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2016 OMAR’s DREAM RUN – Making dreams come true!

The 4th annual Omar’s Dream Run (5k and 10k) took place on Sunday, Oct 16, 2016 at Hellyer Park in South San Jose. After receiving initial startup help in 2013 by the DeAnza Lions Club, the foundation is firmly on its own feet, but appreciates our club’s financial help, plus provision of extra tables, chairs and tents plus help with registration on the day of the event.

While Lion Al, his wife Barb and Lion Mary manned the registration tables, Lions Eli, John (+ John’s son) and Dagi assisted with the collection, transportation and storing of the requested furniture items. Mind you – the volunteers at Omar’s event were helping, too, when it came to unloading and loading of the tables and chairs into Eli’s truck.

Should I mention that it rained quite heavily? Probably – without it the event might have had a record turnout. However, only a few registered participants preferred to stay in bed, while the vast majority of the 400+ registered runners and walkers were unfazed by the continuous rainfall and completed the course with smiles on their faces.

Lion Claire participated in the 10k run; her daughter Anjali was first in the girls’ 5k.

I arrived a bit too late to get a glimpse of the winners, but caught a lot of people still hovering under the gazebo, celebrating the success of this event.

For more info, go to

http://omarsdreamfoundation.org/about/

Fall Festival at Via West Campus

After the installation of new playground equipment on Aug 31st, which took place with the help of DeAnza Lions under the guidance of Lion Bill, the Camp was ready for their 4th Fall Festival, on Saturday Oct 8th, from11:00am to 3:00pm.

A substantial amount of staff and volunteers were present to man the 20 or so booths and play stations that were set up throughout the camp. Lion Steve and Ellen were in charge of the sno-cone booth, where Lion Steve shredded the ice and Ellen administered the colorful syrup: the choice was either blue raspberry or red cherry flavor or a mixture of both. The serving had to happen quite quickly, as the temperatures rose to a toasty 90F and the ice was melting rapidly. People who dared to don Halloween costumes were probably getting a little hot.

Whiffs of grilled chicken blew over the camp since the early morning – quite a few people were eager to help with the food for adults and kids alike – as the day went on, it got increasingly more difficult to grab a seat in the new BBQ area

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To cope with the huge influx of visitors, shuttle buses were in action, taking people from a big parking lot at the quarry to the venue and back. Judging by the number of guests it seems that the event was a huge success and the best fall festival so far.

Thanks to Lion Steve and Ellen for representing the DeAnza Lions Club.

Lion Bill – At Ninety he is Going Strong at Via West

Super trooper Lion Bill Reed once again brought us together for a maintenance weekend at Via West Camp in Cupertino. On Friday, 5/27, he drummed up support from 7 fellow DeAnza Lions (Al, Ray, Ron, Don, Steve, Herb, and Mike) to help clean, wash down and prep benches and the BBQ area at the Camp. On Saturday 5/28, it was Lion Bill once again, armed with gallons of paint, spray cans, super-long extension cables and all the required utensils, leading the painting crew of 6 (Lions Steve, Ron, Herb, Ray, and Dagi) – the only thing he forgot was his hat (but he found a solution for that, too – see photos). During the painting session we learnt that this was Lion Bill’s 24th year of organizing and coordinating this event – mind you, he is not standing around, resting – no, he is preparing the paint, stooping over the paint buckets, mixing it with water to create the perfect consistency for the spray paint machines, and then he bends down to spray the very low benches near the BBQ station. Under Lion Bill’s guidance and with support from the fellow lions the assigned areas were painted in record time, so everyone could go home shortly past noon time to his or her family to celebrate Memorial Weekend.

PS: The entire camp was teeming with volunteers who were getting the houses ready for summer camp. One guy unfortunately had left his lunch, a subway sandwich, on one of the picnic tables … when he was ready for a break, after scrubbing the floors of one of the dorms, he found his sandwich torn and ripped into pieces, the best parts gone, the rest scattered on the floor … a resident crow had made a meal of his lunch.

Contributed by Lion Dagi

Flag Days 2016

As in previous years, the DeAnza Flag Team under the leadership of Lion Mort had very successful presentations at 2 local schools during the past school year.

It started with a Flag Presentation for three 3rd grade classes at Kathryn Hughes Elementary School in Santa Clara on Oct 15, 2015, with Lions Mort, Ann, and Walt being involved. Presentations at Sutter Elementary took place on May 17th, 2016. About 75 third graders participated in each event.

On Friday, June 3 a Hot Dog BBQ was hosted at Fairway Glen Park behind Hughes…64 Kiddos joined. Hot Dogs, including veggie ‘dogs’, chips and lemonade were prepared by several Lions….a great opportunity to do more community outreach. The students were excited about the special treat and very well behaved

Thanks to Lions Ron, Phil, Ray, Jenni, Eli and Mort, Steve and Al, accompanied by Ellen and Barbara

Contributed by Lion Mort

We have another Key Award Winner!

Congratulations to Lion Charlie Waters!

Membership Key Awards recognize individual Lions who invite new members. A Lion can earn their first membership key by inviting two new members and may earn up to seventeen keys. Each key is designed to reflect the number of new members a Lion has sponsored.

