LAKEVILLE — The Lakeville Lions Fall Family Festival brings together community groups, artisans and Lakeville residents every year, and the ninth annual family-fun festival on Saturday was no exception.

The festival hosts artisan vendors, outreach booths from the fire and police departments and fun activities like a petting zoo and carnival games during the day-long event. The club also makes a donation to a social support mission at the festival — this year’s donation of $1,000 went to support eye research at six Boston based hospitals.

Debbie Howland, a Second Vice District Governor of the club, said she first got involved in the lions after her nearby Lions Club in Dighton raised over $5,000 to pay for hearing aids for her son who is deaf.

“Whether it's your community, a school, a nonprofit, somebody that's hard of hearing, someone that has low vision or whoever we serve — where there's a need, there's a lion,” Howland said.

Howland accepted the donation on behalf of the Second District. She said the $1,000 donation to the Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Fund will support research to prevent blindness in patients across the six hospitals.

A majority of the club’s state-wide donations go to eye research; last year Lions Clubs from across Massachusetts collectively raised over $1 million for the fund.

Lions Club Member and Festival Director Christopher Plonka said the Lakeville Lions raised over $17,000 last year for various charity efforts, and the club has donated over $100,000 in total since 2017.

The donated funds are raised at a myriad of community events — such as buying concessions and making donations at Saturday’s festival. Funds are raised for both the club’s work in state-wide missions, but also locally in funding efforts that include scholarships for Lakeville students and recently, a donation for a new food pantry at the Lakeville Council on Aging.

Lakeville resident Tara Jacome attended the festival, located at the lion’s clubhouse at 170 Main St., with her family on Saturday. She said her family has come to the family-fun event for the last several years.

“[The festival] has small, local vendors and it’s just an awesome community event,” Jacome said, adding her family’s favorite part of the festival is the food and the animals at the Child’s Play Alpaca petting-zoo booth.

Kelly Richard, a Lakeville resident, came to the festival with her daughter Avery Richard, 10, and Maragaret Pacelli, 10. They said it’s hard to beat coming to the fair on a nice day with the clear skies, sunshine and 70-degree weather that was present on Saturday.

“It's within walking distance, so we like to come here if it's a nice day to hang out. It’s just something fun to do,” Kelly Richard said. “It's a great place to come with family. There's a lot of things to see and buy.”

“It’s just amazing. Everybody here is just nice and wonderful,” Avery said.

Plonka said the club garnered a turnout of about 1,000 festival attendees this year, and said he was happy with Saturday’s attendance.

“The success of the festival is always dependent upon our volunteer club members, including the other community volunteers helping out today — and of course — the residents that come out and support,” Plonka said.

To find out more information on how to become a member or donate to the club, visit the Lakeville Lions website.