July Centennial Service Activities

Can we say AWESOME??!!  Clubs in 49A started the new Lion year out busy!

• Soldotna
• Sharing the Vision:  Picked up 62 pair of used eyeglasses from collection boxes around town and shipped them to the recycle center in North Pole.
• Palmer
• Engaging our Youth:   In the planning stages for their Special Santa Project.
• Engaging Our Youth:  Play 60 with the Seahawks, an event designed to encourage children to get out and play 60 minutes a day.  
• Relieving the Hunger:  Helped at a food bank.  
• Engaging Our Youth:  Big Brothers and Big Sisters golf outing and fundraiser.  
• Wasilla
• Sharing the Vision:   Vision screening at the Ptarmigan Health Fair.
• Engaging Our Youth:  Play 60 with the Seahawks, an event designed to encourage children to get out and play 60 minutes a day.  
• Relieving the Hunger:  Senior Meals on Wheels
• Protecting Our Environment:  Collected 200 inkjet cartridges.  Funds raised will support the PET scooter project.  
• Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions
• Relieving the Hunger:  Donated food items to a local food pantry.  
• Sharing the Vision:  Collected used eyeglasses from collection sites.  Provided $189 in financial assistance for an eye exam.  
• Protecting Our Environment:  Set up collection boxes around town and collected 25 cartridges.  
• Relieving the Hunger:  Weekly help at the local food bank.  
• Protecting Our Environment:  Litter pick up.
• Engaging Our Youth:  Assisted the Boy Scout Troop that the club sponsors at the annual concession booth for those in the parade staging area.  
• Sutton Racing
• Engaging Our Youth:  Motocross Race where members and youth of Sutton put on a race for all to compete in and the community to enjoy.  
• Eagle River Sleeping Lady Mountain
• Engaging Our Youth:  Hair and face painting booth at the 3rd of July booth. 
• Sharing the Vision:  Bear Paw Parade.  We pulled our Vision Trailer in the Bear Paw parade, pulled small wagons filled with candy and passed out treats along the parade route. Thousands of bystanders along the 3 mile walk cheered us on and thanked us for all we do in the community!  
• Engaging Our Youth:  Chamber Luncheon.  Start of Bear Paw we attended Chamber luncheon and donated 2 community scholarships for outstanding community service! We reviewed 13 portfolio's and essays to choose 2 outstanding students for their volunteering in our community. This is done annually during our Bear Paw festival.  
• Sharing the Vision:  Vision screening at the 3rd of July event.  
• Anchorage Mt. McKinley
• Relieving the Hunger:  FISH Golf tournament.  Four members participated in a golf tournament to support FISH.  
• Relieving the Hunger:  Donated $1,000 to Food Bank of Alaska.
• Relieving the Hunger:  Delivered food boxes to the needy.  
• Sharing the Vision:  Members volunteered at Campabilities, a camp for the blind.
• Mountain View
• Engaging our Youth:  East High School Football Players volunteer at the Mt View Lions Community Park.  59 East High School students participating in the football program plus a dozen coaches and parents volunteered with 13 Mt View Lions in various improvement projects at Mt View Lions Community Park. The boys and girls replaced boards on the bleachers surrounding the baseball fields, painted park equipment, cleaned bear-resistant trash containers, mowed & trimmed the park. Activities lasted over five hour including a lunch break of hamburgers & hot dog with lots of delicious & festive picnic fixings. The East High School students totally enjoyed working around the park and the Mt View Lions loved the help! 

Two clubs have already completed all four Centennial Service Challenges in the first month!  

#Lions100

Lunch at the Glory Hole

As part of the World Wide Week of Service, Fight Hunger and Poverty, the Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions provided and served lunch at our local emergency shelter.

Lions Tom Dawson, Mukhya and Hari Dev Khalsa, and Donna Hurley

Lion Donna Hurley was the lead on this project and did a super job!  Our menu was simple but delicious:  baked King Salmon, balsamic rice, peas, Hawaiian rolls, and applesauce and peaches for dessert.  

