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Thanksgiving Food Drive 2024 – Preliminary Report

 

Fellow Lions, family members and volunteers

Time again to say THANKS to all the folks participating in our annual Thanksgiving food drive which took place over the weekend of  Nov 23 – 25, 2024.

Two boxes of food per family for 177 families in the community were able to be filled with holiday dinner items and a sizeable turkey.

The weather held out on the days of collection and shopping, but Monday morning it started drizzling again. This did not prevent about 25 volunteers to show up at the Odd Fellows Hall to help with final filling of the boxes and transporting them to the refer truck for delivery. Additional 50 turkeys and a number of other foods were delivered to the Farm Workers in Watsonville. This comment was received hours later

OMG!! Thank you for delivering all the turkeys today, Claire!    We were shocked and more than pleasantly surprised!     E. and T. are calling FWs in both the Oaxacan and the Michoacan/Jalisco communities to come and pick up a turkey!     How can we EVER thank-you for this enormous gesture of kindness in the face of the threats now faced by undoc FWs.     Goddess bless you and your associates!  This means the world to us and to the FWs!!     Have a lovely holiday and thank-you for providing a lovely holiday and holiday meal to FWs who can’t afford to buy a turkey!    Ann Lopez  👍😃🩷

Lion Dave Kaplow, 2nd Vice District Governor, Lions District 4-C6, made this short video about our Food Drive
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RUC0GewHLhvAitdUT7vgHQVogEWuRx57/view?usp=sharing
More to come.
Meanwhile a heartfelt big THANK YOU to all who participated, including students of Bellarmine, and to Lion Don, for securing the Odd Fellows Hall for 3 days for our project.
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Vision Clinic in Sunnyvale – Benefit for Hundreds of People

Lions District 4-C6 held their 4th Vision Clinic on Sunday, June 9th at Community Services in Sunnyvale, Northern California.

A total of 361 patients attended, most of whom received eye examinations and re-cycled glasses.

Patients attended from 12 cities within a radius of 60 miles.

Dr. Art Low and his team of 6 optometrists volunteered their services on the day. Over 60 Lions from 16 clubs helped to put on the clinic.

Guest volunteers included Lions from Districts 4-C2 and 4-C4, 4 opticians, nurses and translators from RotaCare, a member of Sunnyvale Rotary Club, Boy Scouts Troop 13, Girls Scouts, a member of Stanford Medical Alumni Association, City of Sunnyvale Sustainability Commissioner, students from East Palo Alto Academy, friends and families.

We have one new member in our District who came as a patient, stayed with us as a volunteer/translator, and now she is joining Lions—what a way of paying back!

There were 15 referrals/potential patients of LEF.

There will be a special eye clinic in August, where those people who could be seen due to time limitations will be either seen; they will be the only ones admitted.

Attached are also a few photos from your club’s frequent photographer.

It’s very clear that there is an enormous need for this kind of community outreach, so the next clinics are already in discussion.

2024 061324 Gosia Thank You Note

 

 

 

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Golf Tournament 2024 – Happy golfers

Golf Tournament by RLancon

We held the 28th annual Cupertino DeAnza Lions Golf Tournament at Los Lagos Golf Course on Friday, June 14th.

While we had only 32 golfers, everyone I spoke to had a great time. We had a putting contest, sold mulligans and licorice and there were raffle prizes and a silent auction, as well.

The golfers enjoyed a good breakfast of eggs, bacon, potatoes and coffee.  After golf, lunch was served: there was a great BBQ with chicken, tri-tip, and corn along with potato salad.

The event earned the Club about $3,000.00. As usual, we had some great volunteers from the Lions and friends of Lions. Thank you!

With your support, we are looking forward to continuing this fund raiser in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

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Thanksgiving Food Drive – Reasons To Give THANKS

After the usual meticulous preparations, including pickup of tables, chairs, A-frames and boxing materials plus their colorful labels, the 2023 Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive was kicked off on Saturday Nov 18th, with several lions and friends manning the doors of three longtime partner stores: Lucky’s on El Camino, Lucky’s at Pruneridge and Lunardi’s in Los Gatos. In the meantime, another crew under the guidance of Lions Jen and Charles started to build and label 360 boxes at the Odd Fellows Hall, which was once again rented out to the Lions free-of-charge for this major project.

