February

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Top story of the month is that we welcomed two new members — Mike and Joanne Vidal — at our Board and Business Meeting on Monday, February 4.  At the same meeting we voted to pay for the conversion to LED lights in our adopted bunkhouse at Camp Pride.

President Peter and Secretary Sally (sounds a bit like a title for a children’s story!) attended the Zone meeting on Saturday February 16.  Four of the seven Clubs in the Zone (Meredith, Wolfeboro, Whittier, and Moultonborough) shared successes, ideas, needs, and news.  The speaker was from Habitat for Humanity.  I learned quite a bit, including the fact that two Habitat homes have been built in NH.  Individuals and families are welcome to help with anything from the building process, to referring people with needed skills and services, to donating to the ReStore.  Thought I would share some of that information below:

Habitat ReStores are retail outlets where used and surplus building materials are sold at a fraction of normal prices. Proceeds from ReStores help local affiliates fund the construction of Habitat houses within their communities. Materials sold by Habitat ReStores are usually donated from building supply stores, contractors, demolition crews or from individuals who wish to show their support for Habitat. In addition to raising funds, ReStores help the environment by re-channeling good, usable materials into house building. Normal items would include stoves, refrigerators, washing machines and dryers, architectural items; cabinets; doors; flooring; hand and power tools; hardware; light fixtures; lumber; plumbing fixtures; roofing; windows and more! 
Can I donate materials? 
Yes! In addition to shopping at the ReStore a great way to show your support is by donating materials. All donations are tax deductible.   Check out the website or call 603-536-1333

January 2019

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I am not sure where this first month of the New Year has gone.  Today is the last day of a month when we have seen snowfalls that more than make up for the little snow we had in December.  And we have experienced some very cold and windy days.

Anyway, even with so many of our members gone to Florida and warmer climes for the winter, we had good attendance at the Board and Business meeting, voting on contributions to various organizations and donating supplies to David’s House.

President Peter, VP John, and Secretary Sally attended the business portion of the Multi-District Winter Convention and are hoping to find out more about the hearing screeners in the near future.

At our delicious turkey dinner meeting, we heard from speakers Peter LaPointe and Lenny Hall about all the improvements made this past year to Camp Pride and those planned for the coming year.  We have plans to make improvements to our adopted bunkhouse this Spring as well!

 

DECEMBER — one of the busiest months and full of the giving spirit

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The Moultonborough School District Holiday Fair was held on Saturday, December 1 and the Lions were out and about.  Mark, Stephanie, Sally, and Dawn spent four hours doing vision screening at the fair.  And eight Lions — one in costume — sold raffle tickets until the 1 pm final drawing.  The winner of the $5000 prize was a local Moultonborough resident.

 

On Friday, December 7 we again hosted Cookies and Caroling for the Community.  We had about 55 guests ( people from all three nursing homes, Senior Meals, and Community Caregivers), including Larry Kohut.  Plenty of delicious cookies were provided by club members.  A delightful preview of Moultonborough Academy’s winter concert songs sung by the Middle School Chorus and directed by Harmony Markey provided excellent entertainment and was followed by a general sing along with Harmony on the guitar and President Peter Allen on the Keyboard, hosted by VP John Menken.

 

The next day, December 8,we were prepared for 100 people to come to our Community Family Pancake Breakfast from 8-10.  The cooks (Larry and Phil) were outside in 4 degree temperatures.  And Bill and Peter were inside cooking.  The few community members who came (@20) seemed to enjoy themselves, and we got a chance to chat with Harold Damsberg whom we don’t see often.  Pete Strople even suited up and stood on the corner of 25 and Old Rte 109 when it was 5 degrees to drum up business.  We know we need to make sure our advertising gets out; we hope to have the crowds next year.

On to the giving … each year for many years, the Moultonborough Lions have given a $500 Holiday check to each of the four communities we serve — Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro.  Below are pictures of three of the four checks being donated by President Peter Allen — to Nancy McCue, Director of the Moultonborough Library; Heather Cubeddu from the Town Clerk’s Office in Tuftonboro, and Robin Woodeman from the Selectman’s Office in Center Harbor.  Unfortunately, the check was mailed to Sandwich so there was no photo op.

BUT THERE IS MORE …. a truly generous, giving individual act

The winner of the $5,000 Raffle was Brian Sanford of Moultonborough. President Peter tried to reach him right after the drawing to no avail.  When Peter finally did reach Brian to congratulate him on winning the $5,000 they agreed to meet for a photo op at the club’s “Thank You Pancake Breakfast” on Saturday morning.

