Half a Year To Go

It's that time of year when our personal lives fill up with so much busyness.  We have our home to decorate, presents to buy, cookies to bake, people to visit, more cookies to bake, presents to wrap, school programs to watch, recitals to go to, business ventures to tend to, family emergencies, health challenges, dinner parties to attend, and, still, more cookies to bake.

And if you're lucky, you get to fill in a few gaps with Lion activities!

But we filled in more than a few gaps these last few hours of 2014, didn't we?

We thought our food drive for Hoonah was finished except for the pick-up, but still managed to accumulate more items for their senior center AND Thrift Store!  The bonus this year was canned fish....  Lion Allen has a connection for canned, but not purchased, fish....  Lion Mike N. picked up 3-1/2 cases and added it to the pile.  Lion Allen got a SECOND call for MORE canned fish and picked up two dozen more CASES of canned fish!  A huge thanks to Lion Allen for this great partnership!

Finally, Saturday morning, Lions Allen, Tommy, Neil, and Mike N. gathered together at the storage unit to help load all these treasures into the van, to send on its way to Hoonah.  Merry Christmas, Hoonah!

Another of our projects is the Bicycle Recycle project where we retrieve bicycles from Juneau Police Department and fix them up to re-distribute to families in need.  We had 10 refurbished bicycles that needed a good home, and the Salvation Army was more than happy to take them off our hands!  Some lucky boys and girls will have a good Christmas this year.

And, our last act of Lionism for the calendar year 2014 was "Ringing the Salvation Army Bell." A big thanks to Lions Bob H., Donna, Neil, and Mike N. (and myself) for standing on their feet for yet ANOTHER two hours to help the Salvation Army!  This was no easy task after just finishing up Light Flights the night before.  Lion Bob.... thank you the most as you had the first shift at 10:00 a.m.

Lion Neil Atkinson

Lion Mike Norton

It was a busy weekend that was already busy with Light Flights.  But now we can slow down... relax a little.... spend time with family and friends, and enjoy the holidays.

Merry Christmas!  

We Serve!

Lion Nancy

Food Drive for Hoonah

Yesterday was our second annual food drive to benefit the community of Hoonah, Alaska.  Hoonah is the largest Tlingit village in Alaska with about 70 percent of its 850 residents being Alaska Native heritage.  Fishing is its mainstay industry.  Hoonah is 30 miles west of Juneau, across the Inside Passage. The only way to get there is by boat, ferry, or plane.

They are our neighbors.

So that's your geography lesson for the day!

But Hoonah is a struggling community and at times needs a little help from their neighbors to keep their pantry shelves stocked and their thrift store full.

Yesterday's food drive was very successful!  A huge thanks to Lion Allen Butner for spearheading this event again, and for Lion volunteers Bob Hurley, Hari Dev, Neil Atkinson, and Mike Norton for volunteering their time.  AND, Tera (Lion Allen's daughter) for helping as well.  We love it when our children and grandchildren get involved!

Yesterday's drive brought in the following:

• 18 boxes of food donations
• 100 pounds of beans
• 250 pounds of rice
• 4 cases of homemade jam
• $210 in cash donations which we were able to go shopping with.

Since then, more donations have been given and tomorrow we should be getting donations that the Juneau Lions Club has gathered.  

Hoonah will send a van to Juneau to collect all our goodies and the seniors and others in the community will have full pantry shelves once again.   

There's so many needs "out there" and even more so this time of year.  It's hard to pick and choose which ones we want / can / will do.  But feeding the hungry is a given.  Making sure our children have enough to eat is a given.  And ensuring our seniors aren't left behind is our duty.

It was a good day.  Thanks to Lion Tommy Dawson for loaning us his storage unit for a few days!  

We serve!

Lion Nancy

Juneau Helping Hoonah

A few weeks ago, Lion Allen received an email from the Hoonah Chief of Police stating that the senior center's food shelves were bare and could he help. 

Lion Allen jumped right on it and got his Boy Scout Troop 247 involved.  We also enlisted the help of the Juneau Lions Club along with a girl scout troop.  On Tuesday, October 29, the Boy Scouts and Lion Mike N. participated in a Food Drive at Super Bear where they collected between 10-15 packing boxes full of donations. 

Meanwhile, he Juneau Lions Club did their own thing and went shopping and bought tons of food stuff.  I understand the Girl Scouts also collected food.

In the end.... they got TONS of stuff to ferry over to Hoonah!  I don't have any pictures to share, but it sounds like the Boy Scouts food drive was a complete success. 

This is people helping people.  Thanks to all who participated!