The officers and directors of Lions Club International joined our club in expressing sincere congratulations to Lion Charlie Waters for demonstrating active commitment to the growth and strength of our association.
Pictures (by Lions Mort and Walt) show Lions Charlie Waters, AM Chair Ray Lancon and Secretary Walt

Cupertino High School student advances to 3rd level Lions student speaker contest

Shankara Srikantan, a junior at Cupertino High School, was awarded first place at the Lions District 4-C6, Zone 1, Student Speaker Contest on 3/14/2016.

Shankara Srikantan was one of 3 high school students participating in the event held at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Office in San Jose. The topic was “Liberty and Justice for All – What Does it Mean to You?”

Zone Level Chair person Aimee Cheung mentioned that this is the 79th year that the Lion’s Student Speaker Contest has been held.

By winning Shankara Srikantan will advance to the Region Level competition. The Region Level contest will be held on April 4th, 2016, at the Santa Clara County Office of Voting. He had previously won the Cupertino De Anza Lions Club contest in February.

Ms. Cheung noted that the winner at each level can advance through Region, District, Area, and the Final contests. This year the final contest will be held in Redding, CA. Its winner, representing Lions Clubs from throughout California, will be awarded accumulated winnings of $21,000 in cash and scholarships.

Lions Club International is the world’s largest service club organization with more than 1.35 million members in more than 200 countries and geographic areas around the world. Since 1917, Lions clubs have aided the blind and visually impaired and made a strong commitment to community service and serving youth throughout the world.

Pictures: All contestants and their support teams, parents and club members; The 3 contestants; Student Speaker winner Shankara Srikantan from Cupertino High School with Lions District 4-C6, Zone 1 Chair, Aimee Cheung;

SHANKARA SRIKANTAN WINS LOCAL COMPETITION IN DeANZA LION’S STUDENT SPEAKER CONTEST 2016

Cupertino, February 4, 2016 – Shankara Srikantan, a junior at Cupertino High School, was awarded first place at Cupertino DeAnza Lion’s Club, 2016 Student Speaker Contest on Feb 4, 2016.

Shankara Srikantan 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 Hall in Cupertino. The topic was “Liberty and Justice for All – What Does it Mean to You?”

The other finalists were Grace Zhou from Monta Vista, and Milo Forbes from Homestead High School.
This is the 79th year that the Lion’s Student Speaker Contest has been held.

By winning Shankara Srikantan will advance to the Zone level competition. The Zone contest will be held on Monday March 14th, at 6:30pm at the County of Santa Clara Registrar of Voters (ROV) Berger Auditorium , 1555 Berger Drive, San Jose, CA 95112

Lions co-Chair, Walt Strach, noted that the winner at each level can advance through Region, District, Area, and the Final Contests. This year the final contest will be held in Redding. The Grand Winner will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship although accumulated winnings at each level will be $20,000 in scholarships and $500 cash.

Lions Club International is the world’s largest service club organization with more than 1.35 million members in more than 200 countries and geographic areas around the world. Since 1917, Lions clubs have aided the blind and visually impaired and made a strong commitment to community service and serving youth throughout the world.

Picture: Student Speaker winner Shankara Srikantan from Cupertino High School with Cupertino DeAnza Lions contest co-Chair Walt Strach.

2015 Thanksgiving Food Drive the BEST EVER

And this recap from one of our event key organizers: “Thank you Lions!
It was a great day for the De Anza Lions as we delivered food to over 160 families in our community.”

With Lions and friends of Lions volunteering on Saturday, Sunday and very early Monday morning (Nov 21, 22, and 23) our sweat equity and the generosity of the community paid big dividends.

A special shout out to Lions Dan & Yvonne Fimby and their Car Club and Lion John Noone for organizing the event.

It makes me proud to be a Lion.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

By DeAnza Lions Club President Jeff Ludlum

Monta Vista LEO Club Update

The new officers and members of the Monta Vista Leo Club were officially installed in a ceremony held Nov. 15, 2015 at Cupertino’s Jollyman Park. Lions Steve Ratner and Leo Advisor Kent Vincent presided and did the honors. Lion Walt Strach and Ellen Ratner were in attendance. Leo President Katie Chen was inducted to her second term.

Contributed by Lion Kent Vincent

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Health Screening with AJRobinson Screening Unit at Cupertino Fall Festival

The “Cupertino Fall Festival” is organized by the Cupertino Rotary Club in conjunction with the City of Cupertino and sponsors.

During this year’s event, which took place on September 12th from 10am to 5pm,  our De Anza Lions club volunteered together with LEOs to man the AJ Robinson Screening Unit, which is financially supported by Lions district 4C6 with club donations.

It consists of

1) A machine that checks weight, height, BMI and blood pressure and prints out a record that we give to each person.

2) Spot Cameras (cost $7,000 each) that check for vision; we print out a record only for folks that we recommend to see an eye doctor.

3) Hearing test machine  – where we administer a hearing test and provide a paper record for the folks taking the test.

4) Registered nurses (volunteers) who provide a blood test for diabetes. The test is only screening and if needed we recommend seeing a doctor.

The Van drew a good crowd and we screened about 100 folks.

It was a high visibility event for our club and hopefully we may get some new members. The majority of the folks were of Chinese descent and the Monta Vista LEOs were very helpful as interpreters for both Chinese and South East Asian elderly participants.

A big THANK YOU goes to all volunteers, lions and LEOs alike, who contributed to the success of the event, as well as Lion Ray who spent many hours organizing it.

Contributed by Lion Ray and Lion Dagi, pictures by Lion Prez Jeff