,

KARL GOELTNER WINS CLUB LEVEL CUPERTINO DeANZA LIONS STUDENT SPEAKER CONTEST

Karl Goeltner, a Junior at Monta Vista High School, was awarded first place at the Cupertino DeAnza Lions Club, 2018 Student Speaker Contest. Karl Goeltner was one of 3 high school students participating from the

Fremont Union High School District who took part in the event held at the Odd Fellows Lodge in Cupertino.

The topic was “Integrity and Civility Play What Role in Today’s Society”. The other finalists were Tiffany Liu from Cupertino High and Neha Palvai from Lynbrook High. This was the 81st year that the Lions Student Speaker Contest was being held.

As a winner, Karl will advance to the Zone level competition, which will take place on March 08th, 2018, at the same location.

According to the rules from Lions International, the winner at each level can advance through Region, District, Area, and the Final Contests. The venue for this year’s final contest will be announced soon. The Grand Winner will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship although accumulated winnings at each level will amount to $20,000 in scholarships and some cash.

Please come and join us on Thursday, March 8th, 2018, at 6:30pm at the Odd Fellows Lodge # 70 in Cupertino to support our winning student Karl when he competes against at least 2 other students from other clubs in our district.

 

 

,

Our 22nd Crab Feed – Great Success at New Location

It was with considerable apprehension that our club prepared for the 22nd Crab Feed. It had taken a lot of time and investigative efforts to find and secure a new location that would fit our needs. Crab Feed co-chairs Lions Al and Steve, together with other major players, finally agreed on Saint Lawrence the Martyr Community center in Santa Clara. Everything seemed to check out, including the rental cost of the hall. Lion Carl liked the kitchen facilities, with one major drawback: the dishwashing unit was not working. Still – the decision was made, and it turned out to be a good one!

Ticket sales were lagging a bit – maybe because there were doubts that fresh crab would be available; maybe the ticket price seemed to be high (although prices were the same as last year); maybe because of the Superball weekend – we finally had a comfortable number (about 350) of guests in our two seatings and all of them liked the additional space for seating and moving around.

With the help of a lot of fellow lions, Rotarians, LEOs, friends and family members as well as the indispensable crew from the Santa Clara Fish Market Restaurant, we continued the tradition of putting on a spectacular feast for seafood lovers. While the approximately 50 LEOs from Monta Vista High school served the usual fare of salad, spaghetti with pasta sauce, garlic bread and crab, all freshly prepared by Kitchen master Lion Carl and his crew as well as Lion Jim and the Fish Market team, the Thrown Together Jazz Band played at their best on the elevated stage. Lions Steve and Ellen had solicited raffle and silent auction prizes worth over $ 7,000.00. Guests in both seatings were keenly buying raffle tickets from 3 LEOs (Joel J, Tom Z and Suraj G) who went tirelessly around the tables  LEOs, while all silent auction items were purchased.

MCs Lions Claire and Jen led through the evening with relevant announcements; they also supervised the kids drawing the winning raffle tickets. The keys for the treasure chest were managed by Dave Zirkel, one of our loyal helpers from the Sunnyvale Rotarians.

The overall feedback has been very positive – people commented on the space, the excellent service of the LEOs (other crab feed events serve buffet-style and people have to stand in line), the plentiful supplies of everything, including lemons, butter and of course crab, as well as the happy atmosphere. We will attempt to get the same venue for next year’s event, hopefully on a date which does not coincide with Super Bowl weekend.

A roaring Thank You to all of our guests, sponsors and contributors!

We also want to thank all of our volunteers, Dave Zirkel (our loyal Rotarian) LEOs, the Fish Market, the Band, Lions and their family members and friends for working to make this fundraising event a huge success.

 

 

 

 

,

Eye Camp 2017 in Ambikanagar/ Dandeli (India)

A few days ago, Lion Prez Jeff received a couple of emails and photos from our Lions Club partners in Ambikanagar

For the past 10 years, we have been financially supporting eye clinics in this part of the world, and are being kept up to date by Lion Dr Byacod.

