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President’s Message

Hello Lions!

I have survived my first couple of months as your President of the Fort Collins Lions Club! I want to thank each and every one of you for this opportunity at leadership. I first met the Lions Club back in 2000 when my mother, Lion Denny, introduced me to a small group of friends she had recently made through Lion Aida. As a young snarky teenager, I had no idea what a positive influence this club would have on me. I have been blessed with mentors, friends, and family through the Lions. I have learned public speaking and watched how to run meetings. The skills that I’ve acquired are because I’ve had the opportunity to watch you all on action for the past 17 years. For that, I am grateful.

I wanted to give just a brief background on myself. I am 34, a mom of two adorable and rambunctious children, and the development director at the Ensight Skills Center where I’ve worked the past eight years. I am a Colorado State Alumni and proud of my CSU Rams! When I was 12 years old, my parents moved from the south suburbs of Chicago (Go White Sox!) and it was the best decision they ever made! Colorado is an amazing place to grow up!  The last thing I want to share is that my mom, Lions Denny, is the reason I have such a drive for service. She leads by example and taught me at a young age about hard work and giving to my community.

Lions, you are the best to serve with and I know that this year will be outstanding. Roar!!!

Lion President Melody Bettenhausen

Pancake Time to benefit Rocky Mountain Raptor Program

On June 24 part of our trusty pancake crew was at Bath Nursery flipping and serving pancakes to help raise money for the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program. Our crew served about 80 people.

Our next event is Saturday, July 29. Our club will provide a Pancake Breakfast to benefit the Poudre Fire Authority Fire and Life Safety Education Fund on July 29 from 8:30 to 10:30. The breakfast is located east of the Poudre Fire Authority Station Three, 2000 Mathews Street. Come out and bring your friends!  September 10 we will be serving another breakfast. Watch for details!

Lions Train at City Park

Focus on Fort Collins, by Kevin Duggan
Taken from the Fort Collins Coloradoan   06/25/2017 – Page A03

“A little train that entertained Fort Collins City Park visitors for decades just might ride again.

The City Park Railway was shut down in 2010 over safety concerns. It probably didn’t help that the city manager was a passenger on the train when it derailed.

Anyway, City Park is expected to be renovated in the coming years, assuming funding is available. The train will likely be part of the refresh project.

The Fort Collins Lions Club has stepped forward to help make that happen. The club’s foundation has pledged $100,000 toward the $175,000 cost of buying a new train and track.

In addition, the club has promised to lead fundraising efforts for the project. If $132,000 is realized from the Lions, the club would secure naming rights for the train.”

Here is a little video from the Coloradoan

July 4, 2017

Lions members, along with their families marched and rode in the Fort Collins 4th of July Parade. Lions Melody Bettenhausen and Denny Moyer decorated the train engine. Lion Missy Ackerson’s company, Image 360 Fort Collins, donated the beautiful signs and flyers used to help promote awareness of our part in bringing the train back to City Park. Walkers handed out candy and flyers with the club’s website information to parade watchers. Thank you everyone who helped decorate, ride, walk, and provide goodies!!

Keep sharing the word that we are trying to make this happen. Encourage friends to go to our website and donate! Fortcollinslions.org

It’s Picnic Time

Annual Lions Club FAMILY Picnic at Spring Park
Thursday, August 17,  5:30 pm
2000 Matthews Street, by Fire Station No. 3 – Accessed off S. College Ave. via Spring Park Drive (east of College)

No Cost to attend!!!   The club will provide BBQ beef and pork, soft drinks, water, coffee, and table service.  Load up the family and bring a side dish or dessert to share.

There will be a sign-up sheet at Club or contact Denise Clynes, Carole Kitchell, or Rusty Holsten with your RSVP.

Cycle for Life Project

Work has begun on the Cycle for Life Project. The project will provide outdoor therapy cycles, which will give valuable therapy, socialization, and fun to the special needs children, wounded warriors, and wounded peace officers in Fort Collins and the surrounding communitities. The special conditions our project will address are the blind and visually impaired, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, mentally challenged, post traumatic stress, and other needs. These cycles will be kept in the homes of the recipients to be available for use 365 days per year. The physical conditioning from cycling has profound benefits for these children and adults.

