Next Time - Will be Tuesday, April 20 - The day after Flower Sale delivery day. It's a business meeting, but you can bet the first order of business will be the Flower Sale - any leftover items to be delivered, surplus flowers to be sold, comments and conclusions. And a request to turn in sale money ASAP to our fundraising recordkeeper and depot manager MELISSA NOVINSKI. There are a lot worse things in life than having MELISSA come after you, but don't make her do it. Turn your money in!! Knowing Pres. JODI, she will have plenty of other things to talk about as well.

Flower Sale Chairman JERRY HODDINOT can probably use some more help with flower delivery on Monday, 4/19. The sale depot is at the Edgewater again , right in one corner of the lobby, and by 8:00 or so they will be sending out deliveries as fast as they can. If you can possibly help, even for a couple of hours, let JERRY know. He also needs help doing the routing this weekend. Call him at 274-5628 for the time and place. We have a flyer which will be attached to all our flower bouquets, telling the recipient who Lions are and what we do. It is very well done and a good recruiting tool.

At the last meeting, Pres. JODI opened the meeting early - there was mention of a "tight schedule", a phrase bequeathed to us by our late PP BOB BOHN. JIM SCHUTZ led the song, and ROSS ROYSTER gave the invocation. One guest, former MCLC Lion LuAnn Paepke, gave us a preview of our program for May 4, which will be about, and given by, "Badger Bots". More in the next Tale.

JODI reported that the organization of the new Madison East Breakfast Lions Club is in progress. They will meet on the first and third Tuesdays of the month (sound familiar?), but at 7:30 AM for about an hour. Location will be the community room at the new HyVee supermarket on E. Washington Ave.

New Clubs need Guiding Lions to advise them on protocol and other Lion information, and SCOTT GROVER, JODI and JOHN JENSON have been trained and certified to help them out. That's a pretty impressive group of talented and knowledgeable Lions. If you know someone who might be a good member for that Club, let one of the Guiding Lions know.

JIM KEMMETER reported that our Club and the others in our area accomplished 51 eye tissue transports in March, involving 46 different Lions. Our Club had the most - 16 transporters and 19 missions. 9 of ours and 17 of the total were local in the immediate Madison area. What JIM didn't report was that he did the dispatching for all but one of those transports. That's a lot of calling!

SCOTT GROVER'S Lion Birthday was last month, but he brought his gift last week, so MICHELLE VETTERKIND ran a quick drawing and JACK HEIM was the winner. AL GOLDSTEIN sent a gift from afar the month before, and it translated in part to mints on the tables for dessert, which used to be our standard practice. Your editor is enjoying fine Kona coffee for breakfast these days, as "RICH MATZELLE" (by stand-in) drew TERRY's name last meeting for the gift he sent from Hawai'i.

Membership Chair CRAIG BUTLER is planning a door-to-door canvas in the downtown area, seeking members for our Club, similar to what was done for the new East Club. We used to have a lot of members who could walk to meetings, and it would be good to do that again. If you know someone who works Downtown, talk to CRAIG about recruiting them. Prospects certainly don't have to work in the downtown area, of course - just look around our meeting room. Just find someone, and ASK THEM!

Our own JACK HEIM was the featured speaker, assisted by his new guide, Guillermo. {Who will be known familiarly as "G", pronounced "ghee" (not "jee")}. JACK just returned from Guide Dogs for the Blind, in San Rafael, CA where he and G met and trained together. G is JACK's second dog from that source, replacing Walker, who has retired but will stay with the family. JACK says the two dogs get along fine, except that G can't get Walker to play with him. Guide Dogs is one of 12 certified schools in the US, and they have a $32 million budget. They breed their own dogs, Black and Yellow Labs, Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds and Lab-Golden crosses, and the puppies are raised for 12-16 months by volunteers. They graduate about 365 person/dog pairs per year. The training days start at 6:15 AM and include morning and afternoon sessions with the dog, plus meals and evening sessions on how to properly care for your dog. They don't miss a detail - the dogs are trained to "go" on concrete, because they may often be in urban settings like airports where there is no grass. The owner is the navigator, directing the dog which way to go, but the dog has veto power, refusing to go into a dangerous situation. JACK had 6 new students and 6 retrainers (2nd , or more, dog) in his class - the school will continue to supply a previous student with replacement dogs as necessary. The average length of service is 7+ years, and Walker served for 9 years. A very interesting program.