Rolling

Last week VDG Crystal Walk and I rolled the countryside for 1,197 miles conducting 4 official visits and one stargazing mission. The Lions we met were great, their clubs were doing great things and everyone was either down right friendly or pleasantly respectful. Somewhere, I know we may meet an angry Lion but it sure hasn't happened so far...

        Come to the 70th Annual Wapato Harvest Festival

The Wapato Lions meet with Wapato City officials as they finalize plans for the 70th Annual Wapato Harvest Festival. The September 5th event starts off with a parade at 10 AM and moves to the park for bouncy houses, food and cultural entertainment. 

The Benton City Lions Club Adds 2 New Members

(L to R) Lion President David Patterson, new Lions Jon Eberly and Joni Ashley Eberly and sponsors David and  Tracy and Berry participate as District Governor Dave Walk officiates their new member induction ceremony.

The Yakima Lions Donate to Leader Dogs

Yakima Lions President Kathy Birdwell presents DG Dave Walk with a check from the Yakima Lions in support of Leader Dogs. Dave is caught gawking at the $2,500 amount written on the check.

TRADITIONS OF THE YAKIMA WEST VALLEY LIONS

The West Valley Yakima Lions are home to PDG Bill Shepherd and PDG Lonnie Morgan and a healthy appreciation for Lions traditions. They recite the Lions Pledge and Lions Prayer before each meeting, all wear name badges and Lions shirts, and they even stand and applaud the visiting District Governor. Yet, they are fun enough to break into a chorus of Gilligan's Island when the situation calls for it.

  GOLDENDALE LIONS AND A STARRY STARRY NIGHT

There is something comforting about a town that lists their churches and service clubs on their welcome sign. Goldendale is a delightful town full of friendly people, good restaurants and an Astronomical Observatory. Crystal and I enjoyed meteor watching there on Friday night.

Stamps

Hoxie, Kansas is 1380 miles from the Benton City Lions Club. Somehow, a Lions 50^th Anniversary stamp and envelope collection from Marie Mallory, a Hoxie and District 17NW resident, made its way into the Benton City Lions kitchen storage room. Purists will no doubt assail me for “cleaning up” the collection with Photoshop.  Sorry about that a little bit.­ These images have a wonderful story to tell present day Lions in the midst of our 100^th Anniversary celebration. 

Change

When the mud slides off a mountain like at Oso, WA or a mountain blows up or a fire devastates a valley or even a town the Lion District ALERT Team helps mobilize volunteers, gather resources, and apply LCIF emergency grant money. ALERT relieves pain, provides food, clothing, shelter and just plain helps do what needs to get done.  Up until Wednesday our District 19F had no ALERT Chairperson.

Sean Marcellus has been a Clarkston Lion since February 2015 and has just become 1^st Vice President of the Clarkston Club. When presented with VDG Crystal’s pre-meeting fact sheet about the great things that our Lions support and do, Sean scanned the sheet and said, “I want to learn all this.” 

Chatting with Sean, I discovered what he really meant was that he wanted training for his new 1VP job. I promised to start him off with a coupled of online resources. We told him there would be more officer training at the 19F District Conference. His Zone Chair Marie Vogel and District Trainers Larry Carley and Ret Stewart will put all the icing on his training cake that Sean can handle. Great volunteers, all!

The Clarkston Club is a jovial, salt of the earth bunch of service oriented Lions. They tease and banter like a big family at a holiday dinner but like a great family they pull together when it matters. After the Serving Generations presentation was complete, Sean, Ken Roberts and others were helping with the breakdown while Crystal was counting contributions to the 5 causes. Sean looked at the four cookie jars with the bills and coins. He smiled and asked if we could wait for a few minutes while he ran home to get his change jar to make an additional contribution to the Leader Dogs. Sure we could!

Returning shortly, Sean presented Lion Crystal a huge coin filled jar with $149.41 worth of quarters nickels, dimes and one penny. Sean explained that about once of year he directed his collected pocket change to a good cause. Wow! That's change that matters.

While we all were carting gear to our van, the conversation led to higher level service in Lions. I allowed that Sean could one day be District Governor. Crystal pointed out that he would need to serve on the District cabinet before that happened. 

