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!”

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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!

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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