MD49 Convention

Another convention over and done with.  Another year of catching up with old friends and making new ones.  Another year of challenges, hopes, and dreams.

Our Icebreaker was held at the Antique Car Museum.  Wow... talk about some vintage vehicles.  And I did not find a speck of dust on any of them!  I liked this green car as it had a place to hang your top hat on the roof.

And look at the period clothing.  Wow.  So much bead work.  Wouldn't it be fun to go out on the town in one of these?

Okay, enough of the fashion show!  As at any convention, there was a lot of business to take care of.  Here's some of what we learned:

• We are now 1.4 million plus Lions around the world!  We are STILL the largest volunteer service organization in the world!  Hear us ROAR!
• But even though we have grown, our U.S. organization is on the decline....  We must figure out how to retain our members.  
• MD 49 Convention 2016 will take place at the Coast International Inn in Anchorage next year. The theme will be "When you wish upon a star" and will encompass anything "Disney."  
• Past International President Lion Barry Palmer has appealed members to step forward and donate to LCIF.  Where there is a need, there is a Lion.  Our Club donates $20 per member every year but is it possible we could donate more...?  Or donate from our own pocket book?  We will talk about this more in the near future.  
• It's not too late to sign up for Forum.  It will be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on September 17-19.  We were told it is a beautiful time of year to visit.  For you Lions who want to learn more, do more, step up, and be a leader, this is where you need to go.  Forum is all about intense training.  
• Lion Esther West, the Multiple District's Chair for the Centennial Celebration announced that Lion Cory Bellows (from "B") and Lion Nancy Norton (from "A") will be their respective district's Centennial Celebration Chair.  
• The Blood Bank's grant application was approved by LCI but they still need about $16,000 in the next six months.
• Lion Mike Norton was nominated and elected as a member of the 49A Foundation.  
• 1st VDG Mike Brown shared some of his plans as governor and stated that if clubs can achieve half of his goals by next November, he will take a pie in the face!  Ready, Set, Go!!  His theme will be "opening doors."  Click HERE for Josh's story.  
• Our district is ahead by 52 members this year BUT just learned at convention that a brand new University of Alaska Anchorage Campus Club was approved by LCI, bringing in another 22 new members.  These kids will be our new leaders!  
• To date, our district has screened 12,236 children with 2,357 referrals!  The Mendenhall Flying Lions portion of that is 1,089 children screened this year.  Awesome!  

We had limited training at this convention, but Lion Mike Norton was asked by the District Governor to do training for incoming Zone Chairs.  He gave a great presentation on how to be an awesome Zone Chair for incoming district governor, 1st Vice District Governor Mike Brown.    

If you want a good prime rib in Fairbanks, where would you go?  The Turtle Club, of course!  That is, if you want a 2" prime rib cooked to perfection....

Lions Donna and Bob Hurley, Neil Atkinson

You'll notice Lion Mike Norton isn't in many photos....  That's because as Zone Chair, you get to sit at a "special" table.  I'm looking forward to next year when he will be sitting with the rest of us.  We had three clubs from Southeast represented at convention this year!

Lions Cherie Klein (Ketchikan), Donna Hurley (MFLC), Janet and Ted Burke (Juneau Lions Club), Neil Atkinson (MFLC)

Lions Chere Klein (Ketchikan Lions) and Neil Atkinson (MFLC)

Lions Bob and Donna Hurley (Mendenhall Flying Lions)

Lions Janet and Ted Burke (Juneau Lions Club)

And, last, but certainly not least.... the Awards Banquet.  The Mendenhall Flying Lions received a patch in recognition of our completion of the four International  global campaigns as part of the Centennial Service Challenge!  Thank you for your participation in Engaging our Youth campaign where we included youth in litter pick up and involving our Boy Scout troop.  For Sharing the Vision, we have screened 1,089 children this Lion year!  And our participation in eyeglass recycling and the joint sight committee.  Thank you to everyone who has participated in one way or another!  The third global campaign is Relieving the Hunger and we participated in the Hoonah food drive, donated to the food bank and Helping Hands as well as participated in other food drives at the food bank.  The fourth campaign is Protecting our Environment. Our litter pick up qualified us for this patch.  

