer activity here in our communities and around the world,” says past international director Patti Hill.

Over the weekend, 200 members from Atlantic Canada and Maine are gathering to celebrate how far they’ve come.

“We're going to have a big birthday party, because that's what it's really all about. Celebrating the first 100 years, but celebrating what could happen in the next 100 years as we look forward,” says current international director Rod Wright.

With the group making sure it can continue for another century, members plan to support even more causes.

“The first 100 years, sight was our biggest portion that we were looking at, and still is and always will be,” says district governor Brennan Beaumont. “But our next century is going to change, and we're going to start looking into juvenile diabetes, and it will be interesting.”

Many have been members for decades, but Kim Stewart is a new member and says she doesn't feel Lions Clubs are going anywhere.

“I see Lions as having a really great resurgence among my generation now,” says Stewart.

Patti Hill, who travelled to Fredericton from Edmonton as part of the festivities, says many people don't realize the impact Lions Clubs have in their community.

“Imagine for one moment, everything that would disappear from their community if there were not a Lions Club,” says Hill. “No support for youth programs, lack of response for vision needs, all those things that would change in a community if the Lions Club were not there.”

The convention in Fredericton ends on Sunday. The international Lions Club convention is being held in Chicago at the end of June, where it all began.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.