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Next Vision Clinic – April 26, 2026

The district’s next vision clinic will be held on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at St. John Vianney Church on 4600 Hyland Ave, San Jose, CA 95127. The event will start after mass at 11:30AM and will end about 3:30PM. There will be optometrists, ophthalmologists, and nurses, as well as other assistants to dispense the necessary eyeglasses or order some in case the correct ones are not available.

Lion John Smith is chairing this event.

Attached are the flyers for patient sign up and volunteer registration.

At this time, the available spaces for patients who need their eyes checked are all taken, so watch this space for the next event.

Volunteers April 26 2026 Lions Eye Clinic-3

Patient Flyer – 20260426

 

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Annual Charity Crab Feed – Feb 6, 2027

Attention!

Mark your calendars!

Our 31th annual Crab Feed, is coming up on Saturday, February 6, 2027!

It’s early days but we don’t want you to miss this great event!

More details will be published closer to the date!

 

 

 

 

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Student Speaker Contest 2026 – District Level April 27, 2026

 

Dear Fellow Lions and interested students

As in previous years, the club is participating in the 89th Annual Student Speaker Contest 2026.

This year’s topic is:

“Youth Mental Health: Overcoming Barriers to Well-Being”.

The contest is progressive. Students winning at the local club level move on to zone and region contests with winners earning progressively larger scholarships. At the local (club) level, the winner receives a $100 scholarship (other finalists $25). Zone winners receive $150, Region winners $250 scholarships. Fourteen District (state of California) winners receive $4,500 scholarships, four Area winners receive $6,500 scholarships and the final winner receives a $10,000 scholarship. Each presenter speaks for no less than 5 minutes, no more than 10 minutes.

One of our candidates from the club level contest has progressed through the zone, and region level contests and will speak at the district contest on April 27, 2026, at the 

Sunnyvale school district bldg, on 825 West Iowa Ave in Sunnyvale

The time is 6:30PM

Our club chairperson this year is Lion Ray

The rules and more information about the Student Speaker contest can be found at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/637c7a2f7440084c5cfebd84/t/68fe9b523362b05daaf234c3/1761516370502/Student+Speaker+Booklet+2026%2C+revised+pg.+11+and+13.pdf

If you can please attend and support our speaker on this next more difficult contest!

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Successful Food Drive – Nov 22- 24, 2025

Dear Fellow Lions

With the help of many fellow lions, friends and family members, LEOs and students from Bellarmine HS we achieved our goal of preparing Thanksgiving holiday food boxes for almost 200 families in the community.
Two boxes per family contained all the ingredients for a festive Thanksgiving meal and staples for the following days. In addition a big SUV full of remaining food items was delivered to farmworkers.

We thank all volunteers who made time on 3 consecutive days to make this happen

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Proclamation At Cupertino City Council

Read the Proclamation and Lion John’s speech on Oct 21, 2025, at the Cupertino City Council meeting.

Congratulations to the Cupertino DeAnza Lions Club!

Here is Lion John’s speech:         Proclamation Speech Notes

and the proclamation itself:

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Vision Clinic Oct 05, 2025 – Very successful

This message tells it all – from Lion Gosia, District 4-C6 Vision Clinic Coordinator – 10/08/2025

