District 5M6 GOVERNOR S MESSAGE INSIDE THIS ISSUE. September 2017 District Governor Curt Stockford

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1 District 5M6 September 2017 District Governor Curt Stockford GOVERNOR S MESSAGE Reminders of the changing seasons are ever present where I live. My neighbors are the University of MN Agricultural campus and the State Fair. Flocks of Canadian geese pass over daily, moving from field to field as they enjoy the bounty of the University s crop leavings. The State Fair offers a reason for folks of almost every interest to gather for a while and share an amazing collection of animals, equipment, foods, crafts, and entertainment. Both remind us that we are about to enter a new season, Fall. Kids will be returning to school. The coloring, then falling leaves will be accompanied by crisp temperatures that inspire us to outdoor activities. This is an invigorating time of year. Let s capture some of that Fall energy in our Lions Family activities! Join with another club in a new Service Project in your communities, or undertake one all by yourselves. Wear your Lions emblem with pride wherever you go. Display it especially when you re providing Service. It s who we are. It s what we do. Bring your ideas, challenges and accomplishments to your Region Meetings in September and October. Share these with your fellow Lions. Gather ideas and strength from that association. That s also who we are and what we do. Be thankful for what we have. Be welcoming of the challenges for Service that face us. Be uncompromising in your efforts to accomplish great things in your communities. Remember. We are Lions. Together we can do anything. It s the Power of We! INSIDE THIS ISSUE Words from 1st VDG... 2 Club Anniversaries... 2 Memorials... 2 Club Awards... 2 MN Lions Vision Fdn... 3 Service Recognitions.3 LifeSource Golf Classic... 3 Membership Growth... 4 Peace Poster Project... 4 Region Meetings... 4 Global Service Team... 5 Welcome!!... 5 Lions Clubs International... 6 USA/Canada Leadership... 6 Upcoming Events Calendar... 7 T.E.A.M. Sheehan... 8 True Friends... 8 Gratitude... 9 President s Message... 9 Diabetes Day... 9 Important Links Lions Display Newsletter Deadline... 10

2 A WORD FROM OUR 1ST VICE DISTRICT GOVERNOR CLUB ANNIVERSARIES 62 yrs - St. Paul Park-Newport 54 yrs - Maplewood Oakdale 7 yrs - DCTC Experiencing is Believing I had the opportunity to visit LeaderDogs for the Blind in Michigan recently. What an amazing place! This organization was founded in 1938 by three Lions, and has been supported by Lions ever since. Their mission includes empowering people who are blind or visually impaired with lifelong skills for safe and independent daily travel. Close your eyes and attempt to walk around your home. As you walk in the darkness think about how difficult it would be to feel even the least bit independent beyond your home. Folks who are visually impaired are set free with the gift of a guide dog. With the assistance of many dedicated volunteers, puppies are born and raised in family homes. The families get to name them. When they are about months old, they come back to the campus where they begin their extensive training. Much care is taken to match the personality of the dog to that of the client. Part of the training process includes the client living at the facility for 26 days to work with their dog before returning home together. LeaderDogs for the Blind works with new technologies and innovative training programs so they can continue to expand the types and number of clients they can help. The stories told by clients about how their lives have changed since they got a guide dog were heartwarming. They put their lives into the paws of their dedicated companion who makes them feel safe and independent. The working life of a service dog is about 8-9 years. Some clients talked about the process of receiving a new dog and the new personalities they get to work with. As you can imagine these dogs are costly to raise and to train, but there are no charges to the client for their dog. This is only possible because of the support of Lions and others. For more information go to: Where There s a Need There s a Lion. Lion Eileen Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more. ~H. Jackson Brown Jr. Club Awards Presented Memorials Lion Terry Saul, Lakeville The Wildwood Lions presented Helen Keller awards to Lion Amanda Kelsey and Lion Bud Berry, a Silver Centennial Award to Lion Steve Struskinski, a Lions Hearing Research Fellowship Award to Lion Joel Schilling, a Dream Catcher Award to Lion Bill Bruentrup, a Presidents Special Award to Lion Jim Schuster, a Presidents Appreciation Award to Lion Gail Loland, an Outstanding Lion Award to Lion James Trobec, a Lion of the Year Award to Lion Gary Berglund, Melvin Jones Fellowship Awards to Lion Karen Bowie, Lion Nick Marshall, and Lion Jim Schifsky, and a Past President Award to Lion Kevin Murphy. 2

