Next Meeting - Tuesday, August 3. MICHELLE VETTERKIND is the Program Host, and our speaker will be Erik Gammel, National Director of R.E.A.C.H. A Child. "Reading Enjoyment Affects Childhood Happiness." Obviously, something about encouraging children to read, not easy today when there is so much electronic gadgetry to distract everyone. McGuffey meets Kindle, perhaps. But we'll hear about it.

Last meeting, new Pres. JIM SCHUTZ opened the meeting. It being summer vacation, there weren't many Lions there, but VP LINDA BERGREN led the song without the usual averaging process on the pitch, and SCOTT GROVER gave the invocation. There were no guests, but there was one visitor, Wayne Schultz, a former Madison Evening Lion, who was helping out a Lion friend by hawking raffle tickets from the Sheboygan Falls Club. A car and cash prizes, and not too many tickets to be sold. Wayne can be reached at 608-279-3588 if you are in a gambling mood. Not to be outdone, DAN STOUDT said he had raffle tickets from Ducks Unlimited, with only 2000 tickets to be sold @$10.00

With no TailTwister present, life was calmer and less expensive, but maybe also duller. MELISSA NOVINSKI announced the final report on Flower Day - all the money is IN! This is probably a record, and produced an ovation from those present. As predicted, we made $7,161.00 USD. Great job, JERRY, MELISSA and Lions! Just about all of us, in fact. Nearly everyone was in on this one.

SCOTT GROVER reiterated that we have a bigger and better concession stand at Camp Randall this year, which means we can make more money if we can get the Lions there to do it. The stand will also operate during the WIAA high school football playoffs, and we have a three-game stint to cover on the Friday of that week. Sign up on the website or talk to SCOTT.

DON FENNO reminded us of the Eye Bank/MCLC Golf Outing on Aug. 23. Come and play, bring some friends, and rustle up some prize donations. Talk to DON.

LINDA BERGREN conducted the Lion Birthday party, honoring the years of service of GAIL STIRR and JACK HEIM (1), MICHELLE VETTERKIND (18), GREG MILLER (29), JIM SCHUTZ (29, JIM KEMMETER (30) and WARREN RANDY (42). It was reported that WARREN is recovering from surgery, on the mend, but not ready to play a full season yet. Winners in the drawing for gifts from those present were DON FENNO, JERRY MILLER and SCOTT GROVER. No bottles of Thunderbird were seen.

The Transplant Games are coming up this weekend, and the "Finish Lion" is being sponsored by area Lions. JODI probably has info.

Pres. JIM offered a suggestion to help with recruiting - if you know someone who might be interested, try to get them to take part in an activity with you - an Eye Bank transport run is the best. You get a chance to talk Lionism to them, and they can see for themselves what Lions do.

Pun Jabs of the week -

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then, it hit me.
A sign on the Drug Rehab Center said "Keep Off The Grass."
A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to the hospital. When his grandmother called to ask how he was, the nurse said "no change yet."
A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.