The next day Peter received a call from Brian saying that he went out on the Lions Web Site and was so impressed with what he saw that he decided not to take the money. He wants the club to use it for their many Community Projects. Lions Pride!  Thank you so much, Brian, for helping the Moultonborough Lions serve others.

And then we have the Salvation Army Lion bell ringers.  Thanks to Mike and Kate Lancor, Don Trudeau (and his wife), and Michelle Duddy (and her daughter) for representing the Lions while ringing the Salvation Army bell at the Walmart in Plymouth.

Plus, a good time was had by all at our Christmas Party/Dinner Meeting.  The Yankee Swap was a hit and Susan surprised us all by bidding $100 for the privilege of being Number 1.  Joe and Pat finally got to see through the Magic Glasses. And we were able to show our appreciation to Donna Grow who cooks our dinner meals throughout the year with a gift certificate to Hobbs.

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year, 2019.

 

November into December

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Various members of the Moultonborough Lions decorated two trees in less than a week.  For the first time, the Moultonborough Lions Club donated a decorated tree to Altrusa’s Festival of trees.  This tree will be picked up by a local family at the end of the Festival (December 2).  Dawn Law, Joanne Lau, Sally Sibulkin, Mary Phillips and Michelle Duddy spent several hours making the majority of the ornaments:  paper eyeglass chains and chains made out of strips from old, discarded children’s books.  We also used these strips to decoupage some ornaments and to stuff some clear ornaments.  We wanted to represent some of our service platforms — vision and reading to and giving books to children.  We also made and decorated (with buttons) Bingo cards to represent our weekly Bingo game.  Michelle, Sally, and Dawn decorated the tree at the Waukewan Golf course to get ready for the festival of trees.

 

The following Friday, Joe, Pat, Pete, Judy, Don, Sally, John, Diane, and Peter worked on decorating the tree and building…well, but the photos, most of us worked.

November came in like a Lion…literally

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Reading in the Schools with a tail twist:  On October 2, Dawn Law (in the Lion costume) and Christine Woodland represented the Lions during Mystery Reader Day in the Kindergarten classrooms at Moultonborough Central School.  I am not sure who had more fun — the readers or the children who were fascinated by the lion.

We also found out that we received an award for First Place Adopt a Spot for our work on upper Sutherland Park.  Pete went to the Selectmen’s meeting to receive the award …

We think the Police and Fire Scarecrows were the clinchers — so thanks to Sarah and Chris.  But also thanks to all the other members of the committee who weeded, watered and planted the area!

Our dinner meeting on the 19th was quite exciting.  CANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE came to give us a wonderful and informative presentation.  Starting with being fostered by volunteers and their families, these dogs, as early as 9 weeks old are socialized in all sorts of environments.  When ready, they are sent to Long Island, New York for very specific training.  The last two weeks of this training is done with the new owner of the dog.  These specific dogs — Labs, Golden Retrievers or a mix of the two — are not sight dogs for the blind.  Instead they are skilled companions or service dogs for adults or children with disabilities.  The largest dog pictured below with his owner can fetch the phone or many other items, turn the lights on and off, and even pull the wheelchair.  Other dogs are facility dogs, dogs who help with PTSD owners, and dogs who assist the deaf.  For more information go online at http://www.cci.org.

The very end of October — two projects in one day

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On the last Friday in November, 17 Lions created three “assembly lines” to stuff, label, and stamp almost 1600 envelopes for our annual Raffle Ticket stuffing event.  Thanks to many helping hands we managed to do it all in just under two hours this year.

Later that same day, Dawn, Mary, Joanne, Michelle, and Sally (not in the photo), spent another two hours on a more arts and crafts project, creating ornaments for the Christmas tree that will be in the Altrusa Festival of Trees towards the end of November and then given to family in the area.  Stay tuned for a photo of the completed tree…

October and the changing leaves

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The colors of the leaves were a bit slow to emerge from their green summer hues, but by the middle of the month, they were vivid orange, yellow, and red.  It is a beautiful reminder of why we live in New England.

We spent three days at the Sandwich Fair, from 9 am to 3 pm offering free vision screening to individuals from 8 months old and up.  All together, we screened 373 people, 57 of whom were given the results and referred to see an eye doctor.

Governor Sununu even stopped by our “shed” to say hello and to add how much he appreciates the work and service of the Lions all over the State.

Mark, Peter, Kathy and Don also went to Gilford Elementary School on October 5 and screened 342 students.  That brings the October total of vision screenings to 715 individuals!

We had our last raffle sales for the season at EM Heath’s on Saturday, October 6 and are getting ready for the big mailing morning (where we put raffle tickets and letters in envelopes and take them to the post office) on October 26.  The final sales day — and the drawing of the winner of the $5,000 prize will be at the Moultonborough PTA Holiday Fair on December 1.

