Meet and Greet

As part of the Centennial Challenge, the Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions had our first "Meet and Greet" in an attempt to showcase our service to the community and hopefully recruit new members.

We set up informational tables that included LCI recruitment brochures, our 30 Year Book (showing club history for the previous 30 years), our Lions At Work binder (that includes our community service and events media coverage), LIONS Magazines, and other recruitment tools.  

We served coffee and cookies and had a small area for children to color quietly while we talked to their parents.

We included our PlusOptix vision screener and eyeglass collection box to show a couple of our signature projects.

Lions (left to right) Donna Hurley, Mike and Nancy Norton, Rena Sims, Hari Dev Khalsa, Chevelle Hogan, Veronica (not yet a Lion), Bob Nielsen, and Bruce Wing

We'll see if our efforts paid off.  We had a couple good prospects today!  #Lions100

We Serve!
Lion Nancy Norton

Flowers for the USS Juneau Memorial

It was a beautiful day to place flowers on the docks of Juneau....

This was today:

Lions Tom Dawson and Donna Hurley

Lions Tom Dawson, Donna Hurley, and Mike Norton gathered together to place the two flower pots shown on each side of the USS Juneau Memorial in memory of the Fallen sailors.

The last time we were at the USS Juneau Memorial was November 2015:

It was a blustery day when the Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions attended a Remembrance Ceremony for the USS Juneau in which they were instrumental in putting together.  

We Serve!

Lion Nancy

More Fish!

Yes, the Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions is STILL re-distributing fish throughout the food pantries of Juneau!

This week's donation being loaded for delivery….   about 450 lbs.

This load went to Helping Hands, The Glory Hole and the Food Bank pantries.

Many thanks to Dick Hand, owner of Alaska Seafood Company, for the donations.

Lions Tom Dawson and Hari Dev Khalsa have been the deliverers of good food these past many months, and probably have another four weeks of donations still available for delivery.   #Lions100

We Serve!
Lion Nancy Norton

Fish Fish Fish!

The Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions is still collecting frozen fish from a local seafood distributor.  This is sport caught fish that was processed and never picked up by the customer and our Club is the lucky recipient of it!  Lions Tommy Dawson and Hari Dev Khalsa have been distributing boxes of frozen fish (and wild game) to the local food pantries in town for the last month now.

Here we are delivering frozen fish to Helping Hands:

Lion Hari Dev Khalsa

Lion Hari Dev delivering frozen fish to our local homeless shelter, The Glory Hole, with future Lions in tow!  

We Serve!

#Lions100 Feeding the Hungry

Lion Nancy Norton

Family Farm Day

Family Farm Day at Swampy Acres is a well-kept secret in Juneau.  Not having younger children, I've never had occasion to visit this annual event.  What I learned was, this is a fun thing for any age!

This event is a fundraiser for a local child center, this year benefiting Juneau Cooperative  Preschool.

I could tell you all about it, but really need to be there to experience it!

The Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions offered to help out again this year, our second year, and we're assigned the petting areas for the bunnies, chicks, ducklings, and turkeys.

Lion Mike Norton resting from the choas.

We were tasked with making sure small children didn't squeeze the baby chicks too tight....  Not a job for the faint at heart!  But I can proudly say, no chicks were lost on our watch!

4 day old chicks

2 week old ducklings

turkeys not feeling the day!

There were obstacle courses for the children to run through and play on, including huge piles of sand where they could run as fast as they wanted.

Lion Nancy supervising

Peacocks, chickens, turkeys, and other fowl ran free and encouraged our contact with them.  

 Lions Mike and Nancy Norton took over the early shift and Lions Bob and Donna Hurley and Susan Albury the afternoon shift.

Lions Bob and Donna Hurley

 It was a beautiful, sunny day in Juneau with temps in the 70's.  We serviced hundreds of children and adults throughout the day.  At times it was pure chaos.... Other times children quietly sitting on bales of hay with their hands in their laps, open, waiting for a baby chick to be placed.

An unexpected treat for the day was when I was tapped on the back, only to meet a Lion from down South!  It was so chaotic at the time that I did not have an opportunity to visit.... but it's nice to know that no matter where you go, you have a friend in another Lion.