There is no cost to our club other than mailing out requests, or to the recipients. We are working with Lion Joe Tarver, from Texas on this project. The Cycle for Life Project contacts other foundations on our behalf and requests grants to fund the project. The average cost of one of the special cycles is around $1,300, depending on the specifications and man-hours involved.  Currently, Susan Yadon is helping with mailing the donation request packets to possible donors identified by the Cycle for Life Project. Once we start receiving donations, a committee will be formed and we will be able to publicize the project and screen recipients for bicycles.

These are a couple websites that will give you more information about the project. http://www.cycleforlifeproject.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfggrYLeMbA&feature=em-upload_owner

Certificate of Appreciation

Two Lion members were recognized for their service as Foundation Trustees, Lion Joe Hamilton and Lion Wayne Crownhart. Thank you both for your service to our club and foundation!

Lions Week – July 16 – 22, 2017

The City of Fort Collins has proclaimed the week of July 16 as Lions Week as we celebrate 100 years of voluntary service. Council member Gerry Horak, Mayor Pro Tem, presented the certificate to club president, Melody Bettenhausen. Club member and past Fort Collins Mayor, Doug Hutchinson, also addressed the council. If you want to see the portion of the city council meeting where the proclamation was presented, click on this link.
https://fortcollinstv.viebit.com/player.php?hash=BQET9zChFzca

 

Colorado Lions Camp

The mission of the Colorado Lions Camp is to provide exceptional camping programs to individuals with special needs which promote independence, challenge their abilities and provide opportunity to discover his or her own potential in a safe, positive environment.

History of the Camp

1964, Lion Dr. ML Crawford offered his cabin in Steamboat Springs to be used for the very first camp session sponsored by the Lions Clubs in Colorado. There were five girls that attended that summer; each girl was visually impaired. In 1966, several Lions signed personal notes to purchase the present location of the Colorado Lions camp. At the 1968 State Convention, the Lions of Colorado voted to build a permanent camp, and forty acres were purchased from Brethren in Pike National Forest, just north of Woodland Park. In 1969, the Lions camp hosted its first year of residential camping in the newly constructed facility which serves as the Luke Lodge today. A total of 16 campers who were visually impaired attended. Today, over 350 campers with a variety of disabilities attend the summer and respite programs throughout the year.

Needless to say, keeping the camp running take effort and supplies. The camp has a wish list on their website http://www.coloradolionscamp.org/ of supplies needed.

Check it out; this is your camp, too!

Take us out to the ballgame …

On July 19, 23 Lions members, families, and friends went to the Rockies game in Denver. It was a great day – no rain, and a big win – 18-4 over the Padres.

The Fort Collins Lions Club will provide a Pancake Breakfast to benefit the Poudre Fire Authority Fire and Life Safety Education Fund on July 29 from 8:30 to 10:30. The breakfast is located east of the Poudre Fire Authority Station Three, 2000 Mathews Street.

President’s Message
Fellow Lions–

Thank you to all the Lions members, especially officers, directors and committee leaders who worked so hard this year.

It has truly been a pleasure to be President of our Club this past year. Together, we have continued to do great service work in our community and have made significant contributions to many state and national Lions programs, as well as our Lions Clubs International Foundation. Our Bingo fundraising efforts reached amazing new heights this year. The dedication and hard work of our members should make each of us proud.

We continue the work of providing eyeglasses for the needy, KidSight and many core programs. This year we have chosen to provide a Legacy for our Club by working to bring back the train to City Park. We are developing a new program to provide cycles to the disabled through the Cycle for Life Project.

Sometime we don’t notice the “small” accomplishments of our members, such as improving and expanding our website, helping at our Pancakes for Non-Profits events, organizing our parties or picnics, and serving on committees or as officers for the club. All these efforts help make us the best Lions Club in the State of Colorado!

In March I reached 49 years as a member of this club and I’m continually grateful for the opportunities that membership has presented. Five years ago our Lions Tales editor asked many of the past presidents to write a recollection of their presidency. I just ran across those notes on my computer and thought it would be fun to share some of my observations from 1980-81.