3 Lions Clubs International s Centennial Celebration at Convention More than 30,000 Lions from all over the world arrived in Chicago last July to celebrate LCI s 100 th anniversary at the International Convention. Among the many events that took place, a highlight was watching the Special Olympics Leos Mission: Inclusion Unified Basketball Clinic presented by NBA great, Sam Perkins. Leos and Special Olympics athletes participated in basketball drills and scrimmages while working together and learning more about one another. Convention is a great time to thank the generous Lions who donated. A special thanks is in order for Melvin Jones Fellows, Progressive Melvin Jones Fellows, Melvin Jones Fellowship clubs, and those in the Humanitarian Partner program. This year, we raised one of the highest donation amounts in LCIF Convention history. Because of your contributions, communities all around the world will receive help when it is needed. The Project for Elimination of Avoidable Childhood Blindness For more than 15 years, LCIF s SightFirst program and the World Health Organization (WHO) have partnered to serve more than 127 million children by working to eliminate avoidable childhood blindness. The Project for Elimination of Avoidable Childhood Blindness is an initiative that began in Since then, 51 Child Friendly Eye Care Centers have been established and supported in 50 countries within Africa, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific. The centers provide preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitative eye care services for children aged 0-15 years. To date, more than 67,000 pediatric eye care staff have been trained, more than 13 million children have been screened for eye diseases, and more than 127 million children have received treatment. There have also been nearly one million education sessions for parents, caregivers and healthcare staff. Because of your donations to LCIF, millions of children have been given the chance to avoid childhood blindness. Club LCIF Coordinators Position Update The Club LCIF Coordinator is an ambassador for LCIF at the club level and is crucial to the promotion of our foundation. This person shares LCIF stories, motivates fellow Lions to support LCIF, and enables LCIF to advance its humanitarian work both locally and globally. Club LCIF Coordinators will be equipped with resources that will allow them to champion the goals of the foundation to Lions. A new policy has been put into effect to help fill this vital role at the club level. In addition to serving as mentors to the club president and vice presidents, immediate past club presidents will now serve as Club LCIF Coordinators. If he or she is unable to serve in this capacity, the position may be filled by another club member. Fellow Lions; As you can see by the above article from LCIF, I have highlighted an important part in RED font. Many of the Lions Clubs in our District do not have a LCIF Club Coordinator and so LCI has made a policy decision that the immediate past presidents will now serve as the Clubs LCIF Coordinator. I think most of the current LCIF Club Coordinators are not the immediate past club presidents. I will be reaching out to all the immediate past presidents to review the new policy with them. Regards, Lion Lynn Farley LCIF Chair District 5M6 22nd Annual LifeSource Golf Classic SERVICE RECOGNITIONS 30 yrs - Alvin Niebur Miesville 25 yrs - William Hargis 20 yrs - Roger Espeseth Inver Grove Heights 20 yrs - Ronald Sholl New Brighton 15 yrs - Douglas Rupp Cottage Grove 15 yrs - Janice Rettman Falcon Heights Lauderdale 15 yrs - Mark Dochniak South St. Paul 15 yrs - Michael Ahrens 15 yrs - Len Koehnen September 18, 2017 Majestic Oaks Golf Club Lions who are interested in golf and or organ donation are urged to contact LifeSource at Life-source.org. Golf registration can be done on-line or by mail. First come first served until registration is full. Please visit the event calendar on the district website for more information. 15 yrs - Mike Madigan 15 yrs - Gil Rohde 10 yrs - John Schmittdiel Falcon Heights Lauderdale 10 yrs - Brenda Herald Lakeville 10 yrs - Jesse Mongrue Vadnais Heights 10 yrs - Charles Pirkl South St. Paul 3