Food and money donations trickled in slowly at first, considering the high cost of groceries these days, but we had already budgeted for some extra shopping.

The food collections continued on Sunday for half a day at the two Lucky stores, while the packaging and boxing at the Hall was greatly supported by youngsters, friends, and other Lions club members. The remaining perishable goods were picked up with the refrigerated truck, skillfully maneuvered by Lion Jeff.

Monday’s crews completed the boxes with perishables and all 360 boxes were loaded strategically in the big truck, the last deliveries in the back, the first ones just behind the truck door. Lion Jeff led the small convoy, following a preplanned itinerary to six different destinations, offloading between 20 and 90 boxes at the locations, with the help of Lions Charles, Kent and Ray, and eager support from the recipients.

At about 12:30pm, Lion Jeff proclaimed the successful conclusion of the distribution drive.

A pretty good amount of excess food donations will be delivered to the Farm Worker Families this week.

The club is grateful for all the support from the volunteers, their friends and families, without their efforts, this event would not have been possible.

We are also thankful for every donation, food and $$$, big and small, including internet pledges, and very appreciative of all the help from Lucky’s personnel and management as well as Lucky’s and Lunardi’s shoppers.

Here is a very heart-warming story, submitted by Lion Kent

“Fellow Lions,

A very giving man, Tilo Bormann, approached our table at the El Camino Lucky Store this afternoon (Sat Nov 18th) offering to pay for a shopping cart full of whatever we needed, provided we did the shopping. Lion Joan offered. The total, including three turkeys, came to $410.19. Tilo returns to his home in Germany tomorrow (Sunday). I forwarded the three attached photos with deep thanks to him by text, to which he replied:

“It was a pleasure to help. I hope it will help some families and motivate many others also to join your Lions club. I’m really thankful that people like you exist that sacrifice their own time to help others. This earns a lot of respect. Many greetings to the others. Tilo”

PS: Tilo has given us permission to post his story and pictures on our website.

 

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A.J Robinson Deployment – One Good Deed After Another

The A.J. Robinson Foundation (501c3) was started in 1985 within Lions District 4-C6, to provide free mobile medical screening to underserved communities. The Lions A.J. Robinson Foundation Mobile Health Screening Unit (MSU) is a mobile trailer outfitted for providing health screenings that highlight risks for blindness, vision problems, but also blood pressure, diabetes and hearing.

Our 6-Spot-Vision cameras are often used without the trailer to screen hundreds of students in grammar and middle school in all counties of district 4-C6 that include Santa Clara, San Bonito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. All workers at the trailer are volunteers and the only expenses are for supplies, gas and insurance.

The Lions A.J. Robinson Foundation MSU is visible evidence of this successful District 4C-6 project within the various communities “We Serve” and is a great advertisement for Lions programs on sight, hearing, and diabetes. The MSU is available for community health screenings at community centers, fairs, events and also vision & hearing screenings at schools.  Each club in the district sponsors the use by completing the Lions AJ Robinson contract. Instructions can be found on the Lions District 4-C6 website. (AJ-R-Contract-Final-revised-9-2018.pdf (lions4c6.org))

For more information contact the Lions A.J. Robinson Foundation Scheduler, Lion Richard Conrad.

Report from the Monterey Fair event.
These are the results from the AJR health screening event at the Monterey County Fair per consent form information:

  • 23 screenings,
  • 3 eye tests,
  • 2 eye tests   referred for glasses,
  • 9 hearing tests
  • 22 diabetes screening using blood glucose testing 3 were elevated and counseled; 3 more who were slightly elevated due to eating at the fair within the past half hour.
  • 22 blood pressure tests done; five were above 140/90 and counseled; 1 was extremely high. She is under a doctor’s care and encouraged to follow up with her doctor.

We are proud to conduct these screenings this year in our new truck and trailer that replaced our 20-year-old unit.

We have also taken the unit out to many other events supported by our local Lions Clubs.  Apart from the Monterey Fair Grounds, the unit went out to ‘Day at the Bay’ and the ‘Healthy Living Fair’ at the Sacred Heart Community service center in San Jose in the past few weeks and will be deployed regularly in the coming weeks at similar events.

 

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Camp Via West – Heart of Camp event Sept 30, 2023

Saturday, September 30, 2023, saw the annual Heart of Camp event (formerly Via Ball) at the newly remodeled Ball Court at the Camp in the Cupertino Mountains.

