Next Meeting - Tuesday, November 18, at the Sheraton, at noon. GAIL STIRR is the Program Host, and she will introduce Assistant Professor Vanessa Simmering, Department of Psychology and Member, McPherson Eye Research Institute. The title of Prof. Simmering's talk is Visual Memory from Birth to Five Years. Obviously, a great deal of what a baby learns in infancy is through what he/she sees, and Prof. Simmering will give us some insight on how all that works. Want something to ponder until the meeting? Try to determine what is your earliest memory!

It is Very Important that you make the next meeting if you have ordered nuts, fruitcake or other treats from our Holiday Treat Sale. The stock has arrived, and Chairperson LINDA BERGREN will have your order ready for you to pick up. (And pay for, if possible.) She doesn't want to lug this stuff around for weeks, so PLEASE get there and get your order, or get another Lion to pick it up for you. And if you can, find some customers and sell the overstock items that are always available. We don't want LINDA to have to get a Food Cart license for her car!

At the last meeting TailTwister JEFF SCHNEIDER started the day off with a game of chance - you got to roll 3 dice, and if you got 3 of a kind you “won” - you didn't have to pay. The house had better odds on that one than the Golden Nugget in Vegas. Best the Editor could do was 2 out of 3.

It was announced that our Club will assist the Salvation Army by ringing the kettle bells again this year. The date is November 25. The location will be at West Towne Mall - the kettle located near the Sears entry to the mall. It is warm and dry in there, and the last we heard there were still two morning shifts left to be filled. We like to have two Lions working together on each shift - more fun and less tired feet. He who does everything, SCOTT GROVER, seems to have the list of signups. Call/see him to help out.

SCOTT GROVER (you've heard of him) reported that we finally got that stretch of highway cleaned up. SCOTT and his daughter Ann CAROTHERS, LINDA BERGREN and David York, MIKE KNOWLTON, JODI BURMESTER and CRAIG BUTLER got it done in less than two hours, and collected 5 big trash bags of rubbish, plus some miscellaneous building materials that wouldn't fit in the bags. It was sunny and dry (if you can remember what those words mean) and a good job well done.

The Fitchburg Lions Club sent us a letter of thanks for helping them out with ApelFest (MIKE KNOWLTON worked for us), and they included a check for our share of the proceeds for our Service Fund.

JODI BURMESTER, feeling that she didn't have enough to do, recently spent a day at Madison's Franklin School, in their “Principal For A Day” program. Franklin is one of 3 city schools having grades 4K thru 2, and JODI got first-hand look at what goes on these days in this environment, and in the process identified some needs we might be able to help with, including painting a map of the US on playground pavement, and maybe some vision screening. We probably will hear more about these later.

SCOTT noted the number of service projects we presently have, and there was discussion of these, along with the general theme that we should have one project each month. Among other things, that says we should not drag out the Holiday Treat and Rose Day sales over too much time, which would probably be popular with most everyone. More on this topic later, for sure!

Rumor has it that our Holiday Party will be on December 15, at the Vintage. We had such a good time there last year. Mark your calendars, that's a Monday (and no regular meeting for Tuesday). More on this topic, as well.