Next Meeting - Tuesday, May 7- 7:00 A.M. - Breakfast meeting. We will discuss projects - Present, future and past, with emphasis on the present (Vision Screening May 10) and the immediate future. No doubt there will be reports on those recently completed, like the Flower Sale and the Highway Cleanup. We are busier than you think!

You should have received Scott's e-mail regarding the vision screening. Warner Park, Friday, May 10, starting at 8:30 AM for setup. The event opens at 9:00 and will finish at 12 noon. Help is needed in all phases of the operation - crowd management, record keeping, reception, all non-technical but necessary, and of course the screening itself. Training is not necessary - there is lots to do. E-mail Scott, or see him next Tuesday at dawn, to participate. It should go without saying that this is one of the best projects we do - you have hands-on, face-to-face contact with people that we can help, and each time we do it we find people that we do help.

There will be a Lions State Golf Outing Scramble held on May 16th at Pleasant View Golf Course in with three sides), $8 Pro Shop credit, drink ticket and awards ceremony. More info at this link. JODI BURMESTER put the word out, and there is some hope that you won't have to play in a parka.

We have lost a senior Lion. SAM SANFILLIPPO passed away last week. In his younger years SAM was an active Lion. Possibly the most remembered thing he did was to buy the remaining fruit cakes at the end of our annual Fruit Cake Sale and store them for use at receptions at the funeral home. While SAM had the gravitas required by his profession, he didn't bring it to Lion meetings, but he had a readily available store of quips and hunting and fishing stories, and the conversation was always lively at his table. His legendary hunting and fishing trophy room in the basement of the funeral home astonished all who saw it. He also fought all over Europe in WWII, which your editor didn't know. Those reading this who did not know SAM missed something.

At our last meeting, Pres. LINDA opened the meeting, JIM SCHUTZ led the song, and ROSS ROYSTER gave the invocation. LINDA noted the presence of some Lions we don't always get to see, JIM RUNDELL, PHIL STOWITTS and SPARKY WATTS. They were featured members of the Lion Birthday Party, led by MICHELLE VETTERKIND, which also included MICHELLE herself, SCOTT GROVER and TERRY SCHAR, and together they have given their community (however widely you define it) over 300 years of Lion service!

Lion ULRICH FELDMANN, from Bad Kissingen, Bavaria, was a visitor introduced by JOHN JENSON. He served in NATO Headquarters, where he became friends with Lt. Col. Brian Rausch, USA, who is now retired and living here in Fitchburg, and he has come to visit. Lion ULRICH now coordinates humanitarian aid efforts for his Lion District and the German Armed Forces. Your editor was anxious to meet him, because he shares a first name with my late (SchweitzerDeutsch) grandfather, and I told him “you are only the second ULRICH I have met in my entire life!”

JOHN JENSON reminded us that the State (Multiple District) Convention will be at the same place as the recent District Convention, the Marriott in Middleton. Another chance to see Lionism in action, on a bigger stage. See JOHN to get yourself registered - the Club pays some of the costs.

MICHELLE VETTERKIND introduced our speaker, Todd Pritchard from Wisconsin Emergency Management. Several recent events, as recently as yesterday, have shown the wisdom of doing advance planning for the unthinkable, and Todd went over the natural possibilities of ice, snow, flood, tornado and fire, as well as some of the emergencies created by the nut cases present in today's society. Some of the obvious things, like seat belts and smoke detectors, most of us do, but there are more things you can do. Chief among them, be informed - know of impending threats, like severe weather, be alert for warnings, and plan ahead on where you will go and what you will do if something happens. He made one very important point - if a warning is issued, ACT TO PROTECT YOURSELF! Inquiry after the Joplin, MO tornado disclosed that a lot of people did in fact hear the warnings but did not act on them in time. If there is a tornado warning, don't look for it out the window, get to the basement or other place of safety! And, prepare for the most obvious aftereffect - widespread power outage. Flashlights, food that doesn't require cooking, water, those sort of things.