To unite its members in friendship, fellowship and mutual understanding. The first Leo Club was founded in 1957 by Jim Graver, the coach of the Abington High School, Pennsylvania baseball team. He was an active member of the Glenside Lions Club. The club was founded with the help of William Ernst, another local Lion. It adopted the high school's colors of maroon and gold. The club also created the
acronym Leadership, Equality, Opportunity for the word Leo. The word equality was later changed to experience. In 1964 the Leo Club program became a sponsored program of the Lions district. It grew beyond Pennsylvania and the United States of America. By 1967 the program had grown to over 200 clubs in 18 countries and become an official youth program of Lions International. In the following year, the Leo program spread rapidly, more than quadrupling in size, to 918 clubs in 48 countries by the end of 1968.
