Next Meeting- Tuesday, March 21. As you know if you were at the last meeting, the BULLetin editor messed up and the print version of the last Tale was wrong. Stefan Kohler will be the speaker at the next meeting, and you already know that he’s a contest winner and will talk on life in a free country. Sounds like a good program - don”t miss it, now that it’s finally going to happen!

Pres. CHUCK opened our last meeting a tad early (a sign of things to come) because we had a tight schedule, OTTO FESTGE led the song and ROSS ROYSTER gave the invocation, suitably terse for the occasion. Guests introduced were Joe Fuller, (who, we are told, has completed an application for membership) by CHUCK BASFORD, and Michelle Lonergan by DON NEVIASER. Remember the Club will buy lunch for a prospective member, and we would like to see more of them at our meetings. Ask your friends, your relatives, your neighbors, your pastor, your suppliers. Even ask your competitors - if you can get them into our Club then you’ll know where they are on Tuesday noon!

HAL OTTERBACK, our Eyeglass Collection Chairman, says he has found someone who will make use of eyeglass cases, so the old rule against them no longer applies. If someone gives you a case with a pair of glasses, keep them and turn them in to HAL. He'’ll see that they get to the right place.

ROSE DAY IS A’COMIN - sooner than you think. DON NEVIASER and MELISSA NOVINSKI kicked off the sales drive with distribution of order blanks and fliers. [Visit our Online Order Form.] The Distribution Center will again be at Zimbrick Buick, Beltline & Fish Hatchery, in their Community Room. Delivery drivers are needed, both for Monday , April 24 and for any necessary replacements on Tuesday, Wednesday and possibly Thursday. The order blanks are similar to those used previously - FILL THEM OUT CAREFULLY AND COMPLETELY. GIVE DIRECTIONS WHERE NEEDED, GIVE RECIPIENT’S SPECIFIC LOCATION IN LARGE BUILDINGS. We say that every year and it’s still true. $24/dozen for red roses, or mixed color roses; $18 for cut flower bouquet, $4 for a nice vase.

Turn in completed order blanks ASAP to DAN STOUDT (1 E. Spyglass), MELISSA NOVINSKI (Target Interiors, John Nolen Drive near the Sheraton), or CHRIS WILZ (M&I Bank on Monona Drive.) Or at the few meetings we will have between now and then. If it matters, we make more profit on the roses.

Our games of chance and choice continued. RICH MATZELLE had sent a very nice (well over the $$limit) gift in honor of his Lion birthday (we hope he at least wore a lei for the day) and visiting Lion DENNIS URECHE was the high bidder in the TT auction. The TT also continued his raffle/drawing fundraiser. The pot is now well ovr three hundred bucks, and if and when somebody wins the winner gets half the pot. OTTO FESTGE won the drawing, but didn’t pull the joker from the deck, so life and the TT go on.

Lion Birthdays, celebrating the years of service of 18 Lions, were next. LOUISE FRITZ (2 yrs), CHRIS WILZ (2 yrs) SCOTT GROVER (6 yrs), LINDA BERGREN (10 yrs), JIM BRADLEY (29 yrs), PHIL INGWELL (39 yrs) OTTO FESTGE (53 yrs) and THAYER BURNHAM, (58 years!!) were present in person, and RICH MATZELLE (35 yrs) and AL GOLDSTEIN (45 yrs) were present by gift proxy. Winners in the drawing were SCOTT GROVER, TOM STEVENS, DENNIS URECHE, HAL OTTERBACK, ED NEESE, CRAIG BUTLER and WALT PRIDHAM.

Pres. CHUCK introduced our speakers, Atty. Iris Christenson, founder and President of Family Connections of Wisconsin, and Laurie Bibo, the Director (and sole paid staff member), who told us about their organization and what it does to keep the children of women in prison in touch with their mothers. Family Connections runs a monthly bus to Taycheedah, with the aid of volunteers to create a “field trip” atmosphere. It helps the children to see their mothers and know that they are OK, gives the inmate a reason to do better, and gives the caregivers of the children a “break.” They serve children from infancy to age 17, and each visit is for two hours. In addition to transportation, the organization assists with the huge paperwork necessary for a visit, and the volunteers undergo training from Dept. Of Corrections on what is permitted/appropriate for a visit. It’s a side of life most of us thankfully will never know about, but there is an obvious need for what they do. Couldn’t call the program entertaining, but certainly interesting. MICHELLE VETTERKIND was the program source.

Printer cartridge envelopes are by the badge box at meetings. Postage paid - just insert cartridge, seal and mail, and our Club nets a few $$ for our service work.