> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Roar of approval for a service organization
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/roar-of-approval-for-a-service-organization/
- Published: 2006-04-03T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:29:02.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By MY WRITE BY BILL BAUER*

There are plenty of service organizations in Santa Monica that do a lot of good but you rarely hear much about them. Rotary, Kiwanis, Elks, JayCees and Masons all contribute immeasurably to making this a better community.

The Santa Monica Lions Club has been around for 84 years and is part of a large international organization with 45,300 chapters in 197 countries.

The Santa Monica Lions routinely support local nonprofits such as the Salvation Army, Police Activities League, Boys and Girls Club and the Santa Monica Family YMCA, to name a few. The club is especially active with charities that work with the blind and partially sighted such as the Foundation for the Junior Blind, Braille Institute, Southern California Lions Eye Institute and the Center for Partially Sighted.

Money for their philanthropic activity comes from member contributions and fundraising events such as the annual Lions Club pancake breakfast.

The Santa Monica Lions recently initiated an “Adopt a Solider” program. Lions President Mike Cveyich and fellow Lions wanted to honor Major Ricardo “Rick” Crocker, a Santa Monica Police officer and Marine Reservist killed in Iraq last year.

So, they adopted Nicholas Bascue, a 20-year-old Santa Monica native, former Eagle Scout and Concord High School graduate. Nick is in year three of a six-year tour of duty as a Navy Seabee. His unit just returned from Fallujah and Ramadi in northwestern Iraq and he’s based at Port Hueneme in Ventura — hopefully — for the next 10 months.

The Lions’ “Adopt a Soldier” program sends care-type packages to military people deployed overseas. Lions members box up a wide range of items including snacks, candy and special requests such as “anything with caffeine” including hi-energy bars or Red Bull energy drink to “keep us awake and alert,” Bascue said. “They have this stuff at the big bases, but it’s hard to get when you’re out at some remote outpost. It’s a little reminder of what home is like — real food instead of military MREs.”

Nick also requested AT&T phone cards for calling home, according to his mother Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor.

“We communicated via e-mail and instant messenger when possible,” he said, “usually in the predawn hours after we returned from assignment and before sleeping — the best time to get on a computer.”

The Lions prepared six packages in all and shipped three of them. “We’d ship one package,” said Cveyich, “and wait until Nick confirmed he had received it. Then, we’d ship another.”

A third box is still making its way through the postal system. With Nick back in the U.S., he asked that the three unshipped packages be sent to Seabees still in Iraq.

Bascue was honored at the weekly Lions Club luncheon this past Thursday. He’s a polite and soft-spoken young man who was reluctant to talk about specific wartime experiences. He disclosed that his unit was responsible for building roads and did convoy security as well as provide back-up support for the Marines.

Nick had mixed feelings about his time in Iraq and felt that he and his fellow Seabees “had done something good.” He said that although some Iraqis appreciated their work, some threw stones at them. He also added, “You can’t trust anybody over there.”

What in Bascue’s future? Finish his military obligation which might include assignment in Japan. Then he’s planning on college, a career, to come back to Santa Monica and join the Lions Club.

It doesn’t take much to do good for your fellow man. Just sending something comforting and familiar to a soldier risking his life in a remote, hostile land brings much joy and happiness.

My hat is off — way off — to the good members of the Santa Monica Lions for their humanitarian work.

It’s good to know we still have local heroes: Nick Bascue and the Santa Monica Lions. (Bill Bauer is a freelance writer.)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/040306-10_01.jpg)

to the Daily Press Navy Seabee Nick Bascue receives congratulations from Lion’s Club President Mike Cveyich. (Photo: Bruce Gelvin/Special)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 3, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/040306.pdf?ref=smdp.com)