At that time I looked back on the years closer to when I joined the Club. The year after I joined Lions, in 1969, the Club reached a peak membership of 129 (guess it’s been all downhill since I joined). In the early 70’s our sight budget was about $5000 and was our major budget item (with 100+ members). In a good year we might make about $4000 profit selling brooms and light bulbs. 1980 was the first year for 9Health Fairs in Colorado and we had 12 Lions help with the Fair. Our Salvation Army Bell Ringers raised $1700, which was the largest amount raised by any service club.

Even though our membership is much smaller (and possibly a bit older), today we can be extremely proud of how far we have come, how many more people we impact each year with our service, and how bright the future looks for Lions in Fort Collins.

Proud to have been your Centennial President —
Wayne Crownhart

2017   9Health Fair Recap

Congratulations to everyone on a terrific 38th year for the Fort Collins 9Health Fair!  A special thanks to the Lions volunteers for staffing, supporting and believing in the importance of the Fair.

This year we served 1195 people – approximately 650 on Friday and 550 on Saturday.  This was an increase of 15% over 2016!  We offered 14 free medical screenings and 26 IEC’s.  Of the free screenings completed (2698), including blood pressure, we had 30% abnormal readings.  So one in every three people were advised they had some kind of a medical issue – before they got their blood work returned.  That’s an importance beyond the traditional blood draw.

A special thanks to the Christ Center Community Church for the wonderful resource they have provided.  Thank you again to everyone for their time, energy, support and caring about others!

Jan Kuhnen
9Health Fair Site Coordinator

Campbell’s Labels for Education and …

Fellow Lions:

I am still collecting Campbell’s labels for the camp, along with the metal pull tabs from cans.  I just sent down a whole bag full of both items to the camp.  Michelle at the camp is always most grateful.   If you are having trouble getting the labels off cans without ripping them, dampen the label with water and take a knife right along where it is glued on to the can and it should just come off.  You can give me the whole label and I will cut them to what Michelle requires to send in for the money.  The company now sends out Visa cards for the amount collected.  The camp then can buy what they need.  They usually use it for craft supplies and sports equipment for the campers.

Remember this is your camp and this is an easy way to support it.

Lion Faye

Club Recognitions

Putting together a newsletter is more difficult than you might think. Here are some examples of grammar and editing gone awry taken from church bulletins.

• Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
• At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What Is Hell?’ Come early and listen to our choir practice.
• Pot-luck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM – prayer and medication to follow.
• And this one just about sums them all up:
  The Associate Minister unveiled the church’s new campaign slogan last Sunday: ‘I Upped My Pledge – Up Yours.

Eyeglass/Hearing Aid Collection

Thank you Lions Club for all the eye glass deliveries to Community Hearing Center. I met Ray in Loveland with 6 boxes of eye glasses for the Sterling prisoners to sort for mission work. Thanks to Estes Valley for recycling eye glasses!! The good work continues!
PS:  the 6 boxes were cartons, the size that hold 5000 8-1/8 x 11 sheets.  The little box Ray is holding in the picture was a quick grab from the full back seat of our car.

Wendy Koenig Schuett
Community Hearing Center
Estes Park, CO

FCLC’s KidSight Program Goes to the “HEAD OF THE CLASS”

The 2016-17 KidSight vision screening program broke its previous record (2015-16) of students screened by over 550 students!!  Our record-breaking performance totaled 3701 pupils.   We are very proud of this new record and would like to thank the Club – especially the BINGO workers and Harold Hartman – for supporting this worthwhile program!

Working with “Project Smile,” we screened the students at Irish, Putnam, Laurel, Linton and Tavelli Elementary schools and added an additional school – Bauder Elementary; next year another elementary will be added to our schedule.  Additionally, “your” team screened children at PSD’s Early Childhood program, church day cares, private schools and several “home” day cares.

Extra special thanks to Jack Freshwaters and Faye Lockner who were always ready to help!  Come and join us next year and be a part of this wonderful program – you may have a role to play in changing a child’s life by discovering a vision problem the family never suspected!

Lion Carole Kitchell

It’s Pancake Breakfast Time!!!

We have hosted two pancake breakfasts so far this spring, Larimer County United Way and O’Dea Elementary.  We want to thank all of the volunteers who helped to make these events a huge success. We served about 85 people at the United Way event, and about 250 at O’Dea Elementary.  If you didn’t get a chance to help at these events, mark your calendars for June 3 and July 29. June 3 will benefit the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program and be held at Bath Nursery. June 29 will benefit the Poudre Fire Authority education program.

