July of a new Lion “Year”

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What an unbelievably hot start to the month of July…temperatures in the 90’s !!!!  We were concerned that we might not have the amount of people at the annual Fourth of July bar-b-que because the walkers in the parade were to end their part of the town parade at the Fire Safety building.  But the crowds lined up, and the bus brought the walkers to the club house, and we served about 300 people IN ONE HOUR.  The day also kicked off our annual raffle sale.

Furthermore, not only are we starting the year with four new Lions Club members, we had the help of three friends to cook, serve, and clean up afterwards.  Thanks so much to the Town for providing the food and the Lions and friends for serving the community.

At the July dinner meeting we hosted some of the 10 Lions Club scholarship recipients and some of the the  10 Annie “Up Fund” scholarship recipients. Pictured below are Jake, Elizabeth and Connor from Moultonborough Academy

and Emily, Kelsey, and Kate who received Up Fund scholarships:

Doug Griffin from Youth Services District 44H spoke to the scholarship students, parents, and Lions about the importance of establishing Leo groups in schools.

June 2018 — the end of the Lion Year

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Although I was gone for the first half of the month, the Moultonborough Lions Club continued its service work and I am proud to record what happened this month.

For the third year in a row, we purchased new books and distributed them to each student in the three elementary schools in our service area.  In March, during Dr. Seuss Week, we gave books to students at Sandwich Central School.  On June 11, Lions Mark, John, and Pete (in the Lion suit), gave out 74 hardcover books to the students at Tuftonboro Elementary School.

A few days later we repeated the process at Moultonborough Central School when Lions John, Don, Kathy, Peter, Joe, Pete, and Pat delivered 276 hardcover books to students in Pre L through grade 6.  This event brought the total of new books given to elementary students to 479.

In addition, major awards were presented and new officers (for the 2018-19 Lion Year) were inducted by outgoing District Governor, Sam Longbrook.

Lion of the Year Lloyd Conery 

The Fidelco Loyal Shepherd Fellow (given to Lions dedicated service in all aspect of assistance for the blind) was present to Joe and Pat Keegan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granite State Award for exceptional service to his NH Community at the local and state level was presented  to Peter Allen.

And the Highest Award in Lionism, the Melvin Jones Award to Sandy Meskys.  The recipient of this award is a model of exemplary service to her club and the community which it serves.

Also the photo below is of most of the newly elected and inducted officers and board of directors (left to right: Don Trudeau, Board; Joe Keegan, Board; Pat Keegan, Tail Twister;, Karen Barron, Board; Sam Longbrook, District Governor; Peter Allen, President, John Menken, first vice-president; Dawn Law, Treasurer; Mark Cotrupi, Immediate Past President and Membership Chairman).  Not present were Pete Strople, second vice-president; Sally Sibulkin, Secretary, Michelle Duddy, Lion Tamer, and Joanne Lau, Board

April and May 2018

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Believe it or not, we had to cancel another dinner meeting because of bad weather.  This must be a record for weather cancelations for meetings and for Bingo for the ’17-’18 year.

Plus, these are months for meetings beyond the local.  On the 14th of April, Peter Allen and Sally Sibulkin attended the April Forum in Concord.  And on Saturday, the 5th of May, Sally, Peter, and John Menken attended the 44H Spring Convention in North Conway.

On a service note — Five Lions — Mark, Sarah, Sandy, Joanne, and Christine did the roadside clean up along Route 25 in Center Harbor from the Moultonborough town line to the Meredith town line.  They gathered 24 trash bags, plus a tire and computer monitor!

And, on Saturday, May 12 we had a work crew to spring clean our adopted bunkhouse at Camp Pride.  Peter, Kathy, Jeni, John and Sally cleaned bathrooms, wiped down mattresses, cleaned windows and polished dressers.  On May 17, Dawn and Steve will finish with the poly on the floors.  Please notice in the photos below who has curtain detail and who is moving bunks.

At our dinner meeting on Monday, May 21, the speaker was Ann Sprague, Executive Director of InterLakes Community Caregivers.  Ann gave us an excellent overview of the services provided to the “neighbors” of Moultonborough, Sandwich, Center Harbor, and Meredith with volunteers providing rides, friendly visits, and other actions to support individual members in these communities.  The number of people serviced has grown considerably over the 20 years since the organization began and Caregivers is always looking for caring volunteers.

Please look for fellow Lions on Saturday, May 26 in front of Heath’s Hardware and Heath’s Supermarket.  We, along with some Cub Scouts, will be collecting money for the blind.  Stop by and make a donation to White Cane Day.  Here are the photos.  And, by the way, we raised $771 on Saturday.

Also in May (it really was a busy month), the club gave nine college scholarships to area students, totally $11,000.  Below is a photo of Dawn Law and Christine Woodland with the five recipients from Moultonborough Academy.  The other four scholarships were given to Sandwich students attending Inter Lakes High School.

March 2018

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I believe we had 23 inches of snow in March…and some rather long icicles.

But that did not deter us from our business meeting or our dinner meeting, where those of us not in sunnier, warmer climates dressed in green …. 

(and yes one person was daring enough to wear yellow pants!)

March is also National Reading Month and the Lions responded in kind.  At Sandwich Central School, Mark, John, and Susan handed out a new book to each of the 74 students in the school AND read books in some of the classes.

