MARK LARSON is the Program Host next week, and he will bring us a speaker from Madison Opera. They just finished their first production in Overture Hall, the highly successful and sold out "Turandot", and we'll probably hear about that, their future schedule, and what their new home as one of the "resident companies" in the Overture Center will mean to their operations.

At our last meeting, President LINDA BERGREN opened the meeting with one hand and conducted the singing of "America" with the other, due to a paucity of song leaders. ROSS ROYSTER gave the invocation. Guests introduced were Karen Lanter, who will be giving us a program in January, with CHUCK BASFORD, and Zone Chairman BOB IRVINE, of the Madison West Lions Club, introduced by JODI BURMESTER, who spoke briefly of the role of the Zone in Lion communications.

Apparently ALEX WONG had volunteered as TailTwister-of-the-Month, and he attempted to read a couple of the jokes which had appeared in the Lions International magazine, assuming (correctly, we think) that most of us had not read that deeply into the magazine. The PA system was a bit loud, and CRAIG BUTLER attempted to "help" with the volume, somehow cutting off ALEX's effort in the process. It was funny, but more about this subject below.

President LINDA repeated the reminder that the Bored of Directors meets next week, but apparently they have been denied their favorite meeting place this time, so someone is hunting for a location. Maybe the Prez. will e-mail the Board members with the location when/if they find one willing to have them.

Our speaker, who needed no introduction but was introduced jointly by LINDA and MICHELLE anyway, was SHARON MOLL-BRENNAN. She told us about her "Five Points of Life" 3000 mile bike ride last summer. They went from Seattle to Cape Kennedy, and if you hold a map up in front of you it looks like it's downhill, but in listening to SHARON you realize that it was anything but. They went up and down the Cascade and Wasatch Mountains, through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois (the closest she got to home), Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. The first five are mostly mountains and Tenn. is full of hills, and the effort simply boggles the mind of most of us. Among other things, she found out that there is no way out of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake that isn't steeply uphill.

Purpose of the trip was to raise awareness of the five ways donors can help save lives and restore health by donations: whole blood, apheresis, bone marrow, cord blood and organs, tissue and eyes. They had a team of 15 riders, all of whom had some direct connection with these donations, either as recipient, donor, or program worker. As they went from city to city, they participated in events designed to bring public attention, visiting schools, hospitals, and meeting with government officials for photo ops. They traveled in groups, with a couple of support vehicles that seemed to mostly be somewhere else than where the riders were (in the ditch, on one occasion) but which did provide for lunch stops and bike repair. The first day was the worst - cold, rain, and innumerable flat tires. After that it got better, but there were still all the hazards bicyclists encounter - traffic, junk and grates and railroad tracks on the pavement, and periods of rain. After all that, they would ride into a town and go immediately to some public function to meet and talk with people. A couple of her slides featured Lions Club activities, including the Idaho Lions Eye Bank. Salt Lake City has a Memorial Wall in one of their park, honoring donor families. Their rider team had people aged 19 to 67, from Alaska to Florida and points in between, and what showed clearly was the intense dedication all of these people, SHARON included, to the life-saving benefits of the programs to which they were calling attention. Obviously, to do what they did, they had to be highly motivated, and as SHARON indicated, it was an emotional as well as physical experience. Our hats are off to SHARON for her effort.

** Editorial **

It should be obvious by now that no one really wants to be TailTwister of MCLC. Visitors to our Club express surprise at the abuse our TT receives from the members.. Having been a TT, your editor feels it is the most difficult job in the Club, trying to provide some light moments without making anyone uncomfortable, and also that fund-raising should be a part of the action but not the main purpose. If it is, then just raise the dues. The TT is trying to do his/her job, and deserves the courtesy of members' attention. Banter and repartee can sometimes be part of the picture, but obstruction just for obstruction's sake is unfair, to say the least. In everyday English, give the guy a break!

The Editor.