Among others, the DeAnza Lions Club received a prestigious award, for longtime financial support and yearlong contributions from the garden by lions volunteers.

A more detailed report will be posted soon.

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Omar’s Dream Run – Record Participation

As in the past 10 years, De Anza Club members assisted at the registration desk at the 10th Annual Charity Dream Run.

The event was held on Sunday, October 15, at Hellyer Park in San Jose.

Lions Al, Barb, Eli, Jeff and Ray got tables and chairs from the storage, helped with the set up at the pavilion and were back after conclusion of the event to transport the club furniture back to storage

More details are forthcoming shortly.

Open Letter re OMAR-DeAnza Lions

Open Letter re OMAR-Lucile Packard

 

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Vision Clinic # 2 – Another Huge Success

A Vision Clinic was held on 10/14 at the Mexican Consulate in San Jose.
Approximately 300 patients were seen by 6 volunteer optometrists.
All who needed eyeglasses received them from the dispensary on the day, or the remaining 64 patients received
new eyeglasses sponsored by manufacturer, Zenni, a few days later.
18 patients were referred to Lions Eye Foundation for treatment of chronic complaints such as glaucoma and cataracts.
The clinic was sponsored by San Jose Campbell West Lions Club and by the Mexican Consulate.
Lions volunteers attended from 13 clubs in the District 4C-6 and from Brentwood Lions Club outside the district.
The next clinic is planned for April 2024.

Please watch the short video with one of the recipients of vision screening, and a new pair of glasses.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/K2fdSb5bfs68RWPw7

 

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Cupertino De Anza Lions Club Vision Clinic – A Success Story

On Sunday, April 23rd, 2023, at 8:00 AM 10 volunteer doctors and 70 non-medical volunteers (mostly Lions) gathered to run a free Vision Clinic at St John Vianney Community Center. Nine hours later 349 patients had benefited from a detailed eye exam and most of them had received recycled eyeglasses from the Lions inventory of glasses collected from schools, libraries, hospitals and banks.

Read more
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Linus Projects Spring 2023 – Three Teams at Work

Dear Fellow Lions –

Throughout March 2023, the De Anza Lions, led by Lion Leslye, organized and conducted 3 different Blanketeering events, resulting in the completion of 86 fuzzy blankets for children in need.

Cupertino DeAnza Lions Support Union Middle School & Alta Vista Elementary School with Project Linus.

Always on the lookout for service projects with Lions involvement, Lion Claire once again got the OK from the Union Middle School Principal to hold a Blanketeering event for Project Linus; this year in person rather than over Zoom. With funds in hand, Lions Les, Dagi and Joan had fun shopping for the desired number of fleeces. On one of the rather rare sunny afternoons, March 8th, the 17 or so registered students, parents, siblings and friends, armed themselves with a fleece and the necessary tools, chose one of the picnic benches in the quad, and after a short introduction by Claire with Dagi beside her, started enthusiastically in on making blankets. During the 90-minute event, 23 beautiful blankets were completed, with a few people taking some material home to finish another blanket there. (A few days after the blankets were given to the Project Linus organization, Leslye got a call telling us that the blankets made by the Union Middle School students and families had been delivered to the Red Cross in Pajaro to help the children after the floods.) A note from the principal stated that the combined effort of this service project was ‘extremely appreciated’. Well done, Middle Schoolers!   Contributed by CKalia, LNoone

 

On Saturday, March 25, Lions Leslye and Claire ran a Project Linus Blanketeering event at Alta Vista Elementary School in Los Gatos. Approximately 25 parents, students and siblings attended, and 25 blankets were made. A couple of families wanted to keep working so took a few fleeces home to finish on their own time. Many of the attendees mentioned how much fun they had! One fun fact about the Blanketeers there that day: NONE had made a Project Linus blanket before! The events were terrific. The students were excellent. Thanks to all involved and cheers to the partnerships between both schools, the DeAnza Lions and Project Linus.

Contributed by LNoone

Last but not least, Lion Leslye held the official Linus event on March 29th at the Odd Fellows Hall, with a small crowd of attendees, who were nevertheless quite productive. A total of 38 blankets were made either during the evening or completed at home, followed by later delivery to Lion Les. Look at the fun patterns of the blankets!