We received almost 29 inches of snow in February and March is coming in rainy and foggy and windy. It will be nice to see spring — eventually — and the return of the “snow birds.”

We voted (again, at zoom meetings) to pay for two solar panels for the roof of the recreation center at Camp Pride. The hope is that once the roof is covered in these panels the Camp will be self-sustaining in terms of electricity.

Both Bingo and the Tuesday morning cribbage club are attempting to provide entertainment and companionship to the residents of the towns we cover — Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro. We would certainly like to see more people at these events.

Bingo is every Tuesday evening beginning at 6:30 with ticket sales starting at 5. Cribbage Club is the first and third Tuesdays of the month from 10 -12. You can stay for the congregate meal afterwards ($3); just sign up at the door. Come and play a game or two with a Lion or come and learn the game!

We will once again beginning distributing books (selected by the school librarians, reading teachers or classroom teachers) to every elementary student in our area. We will begin with Moultonborough Central School on Tuesday, March 25.

Happy New Year to all. It has certainly been cold and very, very windy so far.

We are having our monthly meetings through April via zoom and will not be having dinner meetings during the same time.

HOWEVER, we have started a new community event — CRIBBAGE CLUB which will meet the first and third Tuesdays of the month. Various members of the Moultonborough Lions Club will be at the Moultonborough Function Hall from 10:00 am until noon when the congregate meal begins. Come learn how to play or just come to play a game or two, meet people, and have fun.

While the weather has been variable and we have not had much snow lately, it is the last month of the year and time for Holiday wishes and New Year’s Cheer.

To end 2025, we have been busy with our traditional holiday services. We have already received thank you notes for our holiday checks to the four communities we service.

Christmas Cards to nursing homes:  At the beginning of December, we brought 285  personally written Christmas cards to three nursing homes:  Golden View, Mountain View, and Forest View. One of our members, Joanne Vidal, hand made her cards.

Mark also did our last vision screening of 2024 at Ashland Elementary, screening 53 students.

BINGO: please remember there will be no Bingo on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve.

The winner of the 2024 Lions Club Raffle was an individual who lives in Long Island, NY and has a summer place on Long Island in Moultonborough. His wife bought the tickets and put his name of a few and his ticket was picked out of the drum at 1 pm on December 7 to receive the $5,000 money. The couple also graciously donated $1,000 back to the Club to help with service projects in the community.

Wishing everyone a healthy 2025!

And coming in 2025, the Moultonborough Lions Club will be hosting a cribbage game event at the Moultonborough Function Hall. Anyone who would like to play cribbage or learn how to play is welcome. We will provide the cards and the cribbage games. We will start on Tuesday, January 7 at 11. Depending on interest, we may offer this activity twice a month on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Stay tuned.

November is a busy month for our Club.

Thanksgiving and giving. Our club matched the money collected by the Moultonborough staff and administration to provide food gift certificates to families in the area.

We also contributed $500 to Breaking Bread Food Pantry to help buy supplies for over 70 families and two members helped to pack vegetables on November 22.

Sally (in red) with the hard-working crew of Breaking Bread

Bob doing some heavy loading

The Club decided to deliver our Christmas checks to Moultonborough, Tuftonboro, Center Harbor, and Sandwich. Each town decides how best to use the money; however, the majority goes towards the needs and wishes of children. Below is a photo of Co-President Mark Cotrupi handing the check to Brittany Durgen, Moultonborough Public Library Director, for the Santa Fund. The checks to the two towns totaled $2,500,

One of the service platforms of Lions Clubs throughout the world is pediatric cancer. Several weeks ago, Pete and Judy Strople delivered $500 worth of toys (listed on the CHaD Amazon Wish List) to Molly’s House at Dartmouth hospital.

Our raffle sales in front of Heath’s from July through October are over and many Club members (and our District President and Secretary/Treasurer) got together on a Saturday to stuff 1,1000 envelopes with raffle tickets and a letter explaining the many services the Moultonborough Lions Club provides. We have already received many return envelopes with raffle tickets and checks enclosed. Thanks so much to all who responded. Your last chance to buy a raffle to win $5,000 will be at the Christmas Fair at MCS on December 7.

