Our next meeting is Social (and special) — next Tuesday evening, Oct. 24, at the Edgewater’s Rigadoon Room. Starts at 5:30, and it’s for fun, socializing, Lion Birthdays, and a few awards. Bring your spouse, significant other, friend and/or prospective member and have a good time. There will be an ample buffet and a cash bar. There will be no charge for members or guests for this party!

TaleTwister's Jackpot
$770

Our last meeting began with 1st VP DON NEVIASER in charge, and he shook things up right away by opening with the singing of “America” led by JIM SCHUTZ, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and the invocation by DALE MUELLER. Guests — JODI BURMESTER introduced Lions Eye Bank staff Susan Sabin, Eric Meinecke, Wendy Wright and David Butters. We’re hopeful that one or all of them will join us.

JODI relayed Pres. SAL’s thanks to Louise Fritz and Melissa Abbott, who assisted Sal in stuffing 2,000 mailers for the Diabetes Association. SAL notes that there are still 18,000 to go, so he needs more help. Let him know if you can help out. Maybe he should bring 500 to each of our meetings, and nobody goes home until they’re all stuffed!

Next noon meeting, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 7, is our annual visit to Temple Beth El. The speaker will be David Mollenhoff, noted Madison historian and writer, and it would be an excellent program for a guest/prospective member to hear. A sign-up sheet went around - if you are coming, make sure you’re on it, by calling JODI BURMESTER. Note — parking on Arbor Drive is in short supply. Try either Monroe St. or, sometimes, down by the Wingra boat landing at the end of Knickerbocker St.

LINDA BERGREN wants to order the Holiday Nuts N’ Cakes by the end of October. There’s some tasty stuff on that order blank, so get yours in to her forthwith, or no later than fifthwith! If you lost your copy of the order blank, you can now download a PDF of the order form.

Past President RICH MATZELLE’s home on the Big Island in Hawai’i is only 12½ miles from the epicenter of the earthquake that hit them last Sunday. He reports lots of broken glass from things being thrown off shelves, and some minor structural damage, but they’re OK. Even had their power back on in just a short time. And the volcano goddess Pele apparently was not upset, which is a good thing.

Our Board of Directors has confirmed our Club’s contributions of $500 to Dr. Gil de Venicia’s CARE project in the Phillippines that we heard about recently, and $200 to the District’s Youth Exchange.

PP CHUCK BASFORD has done a great job organizing our crews for the refreshment stands at UW football and basketball games. He does need more help, though, so check the volunteer sheet on the web site and sign yourself up to take a couple of the open spots, or contact CHUCK directly. We raise good money for Lion service projects from these stands, and the more our members participate, the more of the funds go to our Club. It’s a chance to perform a service, work as a team with fellow Lions, and have some fun doing it. You might even catch a few minutes of a game from a backrow corner. ROSS ROYSTER encountered Past Pres. RANDY “JABO” JABLONIC at one of the Badger games, and relayed his “hello” to all of us.

OTTO FESTGE has moved. He and Evelyn now live at Middleton Glen, 3111 Pheasant Branch Rd, Apt. 106A, Middleton, 53562. His phone number is 836-3678. He’s making slow progress on his back trouble - give him a call. We’ll be glad to have him back when the back will let him come back.

Channel 27's Chief Meteorologist Bob Lindmeier was our speaker, introduced by JODI BURMESTER. As always, he gave us an interesting and informative talk on weather in general and TV weather in particular. He got his meteorology degree from UW Madison in 1979, started in TV in Wausau and then returned to Madison, where in addition to his TV work he is part owner of Weather Central, the firm that supplies weather information to over 200 newspapers and other private clients, and also creates weather TV programming that is used by other stations. It has grown tenfold in the past few years and now has 165 employees. Only a few meteorology grads are on TV - most of them work for the government, the military, or private companies. He regards global warming as scientifically proven, and says we are now at the warmest point in known history. The effects are showing on polar ice packs and glaciers, which is not good for polar bears. He noted that our local topography doesn’t affect storms - they are driven by jet stream winds at 20-30,000 feet, and a lake or a hill won’t change their course.