Happy Lions New Year!
We’re starting off this year with a bang! New members, new officers, creative fundraising and special service projects in our communities are already taking place.
I’m sure if you’re like me you have broken your New Year’s resolutions. I’m here to give you the opportunity to try again! But with a couple of new areas to focus on: Mission 1.5 and the Disaster Preparedness Project.
Mission 1.5 is the Lions International approach to raising our membership numbers worldwide to 1.5 million. CC Lion Lynn and I attended the Mission 1.5 Summit while this column was being written. We’ll be bringing back lots of information and ideas on how to accomplish membership growth on both club and district levels. We’ll be sharing all of this with you through visitations, Zoom meetings, and articles in this magazine. We hope to reverse the downward trend in 36-R by bringing in lots of new (and perhaps younger?) Lions. We will need your help to do this!
The Disaster Preparedness Project is the result of a recent $10,000 LCIF grant to District 36-R. We are partnering with the Oregon Disaster Airlift Relief Team’s volunteer pilots to become rapid First Responders in times of disaster. We have assembled hundreds of emergency kits to be distributed to evacuees and victims of local disasters. Kits will be stored at the Albany and Creswell airports and deployed as needed. Lions Clubs near these airports will be expected to help load kits onto ODART planes, which will be flown to the nearest airstrip in a disaster area. Lions Clubs near that area will be expected to help offload the kits and get them distributed to the needy folks. We’re currently putting together lists of volunteers from every club who will be crucial to a successful disaster response. (This means you!)
Remember -- Forward! Onward! Upward! all apply to these resolutions, so please make a commitment to not break them. Feel free to reach out to me if you need any assistance in these areas. I’m here to serve!
DG Linda