4 MEMBERSHIP GAINERS (YTD NET GROWTH, ENDING JULY 31, 2017) +2 - St. Paul Park Newport +1 - Miesville +1 - St. Paul North Ramsey 500 PEACE POSTER PROJECT 2017 The Future of Peace Greetings to the Lions Clubs in District 5M6. I d like to introduce myself as this year s District Peace Poster Chair. My name is Peg Knudsen from the Burnsville Lions Club. The purpose of this is not only to introduce myself, but lay out our District s plan for a very successful campaign. First, I d like to know what clubs have done this in the past and your plans to do it again. Secondly, for clubs new to this, I d like to know what clubs would like to venture out and do a campaign. This is a very exciting project where you get to work with schools, their teachers, students, and maybe some parents; Boy or Girl Scout troops, art groups, and maybe others. The place to start is for your club to make that decision and assign a coordinator. Once that is completed, please send me your: Club Name Coordinator s name Coordinator s address and phone number The names of the schools or organization completing posters Share any neat things your club does with this program. The following are the key milestones we need to work towards for a successful completion, and having a lot of posters seen on display at the Mid Winter Convention. TOTAL MEMBERSHIP FOR THE 37 LION CLUBS July 31, 2016 = 1,424 July 31, 2017 = 1,441 1) Your club should have your secretary order the kit(s). The order form is found on the LCI Web site is (PR-785). This gives you a good overview of the contest as well as the rules. You can also order a contest brochure (PR-775) if you need to present the contest to non-lion audiences. The sooner you have them, the sooner you can get the participants started. Please refer to the attached. Please get this done ASAP, but no later than 9/15. 2) I encourage your coordinator to stay in touch with the entries and their progress. Have your judging team ready to go and chose a judging date. You must have the winning posters, with the required sticker on the back, to the District no later than 11/12. Call me if we need to make an arrangements for pick up. 3) The District will establish a judging team and will have the winning poster sent to the LCI Headquarters by 12/1. 4) A multidistrict judging team will be established and one multi district winning poster will be sent to LCI headquarters by 12/15. 5) Our District winner will be announced at the mid winter convention. It is a rather tight schedule, so get started soon. I am available for questions and various duties to help you. I look forward to a wonderful campaign with posters depicting the theme: The Future of Peace Get the requested information to me. I look forward to seeing this year s plan for several posters! For those of you very experienced with this, if I forgot something or you have something to add, please let me know. Peg Knudsen District Peace Poster Chair mak1234@live.com Phone: REGION MEETINGS - COMING SOON! Small Clubs Sept 27, 2017 DCTC Hastings Lakeville Lakeside Maplewood North New-Park Roseville Shoreview/Arden Hills St. Anthony St. Paul Downtown St. Paul North Ramsey 500 Medium Clubs Oct 3, 2017 ABL Burnsville Eagan Falcon Heights-Lauderdale Farmington Hastings Rivertown Inver Grove Heights Lake Elmo Maplewood-Oakdale Miesville Mounds View New Brighton North St. Paul North Suburban Evening Rosemount St. Paul East Parks St. Paul East Side St. Paul Midway Eagan Lioness Park Port Lioness Southwest Lioness Large Clubs Oct 5, 2017 Cottage Grove Scandia-Marine South St. Paul St. Paul Park-Newport Stillwater Vadnais Heights White Bear Lake Wildwood 4