Things seem to get busy in the autumn. As well as temperatures beginning to cool and leaves starting to don their red, gold and orange leaves, The Moultonborough Lions are out and about.

Roadside Clean-up: Three Lions, Sarah, Mark and Bill picked up 20 bags of trash along The Center Harbor section of Route 25.

We plan to clean parts if Route 25 in Moultonborough later in October as well as clean a portion of the road in Sandwich — with some Moultonborough Academy students.

Raffle: Our last time to sell raffle tickets in front of EM Heath’s will be Saturday, October 12. On Saturday, October 26 we will be meeting to stuff over 1000 envelopes with raffle tickets and information. Look for your envelope in the mail soon after. The drawing will be held at 1 pm at the Holiday Fair at Moultonborough Central School. You can buy tickets on that day, starting at 9 am and ending at 12:45 before the drawing.

Camp Pride: Five Lions (Dawn, Sally, Larry, Pete and Judy) spent Saturday morning on September 18 cleaning our adopted bunkhouse in preparation for winter.

Vision Screening: Mark Cotrupi has been extremely busy doing vision screening at area elementary and middle schools (sometimes with the help of a few other Lions but always with the assistance of the school nurses).

Two schools — and 466 students — were screened over two days in September. And during the month of October, we have 10 schools already scheduled. Four schools were done between October 2 and 7 with 527 students being screened.

We would be more that happy to do nursery schools if asked.

Bingo: remember Bingo is held every Tuesday. Doors open at 5:30 and the calling begins at 6:30

We are into the second month of the new Lion year and are so proud to announce that we have three new members. Happiness is having more hands for service projects and for ideas for new service projects. Pete Strople is our greatest ambassador for finding new Lions.

We have two August raffle sales dates. One was on August 17 on a rather cloudy day

and the next will be the last day of August (the 31st). There will be one more Saturday sale in October during Columbus Day weekend. And then — good news — the Holiday Fair is back on (!) and we will be selling the last of the tickets on December 7 prior to drawing the winning ticket for the $5,000 prize.

And speaking of monetary prizes, don’t forget we hold Bingo every Tuesday evening! Calling begins at 6:30; come early to get your packets.

Sutherland Park: we have one and a half more months for Lion members to continue to keep up the flowers and area. We hope people are enjoying it — perhaps bringing some beverages and snacks to enjoy outdoors.

We donated almost $1,600 to four different organizations that provide services to the blind.

In addition to the business meeting on the first Monday of the month, we had a delightful tappas-style dinner meeting on the third Monday of August. Our next business meeting will depart from the usual first Monday because of Labor Day weekend. We will meet at 5 pm on Monday, September 9.

July has decided to be an extremely hot and humid month, and the Fourth of July was no exception. Members of the club set up for the annual barbeque and then served about 250 people hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, three salad sides, and watermelon and drinks. The parade marchers and spectators entered hot and hungry and we were ready for them. From set-up to clean-up, we accomplished it all in four hours.

The weather has also made the need for weeding and, especially, watering Sutherland Park. Members take turns doing this on a weekly basis.

Bingo numbers continue to grow as summer residents and tourists join us on Tuesday evenings to have some air-conditioned fun and perhaps win some money.

Raffle Sales: We started our first raffle sales in front of E.M. Heath on the 13. The sunny, 80 degree weather was great for the boaters and people enjoying a breeze off the lake, but it was a bit less comfortable on the bricks outside. But we met some interesting people who stopped to chat and buy a ticket or five.

The sales in front of Heath’s and the October mailings will most likely be your only chance to buy tickets for a $5,000 prize as it appears that the MCS Holiday Fair will NOT be taking place this year.

In spite of two April snowstorms (giving us more snow in those two storms than all winter), spring finally came to Moultonborough, NH. The bears woke up and so did the Lions with our service activities.

