Next Meeting — August 5 — Summer is flying by. Speaker will be Monica KamalRossa, “Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin.” Her subject: “Rolling With Dignity.” SAL AL-ASHKAR is Program Host.

At our last meeting, Pres. JODI BURMESTER quelled the Lions with the bell to open the meeting, LINDA BERGREN led the song and PHIL INGWELL gave the invocation. We had two guests, JODI's daughter Leah and visiting international exchange student Mareva Lo Shun from Tahiti. TT TOM “DOC” STEVENS added to our erudition with three quotes to identify. Don't know whether any table got all three — Winston Churchill, Ben Franklin, Mark Twain.

Futures - The Concession Stand needs 14 workers for Aug. 30, and has 5. Bring your family (age 16 and up) and help in this fund-raising effort. We have a new and better location in GG. See JODI. District Governor's Welcome Golf Outing is at Stoughton on Aug. 12. Dinner only is $15, see DON NEVIASER for golf and signup. The welcome is for our own JOHN JENSON so we should be there. The Eye Bank Golf is on Aug 25. See DON NEVIASER for that one too. STEVE BRIGGS says our bowling team has a few splits in its lineup — see him to participate. A good opportunity to have some fun with fellow Lions and other service club members, and widen your circle of acquaintances.

Lion Birthdays for SAL AL-ASHKAR (14 years), MICHELLE VETTERKIND (16), WARREN RANDY (40!) were celebrated. Also recognized in absentia were GREG MILLER and JIM SCHUTZ, (27) and JIM KEMMETER, (28), who is almost recovered from his recent hip replacement. We hope to see him at the next meeting.

Pres. JODI summed up where we are (not where we want to be) and where we're going, and thanked last year's Board and active club members for their work, in her opening commentary on the coming year. She asked us all to recommit to service - take part in Club activities, serve, have some fun, make some new friends, go bowling, curling, golfing, learn about Lions. There are all kinds of opportunities — find something, and do it. Our committees are the gateway to opportunity and participation. One of the oldest sayings in the world applies — “you get something out only if you put something in.”

We need to Renew, Rebuild and Revitalize. That means we need some participation from everyone. The Board is at work on the committee structure, and it is expected that committees will report to the general membership on their work. On the service side, we will continue with all of our current projects, including cornea transport, eyeglass recycling and diabetes awareness. We will add two major projects, Sight Night, to collect used eyeglasses thru partnerships with the Madison School District and the Postal Service, and, next Spring, our first annual Walk For Sight and Health Fair at East Towne.

For fundraising, we will continue staffing the UW concession stands, our Rose Day flower sale, and the Holiday Treat candy, nut and cake sale. But we will begin the transition from sales-based fundraising to event-based fundraising with the Walk For Sight, and planning has begun for a poker tournament.

The year ahead offers much promise and opportunity. We all need to re-energize ourselves, and take a part in these new and continued activities. And, with CRAIG BUTLER as Membership Chairman, we all need to go out in the community and recruit some willing hands to help us. They are out there -we just need to find them, and when we find them, we need to give them something positive to do.

JODI is out in front, and she sounded the call to action. Now it is up to the rest of us to get up and get going! Remember that one of the reasons you joined Lions was, in the words of a history author, “To Do Something For Someone Else.” Your Lions Club gives you that opportunity — participate.

There is another angle to participation which must not be overlooked. It gives you an opportunity to meet and get to know other people. They have information, experience, advice and product to offer which you may want, and you likewise have these things to offer them. All of us benefit by being part of a group of active and committed people.

Lisa Marshall, from the Wis Dept of Tourism, told us again how important the tourist industry is to our state - $13 billion, to be exact. Visitors are back, except in a few sites like Lake Delton. 50% are Wis. residents and 25% from Chicago. New attractions this year are the Harley-Davidson museum in Milwaukee, the National Brewing Museum in Potosi (do they do Lion Conventions?) and a Civil War museum in Kenosha that spotlights the war's effect on Wisconsin.