Next meeting — Tuesday, Feb. 6 — MICHELLE VETTERKIND is the Program Host, and the speaker will be Malcolm Brett, Interim Director of Broadcasting for UW. He will talk about “Digital TV and Radio from a Public Broadcasting Perspective.” Presumably we will hear what the trends are for WHA-TV, WERN and WHA. The upcoming switch to all high-definition digital TV undoubtedly will add cost and complexity on the broadcasting end, as well as for those of us on the receiving end.

TaleTwister's Jackpot
$979

At our last meeting the TT worked the crowd as usual, increasing his drawing pot to $979.00. JIM SCHUTZ had the lucky raffle ticket, but not the right card — a diamond, the right idea but not a winner.

Pres. SAL opened the meeting, JIM SCHUTZ led the song, and JOHN JENSON gave the invocation. The meeting was called into formal session for our Club to vote on endorsing JOHN JENSON as a candidate for Vice District Governor in the election at the upcoming District Convention, March 9 and 10 at the Ramada in Beloit. Approval was moved, seconded and unanimously passed. The Multiple District (State) Convention will be May 17-18-19 at the Olympia Resort in Oconomowoc.

We had two guests — Thomas Machleidt, a research biotech scientist with Invitrogen, with TERRY SCHAR, and Kelly Miller, daughter of our speaker DENNIS URECHE.

Wisconsin Lions are organizing another aid trip to the Biloxi area to repair Katrina damage, and are in need of tools and supplies, and workers to use them. JOHN JENSON would know who to contact if you can help.

LINDA BERGREN is trying to clean up the last inventory from the Holiday Treat Sale. She has a few peanuts, cashews and chocolate peanuts, and more than a few fruit cakes. Help her out!

MICHELLE VETTERKIND conducted the Lion Birthday Party for celebrants DON NEVIASER, 5 years; MELISSA NOVINSKI, 13 years; CRAIG BUTLER and DICK POMO, 14 years; JOHN JENSON and JERRY HODDINOTT, 26 years; AL “MR. G” GOLDSTEIN, 46 years; OTTO FESTGE, 54 years; and THAYER BURNHAM, 59 years! Drawing winners for the gifts were ROSS ROYSTER, new-member-to-be WENDY WRIGHT, JOHN JENSON, DICK POMO, WALT PRIDHAM, DALE MUELLER, JERRY MILLER and SANDY LESLIE. No Thunderbird in the gifts this time!

MICHELLE then introduced our speaker, DENNIS URECHE, McFarland and former Madison Central Lion, who told us about his experience with gastric bypass surgery, and the almost unbelievable change it has made in and for him. Your editor was pretty close when he said “there’s only about half of the original DENNIS left”, because he was up to 455 pounds before the surgery and is around 210 now. The pictures he showed told the story pretty graphically — DENNIS was a BIG guy. It takes a lot of courage and determination to go through the surgical program, but he’d tried a lot of other methods and none had worked. He showed us the belt, pants and coat he’d worn at his peak — the belt just about matched his height and he now would have to take three or four steps before the coat/pants would start moving. The surgery involves a literal bypassing of almost all of the stomach, sending food intake into the intestine and greatly limiting the patient’s capacity. DENNIS said the basic reasons for his weight gain were probably partly genetic, but mostly he just ate too much and drank too much. He had to lose 40 lbs. before the surgery (which is done arthroscopically) so the tools would reach, and he went from 405 lbs. and a Body Mass Index of 51.9 in July ‘04 to 205 lbs. and a BMI of 26.3 in June ‘05.

He gave us a lot of information — there are 127 million overweight Americans, of whom 60 million are clinically obese and 9 million severely obese. (If you look around you in the mall, you can believe it.) Obesity is the 2nd leading cause of death, which is why he decided to fight it. 80% of the people who have surgery are women between the ages of 25 and 45, and he was 49 when he had it. He’d tried all the diets, gone to Weight Watchers for years, and none of it had worked. He got a lot of information and studied it extensively before deciding to do it. Most such patients have tried multiple diets without success, and are educated and knowledgeable people. He said, simply, “you’ve gotta want to do it!” There are three types of the surgery — a restrictive band around the stomach, an actual bypass of the stomach, and a combination of both. Afterwards, the patient must maintain an adequate diet for proper nutrition, use no alcohol, and increase their physical activity (which becomes much more doable.) It takes a lot of courage to elect such a course, and a fair amount to talk frankly about it afterwards, but we got a lot of good information from DENNIS. You should have been there.