Our club also received the Secretary 100% award for getting all our reporting submitted and on time. 

Juneau brought home multiple awards.  Lion President Mike, once again, received Zone Chair of the Year for 49A!  As Zone Chair, he's the link between the four clubs in southeast and the district cabinet. In the last three years Lion Mike has received two Zone Chair of the Year and one Lion of the Year awards!  The Juneau Lions Club brought home Club of the Year for their hard work, dedication, and teamwork with Gold Medal Basketball Tournament!   And I brought home the trophy for Secretary of the Year for Multiple District 49A.

Zone Chair of the Year Lion Mike Norton, Secretary of the Year Lion Nancy Norton, and representing the Club of the Year, Lions Ted and Janet Burke

And one GOOD LOOKING GROUP OF LIONS!  Our final banquet.

Lions Bob Hurley, Neil Atkinson, and Donna Hurley (MFLC) and Lions Janet and Ted Burke (Juneau Lions) and Lions Nancy and Mike Norton in back (MFLC)

This convention had a little more down time than I would have liked, but it was all good.  Gave us more time to just sit and visit with other Lions we don't see often enough.

So, until next year.... ROAR!

We serve!
Lion Nancy Norton

Autism Awareness 2015

Our club was asked to participate in last weekend's 6th Annual Autism Awareness Walk and Carnival.  I didn't even know there WAS an autism awareness walk and carnival....  

This is one of Juneau's best kept secrets.  And one of the best events I've seen in a long while!  The work that went into this was incredible!  

We had an "info" booth set up and were asked to be in charge of photo shoots.  

Here's Lion Mike Norton clowning around.  

A possible future District Governor....?  

Lion Hari Dev Khalsa looks vaguely familiar....

This event took place at the Nugget Mall and the entire hallway was filled with games and activities for kids!  

My favorite was the silent auction....  

If you missed it this year, be sure to attend next year. 

It's not only for a good cause, but it's a fun event.  

We Serve!

Lion Nancy Norton

Social media and The Malawi Project

Social media.... what more can we say?  It really CAN make a difference!

Last month I noticed a "SHARE" on Facebook regarding the Malawi Project and took it before our club as a possible project:    

Malawi Needs Medicine Bottles
We throw them away. They go to a landfill. After all, what can we use them for after the medicine is gone? It’s those empty medicine bottles. Still clean and new like the day they were born there should be something they can be used for.

There is! You can boil water and clean off the labels and glue and send them to Malawi. So often in the small rural hospitals medicine is dispensed into small torn pieces of newspaper for transportation to village homes. Then where to put them? Where will they be safe? Where will they be out of reach of children? Where will they stay clean?

The Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions sent off their first box of 79 pill bottles last week to the headquarters in Indiana!  

Here's an update posted on their blog on April 8:  

It was a short post on the Malawi Project Facebook site,” observes a member of the Board of Directors. “Just a simple request for readers to send empty prescription bottles, and the Project would send them to hospitals in Malawi, Africa where they are in very short supply. We expected to receive a couple of thousand of them.” What no one knew was how many people had been saving those little vials for long periods of time, feeling there must be some value for them, but not knowing what it was. No one wanted to send them to the landfill.

After the post, people started sharing. In the first ten days the number of people reached surpassed 600,000. Then it exploded. In just 24 hours the number raced past 1,000,000. Two days later and we were at 2,000,000, and by the time the post was three weeks old it was approaching 5,000,000. Likes, comments and shares were over 200,000.

The race across Facebook has been followed by an equally impressive response from contributors. Empty containers have started pouring into the Indianapolis offices of the Project. In thirty days the total number of vials passed 20,000, and the volume increasing daily.

Keep saving those prescription pill containers everyone!  The address to send them to is:

The Malawi Project, Inc.
3314 Van Tassel Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46240

Be sure to remove the labels and glue first.  

We Serve!
Lion Nancy Norton

I heard the word Die....

When the doctor told me I had diabetes, I heard "die."  

Elias Antaya was 9 years old at the time.

Today he is a remarkable 17 year old.

Elias was our guest speaker at last night's regular meeting.  We had heard about Elias from Michelle Cassano at conference in November and finally got him on our agenda.  I don't know why we waited so long.