This month, the Moultonborough Lions celebrated 55 years as a Club.  Susan Price donated the “birthday cake” and we had the newest member of the club (Bill Hagerup) and the club member with the most years of service (Bob Purdy) do the honors and cut the first slices of the cake.

Look at all the red jackets on some our past presidents!

District Governor of 44 H was our dinner speaker and he inducted TEN NEW CLUB Members.  Two of the members have been working as Lions for some time now, but had not had the formal candlelight ceremony.  The other 8 new members have been brought in since June 2018.  The photo below shows nine of the ten (missing is new Lion, Jeff Burton).  

From left to right:  Susan Price, Bill Hagerup, Susan Burton, Sarah Cotrupi, Chris Milanovich, Stephanie Pigott, Diane Mac Arthur, Mary Philips, and Joe Adams.

We are so excited to have each and every one of these individuals who are willing to serve their communities!

SEPTEMBER 2018

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September started out with both hot and cold temperatures and Saturday, the eighth, was one of the cooler days.  John, Sandy, Karen, Sally, Jeni, and her friend, Phil, were the Lions Club team entry for the InterLakes Community Caregivers Mini Golf Tournament fund raiser.  While not as warm as we were dressed for, all had a good time for an excellent cause.  Jeni got a hole in one and Phil got two, but that was not enough to earn a trophy…maybe next year.

 

 

 

 

 

Because Labor Day came early this year, we held our Business and Board meetings on Monday, September 10; however, the dinner meeting remained on the third Monday of the month, September 17.  Our speaker was to be Amy Norton, CEO of the Food Pantry and Thrift Shop, but she could not make the meeting.  Standing in as speakers for Amy Norton, CEO, of the Lakes Region Food Pantry and Thrift Shop were Board members, former board members and volunteers for the Food Pantry. Mike and Kate Lancor, with Amy Norton, were instrumental in really getting this continually growing organization started. Combining former food pantries into one and after outgrowing one building in Moultonborough, moving to its new location in the old Foss Insurance building near the Post Office.

 

VISION SCREENING:  We have already completed three of the five vision screenings scheduled for this month (and four for October).  On September 12, Mark, Sally, John and Sarah went to  Moultonborough Academy screening 206 students in grades 7-12.  The next day, Mark, Sally and John were at Interlakes Middle School, where 153 middle school students were screened.  On September 18, Mark, Peter and Kathy were at Thornton Elementary School and screened 204 students.  To finish the month, Mark, John and Sally screened 117 students (grades K -6) at Tuftonboro Elementary.  So for September, the Club screened 680 students!!!!

Wednesday, September 19 was a day for environmental projects.  Seven Moultonborough Lions (Mark, Sarah, Chris, Pete, Joseph, Mary, and John) spent 2 hours cleaning both sides of Route 25 between the Center Harbor and Moultonborough town lines.  Later that day, Sarah and Chris made two scarecrows to stand on the outside of the Sutherland Park wall next to the Life Safety Building.  Dressing the scarecrows as a fireman and police officer was most appropriate.

August 2018

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Our annual invite-the-residents-of-area-nursing-homes dinner was held on a beautiful, sunny evening.  Although two of the four nursing homes invited could not make it at the last minute, a good time (and good food) was had by all.  Lions grilled with the assistance of non-Lion Phil, served with the help of Sally’s friend from Delaware, and we had our summer members from Davenport, Florida helping us as well.

The crazy hat contest was one by one of the nursing home residents who also treated us to some dancing to the wonderful guitar music and singing by Harmony Markey.  After dinner, President Peter Allen joined Harmony on the keyboard for some old time songs sing-a-long.

Ending the Centennial on a safe note

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Under the leadership of Mark Cotrupi, the Moultonborough Lions decided to focus its effort on PUBLIC SAFETY for its Centennial Project in two key areas:  the opioid crisis and school safety.

Working with the district, school administrators, and safety personnel, the Moultonborough Lions recently donated 10 door locking devices to the Tuftonboro Central School (see picture of Mark with Tuftonboro Central School Principal Andrea Fournier ).  The Lions have similarly reached out to the Moultonborough schools and Sandwich Elementary to ascertain their need for such safety devices.

The Lions also recently funded the acquisition and installation of a drug “take back” box located in the Center Harbor Police Department.  Center Harbor citizens, as well as those of the surrounding communities, are welcomed to dispose of their outdated or unused prescription medicines in a safe and legal manner. Photo of Mark and Center Harbor Police Department project lead Bob Donnelly Jr.