We hope we'll be invited back to help again next year!

We Serve!
Lion Nancy Norton
Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions Club

Helping a Hand

One Lion consistently helps out at the local Helping Hands food pantry every week.  We appreciate all that he does in the name of Lions!  Thanks, Lion Hari Dev Khalsa!  

We Serve!

#Lions100

Vision Screening in Southeast

Providing vision screening in Southeast Alaska can prove a challenge at times.  Scheduling in remote towns is easy.... the schools are anxious for Lions to come.... it's often the weather that proves to be challenging!  

Take Haines.  We tried for a couple years, and several cancellations later, before actually making it there!  To get to many of our remote towns requires travel on a small charter plane.  You won't find a flight attendance or free nuts! 

Our vision screening efforts for this year are coming to a close.  In the past three years, we've screened approximately 1,100 children and young adults in a year's time.  This year we're just shy of 1,900!  We screened 1,891 children and had 280 referrals. 

This is where our PlusOptix Vision Screener traveled:

Local/Juneau Efforts:

• Early Learning Fair:  66 screenings with 4 referrals
• Faith Community Christian Church:  44 / 6
• Floyd Dryden Middle School:  165 / 39
• Gastineau Elementary:    120 / 14
• Glacier Baptist Academy:   79 / 7
• Gold Medal:  19 / 2
• Harborview Elementary:  114 / 23
• Montesorri:  46 / 6
• Juneau Community Charter:  72 / 8
• Legislative Affairs Health Fair:   3 / 0
• Raven Home School:  6 / 0
• Riverbend Elementary:  35 / 4

Of these, Faith Community Christian Church and Gold Medal were new venues.  

Out-of-Town Efforts:

• Angoon:  72 / 21
• Cordova:  240 / 41
• Gustavus:  57 / 19
• Haines School:  111 / 13
• Wrangell:  114 / 12
• Sitka:  424 / 44
• Skagway Child Find:  87 / 13
• Skagway Health Fair:  17 / 4

Of these communities, Cordova was new.  

We still have a lot of work to do!  We have many elementary schools in Juneau that we can't get into due to nurse workload.  And when we do, we are only able to screen pre-school to first grade.  When we travel out of town, we are able to screen preschool through high school; it's not even questioned.  

Every year we hope to screen more children than we did the year before.  But to do that requires the help of our local nurses and school district; they need to see the value in what we do.  We're hopeful 2016-2017 will be a better year yet!  #Lions100

We Serve!

Lion Nancy Norton

Fish Fish and more Fish Stuff!

Alaska Seafood has been very kind giving the Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions Club all their sport-caught fish that was never claimed by their customers.  So far we've delivered 30 cases of canned salmon to Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church (20 cases) and Helping Hands (10 cases).

Delivering to Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church

Besides the canned salmon, we're also getting unclaimed frozen fish and wild game products that can include fish, venison, bear, jerky, caribou, sausage, and other wild game/products that was never claimed by the customer.

Pastor Tari of Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church

Alaska Seafood has been storing about 70 boxes (at 40-50 pounds per box) for Horst Seafood after he sold his business.  Horst has chosen not to re-claim it so Alaska Seafood (Dick Hand) has donated it to our Lions Club for re-distribution.  We will deliver 12 boxes a week until all gone.

This is how We Serve!  We feed the hungry.

So for the next five or six weeks Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church Food Pantry, Helping Hands Food Pantry, and the Glory Hole will have wild game to feed their hungry.

We Serve!
#Lions100

Getting Ready for the Bike Rodeo

Having an event always takes prep work.  For our Bike Rodeo, that we help Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church with, that means bicycle safety and that means bike repair work!  

Lions Bob Nielsen, Hari Dev Khalsa, and Tom Dawson have been busy tweaking and repairing bikes, getting ready for the annual Bike Safety Rodeo put on by Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church.  Some bikes will also go to the AWARE Center, a home for abused women and their children.  

In the last two weeks, Lion volunteers, the Freewheeler Bike Club bike mechanics (about a total of eight mechanics showed up), and others repaired about 22 bikes.  

A big thanks to John McConnochie and his Cycle Alaska for supplying the room to work and any 

needed parts for repairs.

We Serve!