Our next meeting is Sept. 4 - where did summer go? (Answer, downstream.) Anyway, VP JODI BURMESTER is the Program Host, and she will present a program entitled “Celebrate What’s Right With The World.” Considering what we are bombarded with every day, we need this. It is a DVD by photographer Dewitt Jones, using photography and dialogue to help viewers approach their lives with celebration, confidence and grace. It asks, do we see possibilities? Do we really believe they’re there? He assures us that there is always more than one right answer, and that celebrating what’s right helps us to see solutions for the problems that are always before us. Sounds interesting, to say the least.

At our last meeting the TT planned another nefarious scheme to relieve us of our cash, but when he tried to get the speaker involved in a “drawing” it appeared that she had run off and hid, at least for the moment. So he drew anyway, and the winner was our all-time drawing expert, ROSS ROYSTER. No word on what he “won.” Pres. DON opened the meeting, LINDA BERGREN led the song (in the key of Z, we think, having tried the piano) and we all finished at the same time. PHIL INGWELL gave the invocation.

SCOTT GROVER reminded us that spots are filling for the UW concession stands this season. We need more volunteers to keep the income for our service funds coming. It’s a chance to raise some money, work with Lions from our Club and others, and have some fun doing it. The signup is on the web, or you can contact SCOTT if you’re not computerized.

MELISSA NOVINSKI and SCOTT GROVER are participating in the Combat Blindness fundraising 5K Walk o n Sept. 8. If you can’t join them in person you can be with them in spirit by signing up to sponsor them. See either MEL or SCOTT to find out how.

JODI BURMESTER has tickets for the “Sports Raffle For The Kids.” Money and stubs must be turned in to JODI by next meeting, Sept. 4. Our Club gets half the proceeds from the ones we sell.

Past Pres. SAL AL-ASHKAR has agreed to be Program Chairman this year, and the first meeting of his Committee will be in the Edgewater bar at 11:30 before our next meeting on 9/4. SAL will need help from all of us - if you’d like to be on the committee by all means be there, and if you have an idea for a program, or, even better, a possible speaker in mind, be sure to let SAL know.

STEVE BRIGGS says the Civic League Bowling League is about to start, but he needs some more bowlers or it may start without our Club for the first time in 40 years. We think it’s still on Wednesday night, it’s a handicap league so you don’t have to be a star athlete, and the goal is to have enough team members so that participants don’t have to bowl every week. It’s a lot of fun trying to beat the whey out of the Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimists, etc. - all on a friendly basis. Contact STEVE to take part.

Pres. DON introduced our speaker Rachelle Richardson, who showed us a film she made recently in Zimbabwe. The country is a disaster - the government does nothing, and 35% of the 12 million population are HIV positive. Of the 12 million, 1 million are orphans of the epidemic. Primitive is an utterly inadequate description - the people have virtually nothing, and that includes not enough food. When the fortunate few do get medications, there is no food to take them with. The film shows the work being done by Mashambanzou Care Trust, which serves the poor in Harare. They provide food, medicine, counseling, have a small children’s hospital and two palliative care facilities for 22 adults. They specialize in finding homes for orphaned children in their extended families, and follow up with support, job training and basic education. They also provide school uniforms, books and food supplements for children. It is run by the Little Company of Mary Sisters, whose devotion to the task was expressed by one who said “if there is something I can do today, I must do it.” They simply do the best they can with what they have to work with. You couldn’t help noticing that children are the same everywhere - groups laughing, smiling, making cheerful faces at visiting strangers - even these who have almost nothing. Makes you think hard about how much you really have, even on what you might have thought was a bad day. To help Mashambanzou, contact Rachelle Richardson at 1111 Garfield St.,Madison 53711, or rachelleri@sbcglobal.net.