Next Meeting - May 3, First Tuesday in May, and maybe it will be Spring. It's not snowing (yet) as this is written, so Winter must be over. Maybe. It will be our business meeting for May, and there will be business to hear about, report on, and plan for. So far as we know, there will be no monkeys present, and therefore, no ...... Unless, of course, the TailTwister shows up. As Officer In Charge of Mirth, he has a duty to perform, but often it ends up more like “Jeopardy!” - one wrong answer and you lose all your money.

At our last meeting, Pres. MIKE KNOWLTON rang the bell, and Treasurer SCOTT (“Lay ye up treasures in Heaven?”) GROVER gave the invocation. No limit to the man's talents. We got the mandatory last-minute reminders of the logistics of Rose Day from MELISSA NOVINSKI, and we'll hear how it all played out this next week.

PDG JOHN JENSON reminded us of the upcoming State Convention, or which he just happens to be Chairman. If you read the front-page story in the Wisconsin Lion (you did, didn't you??) that came this week you will understand how much goes into the planning for this event, and how much you can get out of it if you go. If you aren't signed up but want to go, see JOHN. He knows the right people even if your registration is late.

We had one guest at the last meeting, Ryan Seib, introduced by SCOTT GROVER. Ryan's been corresponding with us, and finally got a chance to visit.

Speaker Lloyd Cohen (who was introduced by LINDA BERGREN because Program Host DAN STOUDT was ill) told us about his experience of working his way up to #1 on the Transplant List, and his ultimate success as a kidney transplant recipient. The first try at transplant didn't go through - he got to the hospital and then found out that they could not use the donated kidney. Talk about highs and lows - that must be a tough one! But fortunately for him, before too long another became available when a young Amish man was killed when someone ran into his buggy with a truck, and that was a winner. They plugged it into his system somehow, without removing either of his two failing ones, and he's now doing just fine with three. The medications are heavy - he took as many as 40 pills a day at first and is now down to a paltry 17 per day, which he will have to take for the rest of his life, primarily to prevent rejection.

The gratitude Lloyd has for the donor and his family, and the medical team that treated him, was very evident throughout his presentation. His first thought after he woke up from the surgery seemed to have been “How can I give back?” and he has found numerous ways. He is a volunteer advocate for transplant patients, who can talk with him on any subject with complete confidentiality, and he is able to give them information they feel they can trust because “he's been there.” (It must also help to have proven success sitting and talking with an apprehensive prospective transplant recipient.) In addition, he volunteers in other ways, including being an Eye Tissue Transport mission volunteer for the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin, and he pulled out a Lions Club hat to prove it.

A lot of people benefit from the service of volunteers, and most of the time they are separated by time and place and will never meet. Lion service has a lot of those. It is a moving experience to meet and hear first-hand someone who has benefitted from the efforts of others, is aware of it, and eager to talk about it. If you visit Lions Camp during one of the summer sessions (and you should) you might have that experience yourself, as the Editor did. I was at Lions Camp, and walked by the dining hall during the lunch hour. You could hear the happy racket clearly, outside. I thought “sounds just like the Boy Scout Camp I went to as a kid.” And then I thought, “Exactly!” That is why we do it, so kids with limitations can forget about them and be just like everybody else for a time. (The Editor gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Lions MELISSA NOVINSKI and SCOTT GROVER in filling the gaps in his notes due to his inadequate ears.)

News Flash!! Another successful highway cleanup! Lions LINDA BERGREN, DALE BURMESTER, SCOTT GROVER, JOHN JENSON, MIKE KNOWLTON, and volunteers Quintin Bovary, Samantha Carothers, and David York teamed up to beautify County TT on Saturday. The weather was cloudy and cool, but the rain held off (exactly) until we were done.