November is Turkey Month

“November News Article”

          Ah! November, the month of turkey dinners and beautiful autumn leaves. The fall is a wonderful time of year. Some may think it is the end of summer, but I think others (especially Lions), see it as the year starting again with its annual cycle of ending and beginning anew.
          I have mentioned before that Multiple District 36 received a $20,000 public relations grant from Lions Clubs International (and hats off to all those involved). I attended a planning meeting for “Projects Oregon” (the name of the grant) in Salem in October. As discussed at that meeting, the grant may be used to develop various projects, but one of the central purposes is to create projects that Lions can share with their community. It is a way of providing opportunities for anyone to do service and to get to know Lions and about Lions in a friendly, helpi-your-community kind of way. I think the idea has great potential, because it seems as if everyone (Lions included) wants to help their community, but they do not necessarily want to attend meetings to do the planning. The idea of gathering together to help others is what Lions have done for years and the grant planning committee is simply extending that opportunity to the public at large. Great idea!
          So I was a little surprised when Judith Grosenick (she reminds me of someone I knew or maybe should have known in high school) came up to me after the meeting and mentioned that you do not have to do service with a group for it to be service. This was an “ah-ha” moment for me (and the point of this article)! I think we tend to see ourselves as only doing service when we have our Yellow Lions Vest on.
Just to make sure I understood what she was saying, Judith e-mailed me the next day with the following Helen Keller quote: “I am only one but I am still one, I can’t do everything, but I can do something; and because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
          There are a million “little” service projects out there that only take one Lion to do, sometimes it’s just calling a friend to say hi or helping a neighbor rake their leaves. We can make a difference every day without doing a club service project. All those good things we do for others throughout the day can be little Lions Service Projects even though we do not have on our Yellow Lions Vest.
Make a great day!