 

Six Little Stories

shared by Ray Tjalkens

1. Once, all villagers decided to pray for rain.  On the day of prayer all the people gathered,  but only one boy came with an umbrella.  That’s FAITH.

2. When you throw babies in the air,  they laugh because they know you will catch them.  That’s TRUST.

3. Every night we go to bed  without any assurance of being alive the next morning,  but still we set the alarms to wake up.  That’s HOPE.

4. We plan big things for tomorrow  in spite of zero knowledge of the future.  That’s CONFIDENCE.

5. We see the world suffering,  but still we get married and have children.  That’s LOVE.

6. On an old man’s shirt was written a sentence  ‘I am not 82 years old;  I am sweet 16 with 66 years of experience.’  That’s ATTITUDE.
Have a happy day and live your life like the six stories.  When I was a child, I thought nap time was punishment. Now it’s like a mini-vacation.

“GOOD FRIENDS ARE THE RARE JEWELS OF LIFE…..DIFFICULT TO FIND AND IMPOSSIBLE TO REPLACE!”  God bless you.

SAVE THE DATE

July 19, 2017 – Game starts at 1:10 PM
Rockies Baseball vs San Diego Padres

We will try to get the Salvation Army Bus or we will car pool to Denver. We will probably leave around 11:15 am.

Total price including ticket, transportation and parking will be $15!  Be sure to let Tobey know if you would like to attend.

Centennial Year Celebration Barbeque

We want to give a big thank you to Lion Wayne Crownhart and his wife, Jan, for hosting a party for all club members and guests on May 20.   Members attending were treated to delicious barbequed ribs, salads, yummy cupcake, and great fellowship. Thank you Wayne and Jan!

President’s Message

Our Lion Tom Toliver has recently been struggling with new health issues. Please keep him and Irene in your thoughts and prayers.

Let me say thank you to our members who accepted leadership positions in our club and are standing for election this week. Not only club officers, but also to all that will serve on committees during our next Lion’s year.

As I am writing this, I am awaiting a message back from the head of Parks and Recreation for the City, with some clarification on how we may move forward with our assistance in reestablishing the train in City Park. He left me a message about 10 days ago, before leaving for vacation last week. In that message he indicated that he had spoken with city management about naming rights for the train and thought we would be quite pleased with what they were prepared to offer. He was circulating his proposal to his department heads for review and promised to get back with us this week.

Recently, I have been reminded that, although we have done many worthwhile projects and contributed to a wide range of charitable efforts, we have not done a single, large project since our Habitat House build 15 years ago. Not only should the City Park Train project be a great contribution to the City, as our Centennial Legacy Project, but it will be a large financial commitment we can all get behind, much like that house build.

At our last Club Board of Directors meeting the decision was made to move forward with the Cycle for Life Project. I had emailed this projects website information to all members, asking for their review of how this will work for our club. At this time, I would like everyone interested in helping with this to let me know, so a working committee can be formed before we proceed with this. Several members have expressed their interest, but more people need to get involved. If you have questions about how you can help, please ask me about the various needs. We will not go forward with this until we have a sufficient number of Lions willing to help.

Our Bingo fundraising continues to be very successful, but as Harold keeps reminding us, we struggle to have the necessary number of workers. Please consider adding your name to his list of regular volunteers–free training provided!

As a celebration of all we have accomplished together this year, Jan and I would like for you all to join us for a BBQ at our home, 4:00 Saturday afternoon, May 20. Spouses/families welcome. Mark your calendars now.

Proud to be your Centennial President—
Wayne Crownhart

This year’s 9Health Fair is April 28th and April 29th.  It is at the Christ Community Center, 2700 Lemay, Fort Collins, from 7 a.m. to noon.  Please mark your calendars!

This year we are adding Miramont Lifestyle Fitness on the second floor.  They will be providing a Fitness Festival with ongoing activities.

Please go to www.9healthfair.org to sign up to volunteer.  It is important that EVERYONE sign up, if you can.  That is how Kathy can keep track of where we are on volunteer numbers.   This is a brand new website and it has a few glitches.  When you sign up, it does not let you do multiple days.  So, just sign up and we will sort the “one dayers” out later.

