Next Time - Tuesday, July 6 - Independence will have been celebrated, and our new Lion Year begins, with a new set of old officers ready to go. That "WHOOSH" you hear is not a windstorm, it's Past President JODI's sigh of relief. She will probably not have any trouble finding something to occupy her time, though. She's done a great job of keeping MCLC active and moving with the times, and we were lucky to have her. STEVE BRIGGS is the Program Host, and he will introduce Susan Schmitz of Downtown Madison, Inc. She'll give us an overview of her organization, and then talk about some of the current downtown issues.

The last event (meeting) normally reported on in this space, did not occur, due to overactivity on the part of Jupiter Pluvius (the rain god.) The day of the planned picnic dawned cold and wet, and didn't get better until about the time we were supposed to convene. Of course, the entire venue would have been sopping wet, and it still couldn't have been called warm, so, like the Cubs, "wait 'til next year!"

A little reflection - when your editor (who was a little nearsighted) joined the Madison Lions Club, it met at a hotel in the central city, and nearly 100 Lions attended. Most could walk to the meeting, or get there in five minutes if they had to drive. We sang "America", said the Pledge of Allegiance, and often had a professional to give the invocation. We stood by barrels and kerosene lanterns at the entrances to Vilas Park to entertain tens of thousands at a fireworks show. ED NEESE was the Secretary, and did the weekly Bulletin in a stream-of-consciousness style that emphasized how many of our members actively participated. There were 15 Lions (later 16) on our Board of Directors. We entertained visually-handicapped students from the Madison School System at a December meeting, sponsored a poster contest and regularly heard from the farm community through the County Agent. Lions Camp was a collection of flimsy cabins with primitive (that's being generous) shower facilities and a bunch of canoes. The Sight and Blind Committee chairman got phone calls from Madison school nurses - "Janie is sitting in my office crying, because her glasses got broken on the playground and she knows her family can't afford to replace them." There was no more heartwarming moment than to make the return call a short time later - "Tell Janie to be at the eye doc's office at 10:00 tomorrow, and she'll get new glasses at no charge!" We bought expensive medical technology for the UW Hospital's Ophthalmology Department. We collected used eyeglasses.

Times change. There are good reasons why many of these things are now done differently or not at all. The editor has had four eye surgeries, without which he would have been blind or nearly so, and can see about 20/20 with both eyes, glasses and good lighting. But needs still exist, our motto is still "We Serve", and we are still here. We still sing, Pledge, and someone volunteers an invocation. Our members come from the far side of Middleton, the Dane County airport area and everywhere in between. You can work with fellow Lions before tens of thousands at Camp Randall or the Kohl Center. You can be a courier for the Eye Bank - "because of what I do today, someone will see tomorrow." Our fund-raisers support world-wide activity - Lions Camp is a beautiful complex of modern buildings serving many different groups with disabilities, providing an experience the campers would never have without us. (They still have canoes, but also sailboats and paddle boats. And a rope course and archery range.) We have provided housing for earthquake victims from Turkey to Haiti. We helped rebuild villages in Indonesia destroyed by the tsunami. We help fight blindness all over the world. We still support the UW Hospital's eye research and treatment. We still collect used eyeglasses. The Lions Tale is distributed in the blink of an eye to most readers over the internet, though the content hasn't changed all that much. We still note that most of our members are participating in various Club activities. The TailTwister still confounds the members by ever-new ways to extract small fines and otherwise stir up the animals.

If you are a Madison Central Lion, you should feel good about yourself. You have a good group of friends who you still get to see twice a month or more, and a vast army of fellow Lions all over the world who, like you, are dedicated to helping those who need it and are getting it done. And you should exert yourself to offer these same experiences to others. As a veteran Lion with lots of awards on his gold vest said years ago during a conversation over lunch on Lions Day at Lions Camp when asked how he had recruited so many members, "Just ask!"