Elias told us his story.... how he noticed that he was all of a sudden thirsty and peeing more.  Most 9 year olds may not notice that this was not normal.  Tests showed he did, indeed, have Type 1 Diabetes.  What he learned was that he wasn't going to die.... he just wasn't going to grow up to be a professional ice cream tester!

He learned early on that he had to be his own advocate.  His life depended on it.  After all, you can't take a vacation from diabetes.  He carried candy with him at all times and a cell phone, which wasn't so common for a second grader to do.

Diabetes didn't change Elias.  He continued to play, to ski, hike, play the violin.  Just to name a few of his activities....

Family, friends and friends' parents learned to care for him when he was in their presence.  School nurses became part of his family.

Elias has attended Camp K twice now, when he was 11 and 12 years old.  He told of the remarkable experience he had being at a camp filled with other kids just like him.  He told how they sat around the camp fire eating "low carb smores" that tasted like cardboard, but he was with other kids just like him, experiencing the same things.  It was "different" being around others just like him.

Elias is an extremely healthy, well-adjusted, normal teenager.  I might add that he's at the top of that scale if not over it.  He carries a 3.75 GPA, is a violinist, is an entrepreneur (plays violin at events); he continues to ski, mountain bike, hike; he's a lifeguard for the City; he's a future college student. I wish I had a complete list of all of his accomplishments.

"Having diabetes does not stop me."  And we're glad of that, Elias.

We Serve!
Lion Nancy

Helping Hands

Our guest speaker earlier this month was a lady and her daughter who started a food bank for locals many many many years ago.  Helping Hands.  It's a completely volunteer non-profit organization. Yet they do incredible good for our hungry.

We were honored to present them with a check for $500 to help feed the hungry.

We Serve!
Lion Nancy

Vietnam Veterans Welcome Home

The Juneau Lions Club, Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions Club, and Boy Scout Troop 247 had the privilege of serving our Vietnam Veterans today.

We were greeters, handed out programs, and escorted Vietnam Veterans and VIPs to their seats. 

We also had an opportunity to talk to them, and thank them for their service.  

I don't think they've been thanked nearly enough in the last 40 years.  

Lion Tommy brought his Navy year book to share with us.  Proud to have served. 

At the end of the ceremony, all Vietnam Veterans were asked to stand while they received their "thank you."

 Each one, personally thanked and given their "coin."  

I'm not certain what the coin said or signified, but I'm sure each man and women who received one will cherish it.  

   

 It was an emotional day, watching our heroes humbly accept the handshake and know that the "thank you for your service" was sincere.    

"...Vietnam Veterans Day is established on March 29 of each year to acknowledge and commemorate the military service of American men and women in Vietnam...."  (CSHB 67 (MLV))  

I hope we have the opportunity to serve them again next year.

Thank you for your service, each and every one of you.  

We Serve!

Lion Nancy

Vision Screening in Southeast

The Mendenhall Flying Lions has been traveling around this month offering free vision screening to children in Angoon, Petersburg, and Juneau.

We screened 152 children with 13 referrals at Mendenhall Elementary.  A huge thanks to Lions Neil, Hari Dev, Tommy, and Mike N. for taking time out of their busy days to do this!

We also had our second "first Saturday of the month" screening at the Nugget Mall where we screened 5 with 1 referral.

Lion Soapy braved high winds to get to Angoon where he screened 21 elementary children with 2 referrals.  We're already working with the public health nurse to do all the children next Fall.

Lions Allen and Soapy visited Petersburg.  For us to visit some of these communities in Southeast prove to be a little more than a day or two.  We have to plan one day going and one day coming back and then days in between for screening.  So a one or two day event turns into four days.  But it was very productive and they were able to screen pre-school, elementary, middle school, and home school children for a total of 327 children screened and 41 referrals.  Way to go Lions Soapy and Allen!

Petersburg is one of our biggest fans and the school district bends over backwards to get us there. They generally pay our airfare and lodging.

We also participated in the Alaska Health Fair which turned out pretty much as we expected.  Most participants of the health fair go to get their blood work done and the rest of the exhibitors visit among themselves.  But thanks to Lions Hari Dev and Mike N., we did screen 6 more children with 1 referral.

All in all, it was a good month of screening!

We Serve!
Lion Nancy