Here are two reports, one from Lion Dr Byacod, and one from Lion Prof Umesh Patil

Dear Lion Jeff Ludlum

Good morning. We are fine here. We conducted free eye camp in Dandeli. 242 pts [patients] attended the camp. 62 pts were selected for surgery. 42 pts were chosen. All the pts were operated. All the pts recovery was fine. Our Lion Prof U S Patil has already sent your photos to your mail. Convey our regards to all the members 
Lion Dr Byakod

Respected Sir

Lion JEFF LUDLUM, SIR LION DR. BYAKOD HAS ASKED TO PASS THIS MAIL

I AM  MJF LION UMESH PATIL FROM AMBIKANAGAR DANDELI LIONS CLUB

I AM SENDINDIG REPORT OF FREE EYE CAMP HELD AT GOVT HOSPITAL DANDELI ON 11TH NOV 2017.

WE HAD ORTHOPEDIC CAMP ALSO SAME DAY.

280 REG FOR EYE CAMP, 62 SELECTED FOR FREE CATARACT OPERATION, 180 REG FOR ORTHOPEDIC CAMP; 6 OPERATED FREELY

THANK YOU

FROM MJF LION UMESH PATIL

MIG 03 AMBEWADI DANDELI, TA. HALIYALDIST KARWR

KARNATAKA. INDIA  581325 –MOB 09448034882

Needless to say we are pleased to help with our financial contribution to make these events successful.

 

,

59 Fuzzy Blankets Completed at the 8th Linus Event

On October 26th the De Anza Lions held their 8th Project Linus Blanketeering event!  We welcomed members, new and old, friends, relatives plus Brownies and Girl Scouts. The evening began with a short explanation of how Project Linus began and grew and then, scissors poised, we launched into making 59 blankets.

Once adults got down to business measuring, pinning and cutting, Brownies and Girl Scouts waited to hear the call to come tie knots. When a blanket was completed, the proud Blanketeer would walk up to the front table, sign his or her personal card before it was tied to the blanket and then he or she would ring the big ole cowbell to announce its completion. The process worked like a well-oiled machine and the results were fantastic. We began our work at 6:30pm and all the fleeces were converted into blankets by 8:45pm, a record-setting experience. Thank you to all who were able to help make this a success!!

Making cozy, fuzzy blankets from a 1½-yard piece of fleece is a terrific experience and every one of us felt the warmth of community as we worked to complete our task. Our members should be proud that they belong to a Club that provides an opportunity for community service like Project Linus (for more information, visit www.projectlinus.org). There were actually had more community “visitors” attending the Blanketeering night than we had members this time. It would be wonderful if more De Anza Lions members could take the time to join us and experience our next event. As our flyer says,

“IT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL ALL WARM AND FUZZY INSIDE AND OUT!”

Contributed by Lion Leslye Noone

 

,

Thanksgiving Food Drive 2017 (Nov 18 – 20th)

It will make for a Happy Thanksgiving Weekend for 167 Families in the Community!

Read more

Helping Clear The Walk Ways At SCVBC

Spearheaded by Lion Al, several Lions made it to the Santa Clara Valley Blind Center (SCVBC) on the morning of Saturday, July 8th. Official kickoff was at 10:00am, but many of the intrepid “gardeners” were already on site by 9:00am or earlier. When I showed up with my camera and my kitchen gloves at 9:30am, I had a hard time detecting the busy lions – everybody had started at a different end and was covered behind branches or trees, cutting, sawing, and snipping away. Lion Al’s son-in-law Brian was up on a ladder attacking the bigger branches with an electric saw. Brian – bless his heart – also had brought a tent and a giant cooler with water for everyone…. Both badly needed in the rising temperatures.

A few days earlier Lions AL had sent me an email specifying “….most of this work will be very light clippings which will have to be moved across the parking lot to a pile”. There were indeed light clippings, but also 7 inch branches which had to be dragged over to the “pile”.

