2018 MD4 Convention Las Vegas – 6/29 – 7/3/2018

Three of our intrepid Lions (Lions Eli, Mort and Ray) plus Lion Ray’s wife Barbara ventured to Las Vegas for the MD4 Convention which was mainly held at the MGM Grand Hotel with the motto THE POWER OF WE. About 2,500 rooms were reserved there for lions, while the other 15, 000+ participants were divvied up into other hotels in the neighborhood. We got a preview of the outfits of our delegation in the AM meeting on 6/28 — bright purple shirts and funky hats for MD4, while other clubs from around the world showed up in the traditional dresses of their countries, especially for the parade. Our ‘troops’ joined up with PID Jack Epperson and his wife Mary, who were often guests at our golf tournaments. Plenary sessions were held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena which would hold 17,000+ Lions. The outgoing president, Dr. Naresh Aggarwal gave a keynote on Sunday morning, while former president George W Bush gave the opening speech on Monday morning. Wayne Newton was hired to open the morning sessions of Tuesday at the end of which was the closing date of the convention. One of the big news was that 4 districts added over 2,000 new members each – Bravo!

Lion Ray, who gave a review of the events in Las Vegas (this time what happened there did NOT stay there), was still in awe about this major event, about the amount of people from 120 different countries and the spirit of togetherness that prevailed during the 4 day long meetings.

The peace poster contest motto for 2019 is “Kindness Matters” – no doubt the teenagers will come up with wonderful paintings or drawings!

Next year’s convention will be in Milan/Italy from July 5-9, 2019. Let’s make sure we have another delegation from our club there!

Contributed by Lion Ray Lancon