5 Global Service Team As the District s Global Service Team Coordinator, it is my responsibility to help the clubs complete the five focus service areas that Lions Clubs International has designated for us to work on this year. First, is Diabetes. This is a new international project that was rolled out in Chicago in July. Each club is asked to do a diabetes project. On Saturday, September 23rd, the Minnesota Lions Diabetes Foundation is teaming up with Wal-Mart and the American Diabetes Association to hold a public awareness weekend in all the Wal-Mart stores in Minnesota. The District s Diabetes Foundation Chairs need your help. Please provide them and myself your club s assigned Diabetes Chair. They want to get the September 23d event planned at the Wal-Mart s in your geography. The second area is Environment. This can be cleaning up a park or ditches, or helping your community plant trees or other plants. For questions, contact Steve Knudsen, the District Environment Chair. The third area is Vision. Jeff Fenske and Mary McNellis are the District Chairperson the vision foundation. Contact them for ideas or participate in our new KidSight program. Contact Joe Juettner for more information about this new project. Our fourth area is Hunger Relief. Collections for area food shelves are always needed. Also, many schools have started a backpack program. This gives students food for the weekend. Next March look for information on a Feed My Starving Children event. The last area is Children's Pediatric Cancer. Clubs can collect books, learning materials, or make blankets to donate to oncology clinics or area hospitals. When clubs complete each project, please make sure they report to MyLCI and make sure they note which area was served! Lastly, I d like to ask your club secretary and/or President, to go on the officer listing site at international and scroll down and add these two club positions: Club Service Chair and LCIF Coordinator. This needs to be done as soon as possible. If you questions, drop me an . Thank you for your time and commitment. Lion Steve Knudsen District GST Coordinator Farmington Stephen Liliberte Gerald Henricks Tom Maccani Susan Henricks Lori Petrovich New Clubs Shoreview-Arden Hills New Members Lakeville John Hennen Rebecca Swenson Jason Zienty Miesville Don Lawrence Sam Petrovich Dan Ratte Rosita Severin Dylan Wagner South St. Paul Shawn Gallahue Burnsville Brian Carlson Justina Messerich Jason Wunder Shoreview/Arden Hills Viktoria Averina Glen Clover Cynthia Cook Stillwater Kevin Moelter Henry Stewart Vadnais Heights Cottage Grove Karl Bollfrass Douglas Dean Phillips Drew Sanders Scott Stewart Emily Yasgar Matt Yasgar Patti Fitzpatrick Joseph Gatto Linda Grohoski Corey Gustafson Bradley Kaeter Cynthia Kaeter Jodi Laliberte Kory Lesnick Robert Leibel White Bear Lake Darlene Zabadal Wildwood Donald Gustafson 5 5

6 Lions and LCIF Responded To Hurricane Harvey My Dear Lions, On Friday, August 25th, Hurricane Harvey made its way ashore on the central Gulf Coast of Texas with winds of 125 miles per hour. As I draft this letter, the central coast of Texas, including metropolitan Houston, is still being affected by unprecedented amounts of rain fall and potentially devastating flooding. The nearly 17 million residents in the path of the storm will be dealing with the aftermath for weeks and possibly months to come. Lions Clubs International, through our Foundation (LCIF), has responded with emergency catastrophe grant in the amount of US$100,000. The grant will allow Lions in the area of impact to provide life-saving supplies of food, water, blankets and other necessities. We never know when or where disaster will strike. But when it does, LCIF emergency and major catastrophe grants enable local Lions to respond, making an immediate impact in the hardest hit areas around the world. Your donation to LCIF makes it possible for us to respond at a moment s notice to this and other disasters as they strike. Lions members are the most generous people in the world. Please consider a donation to LCIF to assist Lions in short-term and long-term disaster response. I know you join me in keeping the victims of this latest natural disaster in your thoughts and prayers. Together we make a significant difference. Namaste, Dr. Naresh Aggarwal 41 st USA/CANADA LIONS LEADERSHIP FORUM WHO: Lions All WHAT: Lions Leadership Forum WHEN: September 21-23, 2017 WHERE: Portland, Oregon Seminars to build Leadership skills: starting Thursday, September 21, 2017@ 2:00 pm. Inspirational speakers include an astronaut who will present the future direction of space exploration, to an athlete who will talk of overcoming limitations, to the President of the Association concerning his Program, and a challenge by one of the most exciting motivational speakers in the country. FREE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION for every registrant More information online at: Contact: 5M6 USA/Canada Chair: Lion Marlene Hayman mhayman44@gmail.com cell:

