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The Lions Love “Project LINUS”

It was the De Anza Lions’ Blanketeering Night #9 and it was a happy success. The sense of community service, fun and even a little competitive spirit was in the air. We started the evening as Leslye read a little bit about Project Linus to the group, including its Mission Statement, simply stated: to provide comfort to children in need and to provide the volunteers a rewarding opportunity for the benefit of children. With that in mind, the group launched in and fulfilled the mission of the evening, completing 53 blankets in about 2 hours.

We were lucky enough to have Lions and their better halves in attendance along with other relatives, community members, Leos and Girl Scouts with some of their family members. In total there were 18 adults, 2 teens and 10 children participating. Some blanketeers chose to trim, cut and tie their blankets all on their own while others took advantage of the little ones on hand and called for their nimble-fingered assistance when it was time to tie knots. The competition seemed to pick up as each cowbell sounded signaling that another completed “blankie” had just been added to the stacks. The young-uns seemed to ramp up their tying speed in order to be the next one to ring the bell. The oldies-but-goodies did get into the spirit of the evening, however, as they too took pride in scooting up front to ring their own chimes.

Yes, it was spirited and light-hearted and important work we participated in that Blanketeering Night #9. The children learned a little bit more about sharing and caring while the adults (who are just big children at heart) did the same, satisfied that they did indeed experience a rewarding opportunity for the benefits of children in need and proud to have been a part of this bit of community service provided by the work done by our own De Anza Lions.

Contributed by Leslye Noone

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Great Fun at our 21st Golf Tournament – 6/16/2018; Golf Course at Moffett Field

On Saturday, 6/16/2018, we staged our 21st Annual Charity Golf Tournament at the Golf Course at Moffett Field. With a lower number of golfers but a great turnout of volunteers, check-in and registration were a dawdle, and soon the golfers were on their way through the parcours. A beer tent mid way and a photo-op station, plus regular runs to the Club House for reinforcement were all part of the event which Chair person Lion Amy started at 11:05AM. By around 4:00pm everybody was back at the ranch, digging into the colorful hamburger buffet presented by the Club House kitchen. We are very grateful for our sponsors, especially our Gold Sponsor Lion Vijay plus several Silver and Bronze sponsors as well as T-sponsors and event or food sponsors! THANK YOU!

More details will be supplied in a few days

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2018 MD4 Convention Las Vegas – 6/29 – 7/3/2018

Three of our intrepid Lions (Lions Eli, Mort and Ray) plus Lion Ray’s wife Barbara ventured to Las Vegas for the MD4 Convention which was mainly held at the MGM Grand Hotel with the motto THE POWER OF WE. About 2,500 rooms were reserved there for lions, while the other 15, 000+ participants were divvied up into other hotels in the neighborhood. We got a preview of the outfits of our delegation in the AM meeting on 6/28 — bright purple shirts and funky hats for MD4, while other clubs from around the world showed up in the traditional dresses of their countries, especially for the parade. Our ‘troops’ joined up with PID Jack Epperson and his wife Mary, who were often guests at our golf tournaments. Plenary sessions were held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena which would hold 17,000+ Lions. The outgoing president, Dr. Naresh Aggarwal gave a keynote on Sunday morning, while former president George W Bush gave the opening speech on Monday morning. Wayne Newton was hired to open the morning sessions of Tuesday at the end of which was the closing date of the convention. One of the big news was that 4 districts added over 2,000 new members each – Bravo!

Lion Ray, who gave a review of the events in Las Vegas (this time what happened there did NOT stay there), was still in awe about this major event, about the amount of people from 120 different countries and the spirit of togetherness that prevailed during the 4 day long meetings.

The peace poster contest motto for 2019 is “Kindness Matters” – no doubt the teenagers will come up with wonderful paintings or drawings!

Next year’s convention will be in Milan/Italy from July 5-9, 2019. Let’s make sure we have another delegation from our club there!

Contributed by Lion Ray Lancon

 

 

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Cupertino Volunteer Fair – May 5th, 2018

Cupertino Mayor Darcy Paul called on the many and diverse volunteer organizations in the community, and more than 30 followed his call, among them Lion John Noone, our Club Membership Director, who set up ‘shop’ with Lion Joan on a sunny Saturday. He and lion Joan were out there at the Civic Center Plaza from 11:00am – 3:00pm, and had a great number of interested visitors. He ended up with 85 contacts he will address in the near future. Well done, Lions John and Joan!

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Work Days at Camp Via West – May 18th and 19th, 2018

A big shout out to the De Anza Lions and friends of our club who came out to Camp Via West (formerly Camp Costanoan) in the Santa Cruz Mountains (http://www.viaservices.org/) Friday afternoon and Saturday (May 18th and 19th) to work on the expansion of the fenced-in garden we built several years ago. There were 9 folks on Friday and 14 on Saturday who put in quite a few hours each day.

The efforts of one, multiplied, can make a big difference and we did!

Many children with developmental disabilities will be able to plant veggies and flowers and watch them grow due to our efforts.

Thank you all for helping!

This is what being a Lion is all about. WE SERVE

Lion Ray (w/Lion Jeff)

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Charter Night – 49th Club Anniversary

A big shout out to our club!

Our 49th annual charter night was one on the best I have attended. Thanks to Lions Eli and Jill, the program was funny, poignant and makes us all proud to be Lions.
Lion Jeff’s 10 reasons to be a Lion were on the mark…

Read more
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Student Speaker Contest – Zone Level Event

Lion Ray, Zone Director and Host of the Zone level Student Speaker Contest is sending a big thank you to Lions Al & Barb, Don, John, Ron and Herb as well as friends of DeAnza Lions that made the Zone Contest possible.
Special thanks go to Lion Don Lang for letting us use the Odd Fellows Lodge for the contest.
All three speakers were impressive. This year’s winner, Amita Mahajan from Monta Vista High School, was a very creative, eloquent and forceful speaker and was awarded $150. She will go on to the Region Contest, which will take place on March 19th, 2018, at the Sunnyvale School Board Office, 819 W Iowa Ave. Sunnyvale. Time to be announced.
The winner of the MD 4 contest will win a total of $21,500.
This is another great community effort by the Lions that was started in the late 1930’s.
I urge you to attend the next contest and be proud of our youth and future.
Great to be a Lion.
Lion Ray
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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.

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

 

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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.