On behalf of Lions Club,  District 4-C6’s Vision Team and patients you served, I want to say THANK YOU for your service. Volunteer like you, make Vision Clinic (8 of them so far) possible. Your commitment to serve our community makes a lasting impact on other people lives, people you serve, and people you serve along with.
On Sunday you were a part of a very successful community service project. Let me provide you with some statistics.:
Patients, whose lives you positively changed – 249, from appointments – 179, walk-ins – 70 (including 7 from the floor).
We had 531 patients signed up for the appointment, 179 showed up, which gives us 33% show up rate.
145 glasses were dispensed, 66 Zenni orders for custom glasses were placed, 8 patients will be referred to local doctors for comprehensive eye exam and glasses, 1 Lions Eye Foundation referral for further treatment was placed. 
We had 8 optometry doctors working morning and/or afternoon shifts (6 doctors per shift) and 1 professional optician. In AJ Robinson Health Screening Unit we had 1 physician, and 5 nurses. There were 77 general volunteers working each of the clinic part: set up and tear down, volunteer check in, patient check in, patient registration and number station, lensometer, docents and translators for spot vision camera check, spot vision check, docents and translators for doctors and Lions Eye Foundation, Dispensary and Zenni, Docents and translators for Dispensary and Zenni, patient flow, AJ Robinson and docents/translators for AJ Robinson, last but for sure not least Food for Volunteers.
There were Lions form 18 Clubs in our District (that covers Santa Clara, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey County): Almaden Super, Cabrillo Host with Friends of Cabrillo Host, Capitola Coast, Carmel Host, Carmel Mission Trail, Cupertino De Anza, Gilroy, King City, Los Amigos, Salinas Host, Los Gatos, Milpitas Executive, San Martin, Seaside, Scales of Justice, Sunnyvale, Willow Glen, West San Jose Campbell,  1 Omega Leo Club of California Coast at the University of SF, and Students form Salinas Union High School District.
I would also like to thank every person who donated or brought food for the volunteers.
My personal thank you goes to dr. Art for his tireless service to patients locally and abroad, and to all the Team Leads and members of our Vision Clinic Team for their hard work on the day of and weeks of preparation for the Vision Clinic – Lions: (in alphabetical order) Dave, George, Jeanine, John, Judy, Larry, Marty, Pam, Sandra, Sue, Trevor, Valerie. 
I also have a favor to ask. We had few volunteers, who did not leave us their contact information
so if you know: Anna, Marvin, Matthew, Mike, Reuben, Reza, Walt, forward them this email, or share their contact with me, and I will thank them myself.
Thank you, Lion Gosia

 

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Linus Blanketeering Event – WOW!

Once again, we had a very successful Project Linus Blanketeering Night! I am thrilled to report that we completed 74 blankets and that they should be distributed to the children who need them by the end of May. The number of Blanketeers reached a total of 36!

I just gave you two amazing numbers that we all should be excited about. First, seventy-four is the highest number of blankets we have made in one sitting since long before the Pandemic. We should be encouraged by that great comeback. The second number to excite everyone should be the 36 people in attendance. These participants were from our own Club and two others in the District, they were family and friends and neighbors of Lions, and there was one dozen—that’s 12—from the De Anza College Omega Leos (DACOL) Club. They came without an RSVP so they were quite a happy surprise. One more big number that should amaze you is that of the 34 attendees, 20 were totally new to Project Linus (PL). We should be so proud that we did this amazing job for community service. But we should be equally proud that we exposed 20 new Blanketeers to the great Project Linus organization for the first time. They all learned of the important service provided by PL and about the 15-year commitment the DeAnza Lions have had supporting that organization.

So, three cheers to the Cupertino DeAnza Lions and to all Lions involved that evening, to friends, family and neighbors and to the DACOL, along with those who made blankets at home because they couldn’t attend the event; cheers for participating in such a fun and meaningful project. Can’t wait to see you next time!

Contributed by Lion Leslye

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Charity Crab Feed – Great Success!

On Feb 1, 2025, the 29th Classic Annual Charity Crab Feed and Auction took was staged once again at the Community Center of Saint Lawrence the Martyr in Santa Clara.

As in previous years, we had two seatings of an ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT feast, which included fresh crab, pasta, salad and garlic bread. Almost 300 people had signed up and enjoyed a very well-organized event. For the first time the “Mission Gold Jazz Band” entertained the guests with lively music. Apart from many lions, including some from other clubs, a big number of LEOs had signed up to help serve and a lot of non-lions helped with a variety of activities that contributed to the overall success.

The new chair persons did an outstanding job, and we are happy that at least one volunteered to do it again next year!

Many thanks to everybody who made this event so worthwhile.

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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
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