Lion Tommy Dawson

A huge thank you to Jerry's Meats for giving us a good discount on fresh caught winter King!  

Lions Hari Dev Khalsa, Tom Dawson, and Mukhya Khalsa

We served about 30 men and women, some coming back for thirds!  And who could blame them!  We had planned for many more so had plenty to spare.  

Lions couldn't remember if we've ever served at this homeless/emergency shelter before so it is a good "first" and one I hope we consider doing over and over again.  

We Serve!

Lion Nancy Norton
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No One Should Go to Bed Hungry....

No one should go to bed hungry....

The question to ask your club is, "are there people in our community who are going to bed hungry?"  If so, what can you do about it?

Feeding the hungry, ensuring children have enough to eat, isn't something we do one time a year. The needy aren't just hungry at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Children shouldn't leave school on Friday and spend the weekend hungry because there's no food in the house.

Most clubs are active in "feeding the needy" but can we do more?  Here's some ideas in case you want to pursue other projects:

1. Volunteer to deliver prepared meals to elderly citizens.
2. Organize a feeding program at a local school to provide healthy, nutritious meals.
3. Serve meals at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
4. "Adopt" a family that is struggling to put food on their table.  Take them shopping for fruit and vegetables.
5. Organize an event to benefit the food bank in your community; use cans of food as admission.
6. Hold a hunger walk and use proceeds to buy food for a children's shelter.
7. Create snack packages to be distributed to children in need.
8. Pick up donations of fresh food items for a women's or children's shelter.
9. Accompany and assist a person who is blind with food shopping.
10. Collect infant formula and baby food for an organization serving young mothers at risk.
11. Invite a local food bank representative to speak at a club meeting.

For more great ideas, click HERE. 

When you're done, remember to enter your service activity into MyLCI and select the appropriate category under Activity Type.  This way LCI will know what we're doing and how many people we are serving.  #Lions100

We Serve!

Relieving the Hunger

January is Relieving the Hunger Campaign.

Does your club have a project planned for this month?  If not, you might consider a project that fills the Relieving the Hunger Centennial Service Challenge.  Even though the month is half over, it doesn't take much to plan a food drive for your local food bank or pantry. Some other ideas are cooking at your local homeless shelter, checking with your local school district to see if they have a program where they feed the children, or distributing food baskets to the needy.  There's so many ways we can contribute to this service challenge.  Click HERE for more ideas.  And remember, feeding the hungry isn't something we do one time a year.  Consider expanding your Relieving the Hunger campaign to quarterly activities.

Remember to enter your activity into MyLCI Service Activities and designate it as a Relieving the Hunger signature activity!

For more information on how to participate in this campaign, click HERE.

We Serve!
#Lions100

Centennial Activities for MD49A: December 2015

Lions were busy in December!  The list below was taken from MyLCI and shows those activities clubs have identified as being a signature activity.  It's important that Clubs input their service activities, especially the four Centennial Challenge activities so your hard work can be recognized!  Thank you for all you do!

Relieving the Hunger Campaign

• Copper River Basin:  Donated and distributed 30 Holiday food baskets to the needy over Christmas.
• Eagle River Sleeping Lady Mountain:  Donated to the Elks to help purchase food for Christmas baskets; helped cook, serve, and clean up for annual Community Christmas dinner.
• Girdwood Turnagain Arm:  Sorted donated food and made food baskets for 15 needy families.  
• Palmer:  Food collection; prepared/sponsored 20 food baskets for the needy. 
• Willow:  Distributed food, clothing, and toys for Christmas.

Engaging our Youth Campaign

• Copper River Basin:  Christmas gifts for disadvantaged children; donated to the wrestling team.
• Palmer:  Toy collection; worked at wrestling tournament.
• Mt. View:  Food collection to feed children on weekend.
• Spenard:  Photo screened children.
• Sutton:  Youth snow-x race.

Sharing the Vision Campaign

• Palmer:  Vision screening.

Protecting Our Environment

• Palmer:  Recycling
• Soldotna:  Eyeglass collection since August to December has sent 9 boxes of recycled glasses to the North Pole.

#Lions100