You know what happened. 

Meet Lion Sean Marcellus, our District’s new ALERT Chairperson.

Clarkston 1VP Sean Marcellus receives his Key Membership pin from Clarkston Lion President Cathy Bailey

You guys are great!

Hear Us Roar!

The 38 members of the Naches Sunshine Lions and the Naches Lions Club pack a pretty powerful 1-2 service punch for their small town population of 801. The lists of service they report is mind boggling and I suspect much goes unreported. My visit coincided with a hugely successful open house. 18 visitors attended the meeting and were warmly welcomed, fed and entertained at the barely opened, brand new elementary school. When I visit, I ask clubs to have members tell a joke, sing a song and give short talks on why they love being a Lion. I had the presence of mind to turn on my camera for the following great and hilarious song. The crowd loved it. You will, too.

Back Patting

College Place Lions Board Member Carl Walk and CP Lion Tamer Dave Walk spent about 6 hours sweeping, mopping and waxing the clubhouse floor on Saturday and Sunday.

On Monday, the College Place Lions clubhouse hosted a very distinguished guest in the person of US Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers. The public meeting was called Conversations with Cathy.   

35 mostly elderly citizens came to the meeting to sharpen their griping axes, tout their causes and basically vent out loud about whatever seemed to be annoying them on this particularly hot end of July day. Many of them had been to these Conversations before.  A few first timers came seeking help.

Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers handled all the grousing with consummate grace, dignity and intelligence. She really listened, never once condescended, and did her level best to actually engage in polite two-way communication with the disgruntled citizens. Those needing help got a caring and empathetic hearing and suggestions for solutions. Some were directed to staff members for direct counsel or referrals.

As Conversations came to an end, I stood to praise the Congresswoman and thank her for the wonderful example of Democracy that her meeting was. As I began the thanks she motioned me to join her at the podium and there thanked me for serving with the College Place Lions. 

She presented me a certificate of recognition.

I was genuinely touched by her thoughtfulness.

Every Lion feels good about a pat on the back, even a floor buffing Lion Tamer turned DG.

One Question

What did you do before you retired? When you ask that to a Lion and are prepared to listen to the answer, an interesting and wonderfully layered story just might unfold.

A few decades back it seems that Lion Al Harper and a friend were providing services for blind people out of a small house in the Kennewick area. A lady named Edith admired their work and left them some property in her will. In 1988 Lion Al’s service to the blind became The Edith Bishel Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired. It officially incorporated in 1994 and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. 

Kennewick Lions President Larry Weiss

Kennewick Lion President Larry Weiss, the teller of this story and a Lion since 1979, recently retired after 19 years as the Executive Director of Edith Bishel Center. Kennewick Lion Secretary Steve Watt is on the Edith Bishel Board of Directors. The Kennewick Lions Club is a major sponsor of the Edith Bishel Center. The Pasco Lions join Kennewick in support of the Center and host a Dinner in the Dark for them. The Chiawana High School DECA Club volunteers at the fundraiser.

One simple question. A heartwarming story. You Guys are Great!

Steve Watt is in the light blue shirt at the far end of the table.

Kennewick Lion Bill Hoage is on the bottom right in the pale green shirt.

A Banner Bright

At the beginning of the District 19F Cabinet this weekend Past District Governor Viva Metz passed the banner of leadership over to me. She mentioned that there was also a historical banner that she would entrust to my care. 

After the meeting I got a look at the historical banner which listed the names of every District F Governor since 1950! Willard Harden of Yakima served in 1950-51. Like anyone would do, I looked for Past District Governors from my club. I found one -Whitney Miller 1972-1973 College Place. WOW! King the Lion on my business card was Whitney's when it was alive. When King died Whitney took him to a taxidermist and had him stuffed! The beloved mascot of the College Place Lions, King rode in parades after his death for quite a few years. 1st VDG Crystal and I will be carrying the historical banner to clubs when we visit. You can look up members of your club who served. Appreciating those Lions that worked hard to get us through the first 67 years of our District F history is altogether fitting and proper. We owe them our traditions and the esteem with which we are held by our communities!

Immediate Past District Governor Viva Metz and King the Lion