Updated 4/10:
Lion President Art Low reported on Celebrate Campbell, held on March 8th at Villa Ragusa in Campbell. There were reportedly around 200 people in attendance, and 12 service clubs and organizations were represented.
Lion Art took advantage of the opportunity to publicize the pancake breakfast. He also recognized Lion Secretary Jan McClure for her contributions to the club.
Lion Pres. Art Low recognizes Lion Jan McClure for her years of service to the West San Jose-Campbell Lions Club.
Seated at the Lions’ table (L to R) Lions Judy Blandford, Lucie Mueller, Brad Abel, Jan McClure, Art Low.
On Thursday, March 2nd, the West San Jose-Campbell Lions observed Flag Day. Lions Ward Eister, Jim Keller, and Lucie Mueller presented flags to two 5th Grade classes at Sartorette Elementary School in Campbell.
Updated March 22:
At the March 14 meeting, Lion Jim Keller shared some thank you cards written by the two 5th grade classes.
Here are three samples of the thank you cards:
January 31: District 4C6 LCIF Chair Sue Szucs will come to our meeting to talk to us about Lions Clubs International Foundation.
February 7: Roald Alexander will give what might become the first of a series of “Tech Talks”. The topic of the first talk is Passwords: Strategies, Choices, and Password Managers.
February 14: Filmmaker & Motivational Speaker Chris Hennessy.
Chris Hennessy is an experienced Motivational Speaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His speaking stories and confidence building messages come from his real-life experiences.
Let’s have good attendance at our meetings for these speakers.
Despite the rain, there was a good turnout at Lion Ward Eister’s home on 1/20 to pack eyeglasses for shipment to Vallejo. After sorting, 3,609 pairs of eyeglasses were boxed in about 90 minutes, and shipped to Vallejo.*
At Tuesday’s (1/24) meeting, we learned from our Region 2 Zone 1 Chair Linda Pugliese, a Lions Eye Foundation advisor, of a new law in California: SB724. The new law allows for distribution of used eyeglasses within California. One distribution has already taken place in Marin. In three hours, 480 people were screened, 350 eyeglasses were distributed, and numerous referrals were made. The requirements under SB724 include having an optometrist present, and the sponsoring organization must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
*It turns out, the glue holding the boxes together was water soluble. The boxes were coming apart soon after being sent on their way. Oops.
This Friday, January 20th, the club will have a work party to pack used eyeglasses to be delivered for sorting and distribution. With enough volunteers, this should take about one hour. Saying they will help are Lions Art, Jan, Wes, Bert, Ward, and probably Lions Ed and Judy. If you have any glasses at your home, or you pick them up from any location, please pick them up this week and bring them in so we can rid the storage shed of glasses–for a little while.
Packing will take place at 2pm on Friday, January 20th, 2017, at Ward Eister’s home, 1876 Gladys Way in San Jose. There is covered work space available in case of rain. To volunteer, leave a comment on this post, or contact Lion President Art Low. View map
Bring your clean, gently used coat to Tuesday’s meeting (1/17) and Lion Linda Pugliese will return to pick them up for the Scales of Justice club’s participation in the One Warm Coat drive. You can also make a donation for $5 by texting the word “Coat” to 80100.
At the January 10th meeting, we had guests Lion Pres. Dave Smith and Lion Carol Worthington-Levy from the Willow Glen Lions. They joined in a discussion sharing ideas for successful clubs, and shared that they are trying a “Lion for a Day” program, where non-Lion volunteers join the club members in a club activity for one day.
Also visiting was our zone chair, Lion Linda Pugliese from Scales of Justice Lions. She brought a check for our service at Avaya Stadium–$1,708.21, with the possibility of more to come as she receives any remaining balance due. Because they were present, Willow Glen Lions also received their check for $371.
After several weeks of waiting, Bert Caro reported at the 11/29 board meeting that the information packets for the student speakers contest arrived on Saturday 11/26. The club is getting off to a late start notifying schools and attracting participants, but Bert was ready to begin contacting schools immediately after the board meeting.
The student speakers contest was in danger of being canceled because we couldn’t get the necessary materials in time. Several calls had been placed and fees paid, but the materials didn’t arrive until now.
Update: At the Nov. 22nd meeting, Roald reported that he hadn’t received a check yet for the club’s participation. Lions Judy and Lucie suggested that next time we also consider participating as mid-day couriers.
The club sent three teams of couriers to assist with bringing ballots back to the Registrar of Voters, earning money for the club. With two people per team, ballots were collected from two precincts in Los Gatos, and four in Cupertino. The teams consisted of Art Low & Lucie Mueller, Jan McClure & Judy Blandford, and Roald Alexander & Bert Caro.
Judy and Jan reported that volunteers from the James Lick High School Leo’s Club unloaded their car, jumping and cheering when they learned they were unloading for a team of Lions Club members. [Or, was it specifically because they were West San Jose-Campbell Lions Club members?]
Separate bags containing ballots, dropped-off mail in ballots, printers, supplies, etc. are collected and driven back to the Registrar’s office on Berger Dr. in San Jose, with money paid to the club. The registrar pays a stipend of $65 for each courier, plus an additional $10 for each courier who attends a training prior to the election. Each team must have at least one person attend the training.
All three teams reported a relatively quick collection & drop off, getting home by around 10:30pm election night — but it isn’t always so easy. In the June primary, the team of Roald & Bert collected from two disorganized precincts in Stanford (adjacent to the University), then had to drive back to the Berger Dr. office of the Registrar, getting back to Roald’s house around 12:30am, with Bert finally getting home closer to 1am.