7 UPCOMING EVENTS (Click on the colored event link for event details) September 9 - Scandia Marine, Taco Daze at Scandia Community Center September 9 - Scandia Marine, Car, Truck & Tractor Show at Scandia Community Center September 9 - Rosemount, 2017 Sporting Extravaganza at Rosemount VFW September St. Paul East Side, Harvest Festival Treasure Hunt September 16 - Eagan, 7th Annual Golf Tournament at Emerald Greens Golf Course September 16 - ABL, Bayport Derby Days at Bayport, MN September 18 - Scandia Marine, 22nd Annual LifeSource Golf Classic at Majestic Oaks Golf Club September 20 - St. Paul East Side, Harvest Festival Dinner at American Legion Post 577 September 22 - St. Paul East Side, Hot Dog Eating Contest at Brunson s Pub September USA/Canada Lions Leadership Forum in Portland, Oregon September 23 - St. Paul East Side, Pancake Breakfast & Booya (to go) at Arlington Hills Lutheran Church September 23 - Harvest Festival - Payne Avenue Parade September Diabetes Day, at Walmart s across the district September 27 - Region Meeting for small clubs with 0-20 members (details will be shared through flyers and on the district website as information becomes available) 7

8 T. E. A. M. Together Everyone Achieves More PID Brian Sheehan MD5M Candidate for 3 rd Vice President LCI CONGRATULATIONS to Brian and Lori!! Brian has received the endorsement from the Executive Officers of LCI to run for 3 rd International Vice President at the convention in Las Vegas in So we need to make plans to attend the convention and vote to get Brian elected. The International Convention is a great experience. There are plenty of activities to do along with enough free time to visit the host city. A Lion can participate in seminars; enjoy entertainment shows by fellow Lions and professionals, sign up to help with a community project, walk in or watch the International parade and more. T.E.A.M Sheehan will be working to help you with any questions that you might have about attending the convention. Ask you club president or secretary who your T.E.A.M. Sheehan captain is for your district. The International Convention will be held at the MGM Grand hotel. The delegation hotel for MD5M is the Luxor hotel which is only 15 minutes away and is reasonably priced. You can find the room rates at lionsclubs.org / LCICON. After January 12, the delegation hotels tend to fill up quickly, so early registration is good. To register: go to Lions clubs international website lionsclubs.org and click LCICON on the right side of the Lions Emblem at the top. There you will find information about the convention. Please visit this website often as LCI updates the information especially closer to the date of the convention which is June 29 July 3. To find registration information such as fees and forms, click on FOR ATTENDEES in the yellow strip at the top. The early bird registration fee is $ through January 12, The deposit for rooms is $ You can type in your information on the registration form and print it out. You will need your club number and membership number which you should be able to get from your club secretary. You can use one form for both you and your companion that will be sharing a room. There is a place to enter your arrival date and departure date for the hotel on the registration form. T.E.A.M. Sheehan is working on getting a group flight to Las Vegas at a discounted rate. Go ahead and mark down dates on the form. You can notify LCI if your arrival and departure dates change afterwards just as long as you give them plenty of notice. This is an exciting time for all of us in MD5M! Let s start to make plans to attend the International Convention in Las Vegas and help elect our own PID Brian Sheehan to the office of 3 rd VP! More Information such as getting credentials for voting, activities to do, travel plans, etc. will be forthcoming in future newsletters. New Look, Same Great Information Every once in a while, we all need a change, right? We have a lot to share, but we realize you may not have a lot of time to take it all in. Moving forward each month we will provide you with a handful of great True Friends info that is quick and to the point. You can always visit our blog, website or social media for more information about your favorite topic. True Friends Can Visit our Website 8

