Next Meeting — July 15, Tuesday, Edgewater. Speaker will be Lisa Marshall, Public Relations Manager for the Wisconsin Dept. Of Tourism. We all know that tourist dollars are very important to the Wisconsin economy, and we will hear what the State is doing in the light of today’s conditions — high gas prices, and Lake Delton having gone down the pipe, literally. SAL and KAREN are the Program Hosts.

Our last meeting featured an abbreviated schedule, so that members could attend the funeral of THAYER BURNHAM, who was, at 95, our oldest and longest-serving member, having joined in 1948. Those who went heard, frequently, the description “gentleman”, which THAYER certainly was. He was also generous, kind, and one of those loyal Lions who took a part in all of our Club activities, right up to the last year. There were a number of "Thayerisms" repeated by a family member which made all those present smile, and your editor has hopes of obtaining a copy. From memory, (regarding cars) "they call them 'bumpers' for a reason," "if you go to your car and open the door with the remote and the trunk lid goes up, you shouldn’t be driving", (regarding his pet birds) "the hatching of the first finch egg is exciting. The hatching of the 15th finch egg is problematic." (Sports) "Remember, if the Badgers or the Packers lose, it’s only a game." Your editor has one of his own, remembering that all things biological fell under Thayer’s city job — some years ago, during a winter like our last one, I remarked to Thayer on a January day about how cold it was. His response, "haven’t had a mosquito complaint in more than two weeks!"

Pres. JODI opened the first meeting of our Lion year by ringing the bell, called on PP DON NEVIASER to lead the song, which he did with elan, and DALE MUELLER gave the invocation.

DALE ST. JOHN announced that HAL OTTERBACK was moving to the Oak Park Rehab Center on Cottage Grove Rd. Visitors would surely be welcome. DALE also said that he was going to keep the Eyeglass Recycling operation going until HAL got back, but he could use some help, both in reading and sorting glasses and the physical job of moving them in and out of the M&I Bank’s basement room. See DALE to volunteer.

Pres. JODI announced that the signup sheets for our committees were due - either fill one out on paper or do it on line, but let’s every one step up to the job of keeping our Club active. Pick out a couple things you’d like to do and volunteer to do them. Every single committee job is important to Club operation and service, and that’s what we do. We particularly need workers at the Camp Randall concession stand for football — bring family, friends and neighbors to give a hand. Anyone over age 16 can help us raise funds for our service.

We think JODI said the new Board would meet on July 23 at JT Whitney’s — we’ll get that confirmed next Tuesday.

MELISSA NOVINSKI triumphantly announced that all the Rose Day money is in — undoubtedly a record! We made about $7,300, and all who took part can feel proud of the job we did under somewhat difficult circumstances. Thank you all!

Past Pres. DICK POMO was visiting, refugeeing from the heat in the Valley of the Sun. He brought along his new girl friend Tanya, a yellow Lab guide dog, who DICK says is the best thing that has happened to him in a long time. He’s now experiencing the extra freedom of movement that he'd always heard about. Good to hear, and DICK certainly was his old self. He even sparred once again with JOHN JENSON when JODI reported that JOHN was now officially the District Governor for Dist. 27D-1, having been formally installed at the International Convention in Thailand. We'll want to hear more about that.

PID PHIL INGWELL did an express job on installing our new officers and directors. Pres. JODI, VPs KAREN AL-ASHKAR and (for 1 year only) TERRY SCHAR, Sec. JOHN, Treas. MELISSA ABBOTT, TailTwister Dr. TOM, Membership Director CRAIG BUTLER, and Directors SCOTT GROVER, THEMIS FLORES RAMOS, JAN CICHOCKI and STEVE BRIGGS and PP DON NEVIASER will need the support of all of us to keep our service and our fellowship growing.