Next Meeting - Tuesday, Aug. 17, at the venerable Edgewater. Pres. JIM SCHUTZ, continuing the practice of PP JODI (who has vanished from the planet), promises a business meeting. There never seems to be a lack of business to be discussed, but to start things off we will tell you that SCOTT GROVER, Concessions Chairman (which does not mean he gives up easily, fortunately) will be asking for more volunteers for the Camp Randall stand, which we have been told is bigger and better than the old one. “Better” means we should do a higher sales volume. “Bigger” means it takes more people to run it. Sign up on the web, or talk to SCOTT. Family and friends, who appear to be at least age 16, are more than welcome to help out.

Pres. JIM SCHUTZ opened the last meeting, and LINDA BERGREN led the song and gave the invocation. TailTwister JERRY HODDINOTT was present, but unaccountably silent. This does not, however, bode well for the future.

Our Club was represented at the Transplant Games festivities by JIM SCHUTZ, PHIL INGWELL, JOHN JENSON and JODI BURMESTER. No report on what they actually did, but there was a Lion presence, and during the ceremonial part of the Games, Lions Clubs were honored for their role as tissue couriers for the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin.

DON FENNO reminded us that the annual Eye Bank/Central Lions Golf Outing will be Aug. 23. Come, play, and bring some friends.

We finished up the July birthday celebration for three Lions who couldn't make the previous meeting, honoring GAIL STIRR, JIM KEMMETER and MICHELLE VETTERKIND for their years of service. Drawing winners were SCOTT GROVER, JIM SCHUTZ, and TailTwister JERRY HODDINOT, who dug into his pocket to pay the “delivery charge.” He probably holds that against us, too.

STEVE BRIGGS, former Head Bowling Ball, said our Club could once again field a team in the Civic League as we have done in the past. The league bowls on Wed. nights at Badger Bowl, and we would need 8 or 9 dedicated bowlers to keep a full team going. If you have an interest, talk to STEVE.

Pres. JIM announced that he was donating two tickets to the Packers-Lions game at Lambeau to the Club for a fund-raising contest. Details are obscure, given your editor's impaired hearing, but it involves having several members' lists of five accomplishments or events published, with one of the five to be fraudulent. Contestants have to correctly identify the bogus items. Further details and clarifications TBA. JIM's list, to start off: 1.) Traveled to Rome and met the Pope, 2). Slept with Ray Charles, 3.) Helped get Jim Lovell into the Apollo program, 4.) Was tailed, in Leningrad, by the KGB. 5.) Was President of the Madison Flamenco Dance Group. Your editor believes only one is true and the rest are bogus, but JIM swears otherwise. We'll see. We'll also find out if anyone else can top that list of possibilities.

Our speaker was Erik Gammell of REACHaChild. Several years ago, Realtor Paul Gilbertson and his wife Chris were looking for a way to help children in crisis. His first effort, at the Gays Mills flood, didn't work too well, and he figured out that he needed to work with first responders, who see the problem first. So, a “Back Packet” was created, primarily containing books, that could be handed out by police, fire and EMS personnel, and the organization has been successful in obtaining donated books and getting them out to emergency personnel, who have found them useful not only in times of stress but also as handouts in “community relations” situations, helping to build positive relationships between children and police officers in particular. They have placed the packets in 15,000 police cars in 11 states, and also given them to caseworkers in social service agencies. Response has been positive, to the point where one of their current problems is where to store donated books and materials until they can be distributed. They have a website at: www.REACHaChild.org.

(Pun jab of the week: The short fortune-teller that escaped from the slammer was a small medium at large.)