Volume 3, Issue 4 April, 2012
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Ted Blevins
Spring is my favorite season. First of all it is the time of year when we see the Fort Collins Lions Club get to show the community as a whole what we as a service club can do by putting on the 9Health Fair, as ably headed up by Lion Carole. Most of the club is involved in setting up booths, welcoming and directing traffic, collecting fees and, in general, managing the two day affair that brings nearly 2500 people thru the doors. Then on Saturday afternoon we take it all down. It is our annual major club effort and those of you who have not participated before will enjoy it.
Second, it is the season of new beginnings. For me, this is especially poignant this year, as the narcissus, daffodils, crocus, tulips and iris all reach their peak of colors. Take a moment to examine each leaf of the narcissus bloom in their minute, perfect detail and tell me there is not a great creator. Take a look at the smallest mountain flowers and the detail of their hardly visible blooms and tell me there is not a great creator. The creator in all His glory is so obvious this time of year.
I have a favor to ask of you. One of my favorite songs, and perhaps one of yours, is How Great Thou Art. Lion Bill Funke will give you a little background of this song which perhaps you didn’t know. And then his trio will lead the singing of the first verse:
Oh Lord, My God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made
I see the sun, I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout the universe displayed……
Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee
How great thou art, how great thou art……
I’ll be listening, and I hope to see you all soon.
Ted
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MOTHER’S DAY
Second Sunday in May
Though the British had long honored mothers during Lent on what they called Mothering Sunday, the idea of setting aside a day in recognition of motherhood did not catch on anywhere else until the 20th Century. Reformer Julia Woods Howe first broached the idea in 1870. For the next few decades others tried to stir up interest in regular Mother’s Day observances. But credit for making the day stick as a national celebration belongs to a West Virginia schoolteacher named Anna Jarvis.
Born in Grafton, West Virginia, Jarvis had a close, loving relationship with her mother. Despite her filial affections and attentions, Jarvis felt guilty she had not done more for her. She set to work campaigning for a national Mother’s Day. To rush for legislation she sent out letters to congressmen, governors, mayors, newspapers editors, and business leaders across the land. Her hometown church in Grafton celebrated Mother’s Day on May 10,1908, the anniversary of Jarvis’s mother’s death. Jarvis handed out carnations – her mother’s favorite. Finally, Congress approved the proposed bill, and in 1914 President Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May to be Mother’s Day.
In a sad footnote, Jarvis died childless and impoverished in 1948 in a sanatorium. But the tradition started by a woman who devoted her life to her mother and her mother’s memory has spread to many countries. The U.S. leads the way in Mother’s Day spending – on cards, flowers and dinners out.
Today more than 100 countries celebrate versions of Mother’s Day. In India, Japan, Finland, Pakistan, and many more, mothers are honored, usually with a special cake, a big meal and flowers.
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Wayne Crownhart
President of Fort Collins Lions Club
1980 – 1981
Forty-Four Years a Lion
As I looked through our club history, and considered my 44 years as a Lion, I realize how fortunate I have been to have been invited to become a Lion those many years ago. I had been in Fort Collins just two years when I joined in 1968. In 1969 our club reached a peak of 121 members. What a privilege it has been to be able to associate with the many community leaders and builders throughout the years.
In the early 1970’s our Sight Budget was often less than $5000, and was our major budget item. Our major fund-raiser was the annual Broom and Bulb sale and, although somewhat of a “pain” to do each year, it was great to see how many people in our neighborhoods waited for us to come around so they could restock on bulbs and buy a new broom. In a good year we might have sales of $10,000, with $4000 profit. We supplemented our income with raffles and other small fund-raisers.
I think 1980 was our first year of involvement with the 9Health Fair (then called the Channel 9 Health Fair) and 12 Lions helped with the Fair. We can certainly be proud of how the 9Health Fair has grown and our sponsorship has become one of our terrific annual contributions to Fort Collins.
The Tolivers and the Crownhart family attended the Lions International Convention in Chicago in 1980, as I was beginning my year as president. I remember us feeling like we were going to freeze to death in the canyons of the Chicago skyscrapers as we waited for the parade to start and the cold north winds were blowing off Lake Michigan on the 4th of July! We had just driven to Chicago, with two or three days of over 100 degree temps, but a cold front came in the morning of the parade. We and our young boys enjoyed seeing Lions from all over the world during the events of the convention.
Our Club’s Salvation Army Bell Ringer raised $1700, the most of any Fort Collins service club. Our Valentine’s party was held at the Safari Club. (How many of the newest members know where the Safari Club was located?) One of our first club pins, the flying geese, was designed for our 60th Anniversary party.
We saw the chartering of the Cache la Poudre Lions club in May of 1981, with Tom Toliver serving as their Guiding Lion and I was MC for the Charter Night ceremonies. We also hosted the State Convention at the recently completed Lincoln Center. Lion Paul Hutchinson had been elected as incoming president, but would have nothing to do with getting on the stage, in front of all those state Lions, and just said…”Wayne, you can do that.” That was probably my first, and only, time in the “spotlight”. As I recall, our current club vest was designed for that state convention.
It’s hard to believe that was 31 years ago.
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The WORST and LAST
April 15, 1912 R.M.S. Titanic sinks 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
April to July 1912 Inquiries by the U.S. Congress and the British Board of Trade spur changes in maritime safety, including rules for lifeboat capacity, including mandatory 24-hour radio service by all ships at sea.
January 1914 The International Ice Patrol is established to monitor key shipping lanes. No ship since the Titanic has been sunk by an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
1955 Walter Lord’s book A Night to Remember and the film based on it rekindle public interest in the disaster.
September 1, 1985 A French-American team, led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michael, locates the Titanic using the deep sea robot Argo.
July 12, 1986 Ballard returns aboard Atlantis II and dives to the wreck in the submersible Alvin. He removes no artifacts, urging others to leave the site undisturbed as a memorial to the dead.
1987 Salvage operators begin to recover artifacts from the Titanic despite heavy criticism from the scientific community.
1994 A U.S. court declares RMS Titanic, Inc. (RMST) the wreck’s sole “salvor-in-possession” because it was the first to recover artifacts from the site.
1997 James Cameron’s film Titanic breaks box office records. He later claims he made the movie primarily so he could explore the wreck.
1998 First tourists dive in submersibles to Titanic… $32,500 each!
2000 RMST sues to stop the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Department of State from developing guidelines governing exploration and salvage of the wreck site. The suit is dismissed and the guidelines are issued the next year.
May 31, 2009 Millvina Dean, the last Titanic survivor, dies at age 97. She was just ten weeks old when she was lowered to a lifeboat in a canvas mailbag.
2010 The first survey of the entire wreck site is conducted in an expedition led by RMST in collaboration with NOAA and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
April 14, 2012 A hundred years after it struck the iceberg, the Titanic becomes eligible for protection as a UNESCO underwater cultural heritage site.