Lions Don, Charles, Ron, Ray, Al, Jim, and Prez Jeff were doing a formidable job – and Lion Bill, at 91, worked away cutting branches and kneeling down to rip out some weeds – hats off! Brian, however, was the hero of the day – after climbing back up the ladder and taking another set of major branches off the corner tree, he went away and got the chipper, put it up and started to feed those ‘light clippings” through the machine. Some of the major branches had to be sawed in half or more parts before they could go through the shredding process.

Judy Arvidson, the director of the Blind Center, also paid a short visit and thanked everyone personally for their help, especially after she asked for more radical cut backs on some trees that had had a first trimming already.

Lion Mike Martin showed up after noon for extra help. Everything was cleaned up by 3:00pm. What a good deed – along our motto: “We serve!”

,

Community With A Heart – Thanksgiving Food Drive provides food baskets for 130 families in the community

The DeAnza Lions want to thank Safeway, the community and all Monta Vista High School volunteers for making our 31st Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive a huge success. This year we provided Thanksgiving food boxes to 130 needy families in our community, including low income families with kids in Hughes Elementary school, the Sunnyvale Support Network for battered women and others.

2010 has been another tough year for many people in our community. With no real rebound in the overall economy, more people lost their source of income, increasing the number of those requiring food support, while donations were generally down. The DeAnza Lions Club, preparing for the 31st annual food drive, was facing a few additional obstacles: the Sunnyvale PakNSav store, venue for many food drives had been closed, and the new Safeway built there in lieu had not yet opened.

Still, the food drive was put on the agenda, as usual for the weekend before Thanksgiving (Nov 20th – 22nd) and things started to fall into place.  The new Safeway Store opened – as scheduled – on Nov 11th, and gave permission for the food drive.  Another Safeway (S. Bernardo) was added to the drive. Fellow lions, their spouses and/or friends, as well as LEOs, CSF and Octagon members from Monta Vista High School braved the cold and windy weather, handing out shopping lists to patrons, asking for contributions, however small, for our food baskets. Needless to say that more patrons did their shopping in the brief sunny intervals and thus also the donations of food and money were up during those periods.

On Sunday morning, the sorting of non-perishable food items proceeded in the Odd Fellows Hall on Homestead/Saratoga-Sunnyvale road – we are grateful for the free-of-charge use of this convenient venue for our food distribution.

On Monday morning, the food baskets were supplemented with the perishable goods, and distributed to low-income families and people in need whose names had been collected previously

In the face of tight economic times, we succeeded in filling 130 food baskets (2 boxes of food, together worth $ 75 each) – food items that will provide for a generous Thanksgiving dinner and quite a few meals beyond.

In addition, 46 turkeys and two pick-up trucks/beds full of foods were delivered to the Sunnyvale Community Services to supplement their food bank.

The DeAnza Lions Club gratefully acknowledges the donation of food and funds of approx. $ 12,000 during this food drive.

We also thank each and every volunteer, especially the members of the newly founded LEO club, and the owners of the Safeway Stores, for donating time and energy and money to this worthwhile cause. Happy faces and kind words of thanks met the Lions who delivered the gift baskets.

A big Thank You again to the patrons of the Safeway Stores for opening their heart and wallets to help people in need.

Happy Thanksgiving!

,

Look who’s got new eyeglasses…

On January 15th, 2010, DeAnza Lions Kathy and Kerry took 2 middle school age students to LensCrafters® at the Westgate Shopping Center (San Jose) for an eye examination and prescription of eyeglasses, sponsored by DeAnza Lions Club. When the lion ladies arrived at the school to pick up the kids, they were warmly greeted by the office staff, thanking them for helping these children. The sensitive and professional optometrist at LensCrafters® also expressed her gratitude to the lions and the DeAnza Lions club for reaching out and getting involved.

Both the kids that Lions Kathy and Kerry met were extremely polite, excited and grateful for the help our club provided. The girl did not stop smiling the entire time. Her brother received his glasses immediately, while the girl had to wait a few more days. Lions Kathy and Kerry again took the time to take her back to LensCrafters®.
Needless to say that both lions received a huge hug from the kids.

Lions Kerry and Kathy, together with the DeAnza Lions Club thank LensCrafters® for their professional and sensitive help