Pics, Please

When District Governor-Elect Crystal Walk visits your club next year she will continue the Serving Generations theme. In our visits this year we were amazed and delighted to find out about the different ways each club serves their towns.

Crystal will present a new video show this year when we visit called Generations of Service. Since it is the Lions Centennial Celebration Year this video will emphasize the different types of service Lions do and have performed for your communities and for the world. This new video will be more of a celebration of service than a history of Lionism.

Last year about half the clubs did a great job providing me photographs, histories and emails about what their club does. Those clubs got a kick out of seeing themselves, their names and pictures of their clubs serving their towns in the Serving Generations video. It was designed to be a feel good video and it worked.

For the clubs that were lax in providing images and histories to me I worked hard searching the internet for pics, finding stories in local newspaper online archives, culling the LCI Monthly Reports and searching Facebook member by member for material to localize the show.  Some of the shows were a little thin on the local. Several times club officers remarked that had they understood what I was doing they would have tried a bit harder to gather and send me pictures.

So, I am asking all of you to send me pictures you have taken on your cell phones of club members, snaps of the of the Lions photos you have on hand at home and pictures of your clubs serving the community. A picture of an event poster or a newspaper article works good, too.  To produce a good show I need about 40 items to choose from and usually use 20-25 images to make the video locally yours.

Speaking of Yours, we intend to leave with you as we depart the visit a DVD or a thumb drive of the last year's video and the new video so you can use it on your club's Facebook or website or show it to your friends at an event or open house.

Please send emails to liondavidwalk@gmail.com with your pictures and simple explanations of the pictures.  I 'd love the pictures by May 30 so I can stay ahead of the visitation schedule producing your club's video.

You Guys Are Great!

Ben Franklin Live!

Yakima Lions Reverend Fred Hutchinson and Dr. Ruth Bishop are relative newcomers to District 19F but they are making a great impact on the area with their Olde Yakima Letterpress Museum in Union Gap.                 

Fred started hand setting type on a family business printing press in 1953. He was six years old. In their very active retirement Fred and Ruth are bringing his old craft and the history that accompanies it to life.

I like Fred. He was the first Lion to respond to a request to advertise in our District Conference Program. He and Ruth also got a table in the lobby of the Marcus Whitman Hotel to tout the upcoming visit to Yakima by their friend Benjamin Franklin! The Ben Franklin!! Ben turned 311 this past January.  It does not surprise me that this great American scientist has flourished so long in the heart and soul of America. 

I grew up on the East Coast with a fondness for our country’s First American Founding Father, patriot, writer, diplomat, inventor and printer all wrapped up into one amazing man. I have visited his post office twice, his museum once, gloried in his writings and have stood twice in Independence Hall in Philadelphia where he and Tom and a bunch of his friends started this country. 

I am happy to invite you all on their behalf to Ben Franklin Live! at the Yakima Convention Center, 10 North 8^th Street in Yakima at 6:30 PM on Friday May 12^th. It's just $12 at the door. 

See Ben Franklin Live! with the famous and well-traveled Christopher Lowell, an internationally recognized actor/historian.

I hope my front row seat is still waiting for me. 

Cherry Festival!

Lions across our District are involved in wonderful celebrations of spring as our communities shake off winter and gather out of doors in the sunshine.

The Granger Lions Club is doing good works in preparation for their 69th Annual Granger Cherry Festival next weekend on April 28th, 29th, and 30th. Granger Lions Vice President Valdemar Valenzuela 509-830-5310 is a point of contact for the event which Lions have hosted and sponsored since 1948.

The three-day Cherry Festival centers at the city’s downtown park at Third and Main streets where carnival rides, children’s activities and food and craft vendors will be on hand beginning Friday from 6 to 9 PM. On Saturday at 11 a.m. the Cherry Festival parade starts at Roosevelt Elementary School at 405 Bailey Ave. Afterward, events will resume at the downtown park, where several bands and other acts will provide entertainment throughout the day.

A Granger family at the 2016 Fishing Derby

Bright and early on Sunday - 7 a.m. the annual fishing derby begins. Anglers will gather at the Granger Pond at Hisey Park at the corner of Main Street and State Route 223. Entry fees for the fishing contest are $7 for adults and $4 for children 12 and younger. State fishing regulations apply.

If your travel plans have you on I-82 and US 12 in the beautiful Yakima Valley head into Granger for the food and fun. The cherry trees should be in full bloom and the dinosaurs will delight you and your kids.

Support the local Lions wherever you may be.

You Guys are Great!