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Morristown Magazine 13 The Morristown-Hamblen Lions Club is one of those great organizations who truly make a difference in their community out of hibernation in a Frank Lorino Park barn stall and will be completely renovated for eventual use at Frank Lo- rino Park. “One of the past presidents said that they were the ones that bought ‘Fred’ for Fred Miller Park and ‘Frank’ for Frank Lorino Park,” Morristown-Hamblen Lions Club President Johnny Denton said. “We didn’t know that whenever we talked about restoring Frank. We found out later. We notified Roger Green and all of them. We emailed them, so that way they’re included with it.” Morristown-Hamblen Lions Club is taking “Frank” to Josh Porter, owner of Avalon Sculpture of Merrifield, Minne- sota, to be completely renovated from top to bottom. Porter began working on lion’s club water fountains, including the original one from the Brainerd La- kes Lions Club in Minnesota. “I was reading about Porter who builds the fountains,” Denton said. “It looked like he restores them, too.” Porter has produced 60 Lions fountains for clubs from as far away as Texas. “When we found out who actually bought Frank, Lisa (Grooms) contacted the Cherokee Lions Club and they were cool with it,” Denton said. Like his brother, Frank will be sand- blasted, gel coated and painted back to its original colors, Denton said. Considering “Frank” has been in sto- rage, the lion is in relatively good shape, save a crack on its backside that will be fixed in Minnesota. “That’s history,” Denton said of the Lion, not the crack. “If our forefather lions thought it was a good idea to pur- chase this for the community for the kids, we should restore it and put it back into the community for the kids again,” Denton said. “If was a good idea in 1976- 77, it’s still a good idea today.”

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