Thanks for all you do!  Without your many volunteer hours this project could not succeed!

Jan Kuhnen

PROGRAM NEWS

Lorraine Perry recently spoke on Jacob Sheep; Conserving an Endangered Breed. She talked about Jacob Sheep and why she decided they were the right breed for her!

LOOK!
50/50 DRAWING THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2017
Instead of a drawing for prizes, one lucky winner will receive cold, real cash!!!! Tickets will still cost $1 each and you may buy as many as you want. Special deal…6 tickets for $5. However many tickets are sold, one lucky person will win half of the total $ collected. Example: We sell 50 tickets; the lucky winner will take home $25! The other half ($25) will go to the Club.

Valentine’s Day Party

 

 

 

 

 

The Melvin Jones Fellowship is named for Melvin Jones, the founder of Lions Clubs International. This award is the highest form of recognition and embodies humanitarian ideas consistent with the nature and purpose of Lionism.

 

Speech Contest Winners

Lion Irene Toliver coordinated the annual speech contest. Pictured with Lion Irene are high school students, David Leo and Aiden Dykstal. The topic this year was “What Is Your Passion and How Will It Contribute to a Changing World?” Aiden was the first place winner and received $200 and he will go on to the District competition. David placed second and received $150.

 

 

 

 

 

Each District will have a different contest because of not having District Conventions this year. Our District contest will be held on April 22, 2017.

Each District winner will go on to the State convention which will be held at the Double Tree Hotel, Greenwood Village on May 20, 2017. The contest will be at 1:45 pm on May 20th.

The winner of this contest will receive a $500 cash award, second place will receive $400, third and fourth place will receive $250.
Makes the World Go Round…

Or it at least funds all of the activities in which our club is involved! Did you know our club runs TWO Bingo sessions every week? One of them is Tuesday night at 7:00 pm and the other is Friday morning at 11:30 am. We need more helpers to continue this fantastic fundraiser. Worker time commitments are about four hours per session, although it does vary. Please consider giving the gift of your time as part of your Lion’s service. We raise over $100,000 every year which funds all of our activities! No experience necessary – we will train you for any position!

 

It’s Almost Pancake Breakfast Time!

 

 

 

Our first pancake breakfast of the season is coming up on Saturday, May 5. It will be to benefit the United Way of Larimer County.  Mark your calendars now and come out to help serve the community … and have some tasty cakes!

 

Socks, socks, socks!!!

 

Following a recent presentation by the Murphy Center and Homeless Gear Fort Collins, Lion Carrie Graves spearheaded a drive to collect socks for the homeless.In one week, our club brought in several bags of socks with more to come which will be donated to Homeless Gear Fort Collins.   Thank you Lion Carrie for your efforts to serve our community and thank you, fellow Lions for your generosity!

SAVE THE DATE
July 19, 2017 – Game starts at 1:10 PM
Rockies Baseball vs San Diego Padres
We will try to get the Salvation Army Bus or we will car pool to Denver. We will probably leave around 11:15 am.
Total price including ticket, transportation and parking will be $15!

Environmental Committee

Spring is in the air and there will be lots of opportunities to help with the Environmental Committee coming up. Watch your email for events!

New Lions Project   – First Class Scholars

The Fort Collins Coloradoan started a program in conjunction with the University of Northern Colorado offering scholarships to students who will be the first generation in their family to attend college. You can read more about it here: http://www.coloradoan.com/insider/events/2016/10/14/first-class-scholarship-fund/92051596/ .  During the first year, students will be receiving a little more than $2,000 from the Coloradoan and $1,085 from UNC (if they attend UNC) for their first year of college.

Our Fort Collins Lions Club recently voted to give each student a $1,000 Second-Year scholarship for their second year of college, regardless of where they choose to attend. To qualify for our Lions Club scholarship, the student must maintain a B average or better their first year and provide transcripts to the Coloradoan, as well as their class schedule for the fall semester of their second year of college.  Our portion of the funding will begin in the fall of 2018, so this will be an event for which we will plan and budget.  This is just another way in which our club serves the youth of our community!