It was with considerable apprehension that our club prepared for the 22^nd 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.

On October 26^th the De Anza Lions held their 8^th 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