Next time - Tuesday, May 17 - the Program Host is STEVE BRIGGS, and he will introduce Justin Doherty, Assistant Athletic Director for External Relations at the UW, who will tell us about: a review of the 2010-11 year, facilities projects in the works, economic impact of UW athletics, Dept. overall goals for their student-athletes, and then answer questions. Your editor wants to know how UW teams get to outlandish places like State College PA, Iowa City, and Grand Forks ND (dogsled?) and with all that's been going on with the pro draft, coaching change, recruiting (which never stops), twelve teams in the Big 10, etc. there should be plenty of things to be curious about. (OK, grammatically, “about which to be curious.” When one of his speeches was criticized on that score, Winston Churchill replied “that is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put!” )

At the last meeting, Pres. JIM SCHUTZ opened the meeting, LINDA BERGREN led the song, and after a brief ecclesiastical tussle MICHELLE VETTERKIND gave the invocation. DALE MUELLER, always prepared, can save one of his invos for another time.

On behalf of Flower Day Chairman JERRY HODDINOTT and his committee, MELISSA NOVINSKI gave another of her meticulously detailed reports on our Sale. We sold 410 bouquets and 62 vases, with a gross sales of $9,440 which should net us close to $6,000. Almost 70% of the money is already in!! Ten people, ROSS ROYSTER, DAN STOUDT, CRAIG BUTLER, MELISSA NOVINSKI, JIM SCHUTZ, Don Neviaser, GAIL STIRR, Dave Mies, STEVE BRIGGS and TOM STEVENS, sold 77% of the total, and there were 17 other Lions who sold or made donations and will be listed next week. As usual, MELISSA thoughtfully made a copy of the report for the editor, thus not overtaxing his new electric ears.

Those who delivered and/or did the routing: LINDA BERGREN, STEVE BRIGGS, JODI BURMESTER, CRAIG BUTLER, SCOTT GROVER, JERRY HODDINOTT, PHIL INGWELL, JOHN JENSON, JIM KEMMETER, CHARLIE and Trish LIBERTY, MELISSA NOVINSKI, WALT PRIDHAM, ROSS ROYSTER, TERRY SCHAR, JIM SCHUTZ, TOM STEVENS, DAN STOUDT, and MICHELLE VETTERKIND. These are Very Important People, because selling is only half the project - we have to get them there.

We had one delivery which the recipient apparently did not find until six days later, which brought the suggestion that if you must deliver where no one is home, make a phone call later and leave a message if you can. Apparently the quality of the flowers was good, and there were few replacements. JIM KEMMETER handled that necessary duty.

JACK HEIM reminded us that he's participating in a Walk to benefit the Foundation Fighting Blindness. He's going all the way to Milwaukee to do it, and would welcome some more sponsors.

It fell to Pres. JIM to introduce our speaker, PDG RICK DALUGE, representing the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin. He started out by thanking our Club for providing transporters and dispatch, and for helping with their Golf Outing (which will be on Aug. 22 this year, at the Oaks) and then showed us a picture of the Eye Bank's new building on International Lane. It, and its equipment, cost about $1.3 million USD, of which all but about $400K has been raised. About 43,000 corneas were transplanted in the US last year, and another 12,000 internationally, and it is the most common and the most successful transplant operation. There were 1034 transplants in Wisconsin. One big improvement in the process is that they are now able to recover just the cornea for 90% of the donations, which is easier, quicker, and more acceptable to many donor families. All of them in Wisconsin are transported by Lion volunteers. There is an intricate balance between supply and demand, and among other things that resulted last year in Wis. importing 42 corneas and exporting 43. The Eye Bank is an active supporter of the Wisconsin Donor Registry, which provides a way for organ donors to make their wishes known ahead of time. You can reach it at YesIWillWisconsin.com. RICK gave us an excellent presentation on this important Lion service, and now that we know more about it we can be even more proud of what we do for others. “Because of what I do today, someone will see tomorrow!!”