9 A Revised District Newsletter An ever expanding Website A New Club Shoreview/Ardent Hills A $100,000 LCIF Grant making possible the largest inclusive playground in the Upper Midwest in Cottage Grove. The Lions of Minnesota have committed to raise $20.5 million to partner with the University of MN to build the Lions Eye Institute on the Minneapolis Campus. Ist International Vice President Lion Gudrun Yngvadottir will be our special guest at our MD5M Convention in April Past International Director, Lion Brian Sheehan was endorsed by the Executive Officers and Board of our Association as the candidate for 3 rd International Vice President in 2018 Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie Dear Lion, Person(s) to create and assemble Press Kits for District 5M-6 President s Message Every one of our 1.4 million members is passionate about service. And we know we can achieve great things by working together. This is the Power of We and why we created the Global Action Team. It brings together our leadership, membership and service, and puts the entire Lions network to work for your club. The Global Action Team consists of: Global Leadership Team (GLT) to identify leaders and development opportunities for every Lion. Global Membership Team (GMT) to help clubs find new members and keep current Lions coming back. NEW! Global Service Team (GST) to provide service resources and project support. Service has always been the heart and soul of Lions. That's why we developed this servicealigned structure to help clubs around the world take action to serve more people. If every one of our Lions served just 8 people per month, we would impact 134 million people this year a big step toward our goal of helping 200 million people per year by This is the Power of Action. Learn more about what this global network can do for your club by visiting the Global Action Team webpage. Sincerely, Dr. Naresh Aggarwal Your International President Lions & Walmart Service Opportunity Exciting news! Lions International has added Diabetes to the Global Service Framework. It is one of the five service areas Lions are working on with our goal of tripling our humanitarian impact by serving 200 million people per year by As part of the Global Service Framework challenge; Lions International has set a goal of increasing diabetes service projects by 5% this Lion s year. Minnesota Lions Diabetes Foundation has an easy way for clubs to accomplish this challenge. We are looking for Lions to volunteer at 70 Walmart locations throughout Minnesota. In 5M6, we are asking Lions Clubs to partner with MLDF, American Diabetes Association and Walmart by recruiting 4 Lions to be greeters on: Saturday, September 23, 2017 from 10 a.m. 2 p.m. Our stores in our District include: Vadnais Heights Oak Park Heights West St. Paul Hastings Roseville Cottage Grove More information will be coming soon. If interested please contact Lion Robert Olson at or either Lion Robert Olson at lionrobert5m6@hotmail.com or Lion Andy Bostrom at fishunter21@gmail.com 9

10 DISTRICT 5M6 Lions Clubs International extends our mission of service every day in local communities, in all corners of the globe. The needs are great and our services broad, including sight, health, youth, elderly, the environment and disaster relief. 11,ooo Individuals served by 5M-6 Lions Activities 700+ Lions Hours Almost 1500 Members Serving In Our District Over 1.4 Million Lions Members Worldwide IMPORTANT LINKS NEW District 5M6 Website: District 5M6 Youth Exchange Lions MD5M Hearing Foundation Lions Multiple Md5M Lions International Minnesota Lion Diabetes Foundation Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation Can Do Canines Camp True Friends Leader Dogs for the Blind Project New Hope Special Olympics Minnesota Newsletter Deadline: 20th of each month Submit your club events, The District 5M-6 Display is available to all clubs. Plan to set it up at your next club event to help advertise what Lions do. Contact Lion Eileen to reserve it and arrange pick up. club awards, and Lions program articles to: or 10