In April, we began our Monday board and business meetings in person, and started our dinner meetings on the third Monday of the month. There were five Tuesdays in the month, so that made five Bingo nights. April is also the time to clean up the roadsides in Center Harbor (18 bags of trash collected) and Moultonborough — we are now doing Route 25 in Moultonborough from Blake Road to Aubuchon’s (43 bags of trash collected over two days).

In May, the scholarship committee met and selected seven students (from applicants living in Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro) to received a total of $13,000 worth of scholarships to be paid at the beginning of the students’ second semester. We continue our cleaning routine by thoroughly cleaning our adopted bunkhouse at Camp Pride

And with the help of Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts from the Moultonborough Troop and Pack, we collected a little over $1400 to give to organizations which help the blind during our White Cane Day project.

In June, after Lion Pete Strople planted annual flowers in the upper part of Sutherland Park in Moultonborough, we began our weekly routine on weeding and watering by various Lion members.

We also finished up donating individual books to all the elementary students in Moultonborough, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro, by distributing 82 books to students in Tuftonboro.

At our dinner meeting we had speakers from Moultonborough Village Savings Bank, including Dwight Berry who initiated the informative presentation about Frauds and Scams and what we can do and what we should not do.

I really did post for the beginning two months of the year, but there was a glitch in the system and they got lost. I can, however, recap as these three months are relatively slow months for activities and meetings. Many of our members head south during this time and the weather is unpredictable, so we have our monthly meetings by Zoom and won’t start the dinner meetings until April.

Membership

We have welcomed a new member, Bill Adams, who has already attended a meeting and chosen a service project he is interested in pursing. Our other new member, Nina, has already put in 20 hours helping out at Bingo.

Vision Screening

President Mark, screened 98 students at Plymouth Elementary School in early January. Ten of those students were referred to see an optometrist. We welcome the opportunity to test students and can use the vision screener for children aged three months and up. The earlier a vision problem is detected, the sooner it can get corrected.

Eyeglass Collection

Thanks to the wonderful people in our communities we collected 508 pairs of glasses to send to Virginia to determine the prescription and then mailed to third world countries.

Reading in the Schools

This Tuesday, March 26, we delivered 267 new books to each student at Moultonborough Central School. The books are selected by either the librarians or the reading teachers at each of the elementary schools in Moultonborough, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro. We will be bringing books to Sandwich and Tuftonboro at dates they will choose.

Roadside Beautification: We managed to get in a roadside clean up along Route 25 in Center Harbor before the first snow came down. Six of us collected over 10 bags of trash ready to be picked up. It is a good feeling to remove all the litter thrown out by unconcerned motorist and leave the sides of the road looking clean again.

Raffle Tickets and Winner We mailed about 1,200 letters to people near and far explaining what we do as a service organization and containing five raffle tickets to purchase. The returns during the month of November were positive as was the number of tickets sold at the Moultonborough Central School on December 2 at the Holiday Fair. The winner of the $5,000 was drawn at 1:00 pm and the winner is a local resident, Linda Luck of Moultonborough! That should make for a Merry Christmas.

Vision Screening: Ninety students were screened for eye problems at Campton Elementary School on November 15.

Christmas Donations: We have delivered our annual Christmas checks to the four towns our Club services — Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro. Each town uses the money in the most needed areas of the town. In Moultonborough the money goes to the Santa Fund, headed by Youth Librarian, Sharon Gulla. The Santa Fund is a community initiative (completely funded by donations from individuals and businesses in the Moultonborough community) that provides clothing, food vouchers, and toys to families in need in Moultonborough during the holiday season.

Below is a photo of President Mark giving the check to the Moultonborough Library Director, Brittany Durgin

We also delivered just over 330 personalized Christmas cards to the residents of Golden View, Forest View, and Mountain View and some of them were hand-made by one of our member’s daughter!

Vision Screening: On December 12 41 students at Wentworth Elementary School were screened. Four were referred to see an eye doctor.

Our Christmas dinner meeting will be Monday, December 18 with a meal, laughter, games and a Yankee swap.

From all of us at the Moultonborough Lions Club we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a healthy 2024!