The next day, Lions John, Mark, Susan, Sally, Pat, Joe, Dawn, and Christine read to the students in both the classrooms and on stage in the Reading Roost at Moultonborough Central School.  The day was presented in a western theme (as you might guess from some of the photos below) — a Reading Round-up.  We enjoyed it every bit as much as the students and donned our props and joined in saying, “Yee Haw” when it was group photo time.

January and February

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Well, the weather has not been very cooperative in terms of our dinner meetings.  The December dinner meeting had to be cancelled because of snow and the same held true for the January dinner meeting.  Fortunately, we were able to conduct both business meetings those months and are ready for February’s business meeting on the 5th.

So far, we had 26 inches of snowfall in December and 16 in January.  And we have just started the shortest, but often the snowiest month of the year.  Keep your fingers crossed for the February 19th dinner meeting.

We do have one thing to report this month — we have started the OKS vision screenings in the area pre-schools.  President Mark Cotrupi, spent two short days at the Village Preschool in Center Harbor and screened 26 young children.  Good way to start 2018!  And we now own our own screener !!!!

We managed to also hold our dinner meeting for the first time in three months.  It was an Italian pot luck supper with lots of goodies — more than we could eat.  Since Valentine’s Day was the closest holiday to the dinner, Pat Keegan, the Lion Tamer, asked everyone  to wear red
Our speaker for the evening was Sara Fogarty who spoke to us about the Moultonborough Boy Scout Troop.

Donation of Merlin Magnifier to local resident

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Moultonborough Lions Club President Mark Cotrupi (left) presented a Merlin Desktop Electronic Magnifier to Ashlee Pigott and her mother, Stephanie recently.  Ashley, who is vision impaired, is planning on using the device at home to help her with her homework.  The magnifier allows people with issues such as low vision, macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma and cataracts to read and write more easily, especially in low light conditions.  It was donated to the Lions just recently by a widow whose husband used it during his later years.  “We are so grateful for donations such as this, especially when we can put it to such good use here in our community”, said Cotrupi.  “In that same vein, we very much appreciate the community’s support in donating their old glasses through our Lions Recycle For Sight program.  Your generosity in providing us your old glasses helps those less fortunate around the world to see and have a brighter future.”

December 2017

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The holidays are always busy and so are the Lions.

On December 1, we will be decorating the building for Christmas so that all who use the building can get into the holiday season for the entire month.

On December 2 Lions Joe and Pat, Dawn, Joanne, John, Pete, Bob and Betty sold raffle tickets for the last time before the 1:00 drawing for the $5,000 prize.  When the winning ticket was drawn by an elementary student from MCS, it belonged to a person in Massachusetts.  We  also be provided free vision screening at the Moultonborough Central School on that day to about 80 individuals.

We had two other vision screenings scheduled for the beginning of December:  Tuftonboro Central School on the 4th and the Holderness Central School on the 5th. Between the two schools 270 elementary students were screened.

On Friday, December 8 the Moultonborough Lions and the Inter-Lakes Community Caregivers hosted the second Cookies and Caroling afternoon from 1-3:00.  The amount and variety of the cookies was outstanding, baked by Lions and Caregivers. Check out the photo of all the cookies on the tables. Neighbors serviced by Community Caregivers and two area nursing homes enjoyed cocoa, cookies, caroling, led by Peter Allen, and a performance from a Moultonborough Academy choral group.  To the delight of all, Pete Strople donned his Lion suit and handed out raffle prizes!

Several Lions — Mike and Kate Lancor, Don Trudeau and his wife, Bobbi, Joanne Lau, Dawn Law, and Michelle and Jim Duddy rang the Salvation Army bells at the Plymouth Walmart.  Unfortunately bad weather canceled two other days of Lions bell ringers.

November — falling leaves and getting colder

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Saturday, November 4:  Roadside Clean-up.   Five Lions (Mark and Sarah Cotrupi, Dawn Law, John Menken) and one potential met at the Center Harbor Congregational Church.  An hour and a half later they had collected 11 bags of trash from Route 25 between the Center Harbor and Moultonborough signs.

Monday, November 6:  Board (6:30 pm) and Business (7 pm) Meetings.

Sunday, November 12:  District Meeting at the Moultonborough Functional Hall (formerly the Lions Club), beginning at 9 am.

Monday, November 20:  Dinner Meeting.

Peace Poster Contest:  The Moultonborough Lions selected the winner of the local peace poster contest, a sixth grader at Moultonborough Central School, Sadey Sherkanowski.

Sadey’s poster was among more than 450,000 entries submitted worldwide in the annual Lions International Peace Poster Contest. Lions Clubs International is sponsoring the program to emphasize the importance of world peace to young people everywhere.

Lions Club President, Mark Cotrupi (pictured with Sadey and her poster), said he was impressed by the colorfulness and creativity of the poster. Sadey has strong and positive ideas about what peace means to her.

Sadey’s poster will advance through the district, multiple district and international levels of competition. One international grand prize winner and 23 merit award winners will be selected. The grand prize includes a cash award of $5,000 plus a trip for the winner and two family members to a special award ceremony. The 23 merit award winners will each receive a certificate and a cash award of $500.

Reading in the Schools.  Lions John Menken and Sally Sibulkin eacg spent two mornings this month listening to first graders at Moultonborough Central School read their spot words.  It is truly wonderfully to see how many of the 200 words on the lists these new readers have already mastered.

October Happenings – 2017

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This will be a very busy month for the Moultonborough Lions

Meetings:  the board and business meetings will be held Monday, October 2 starting at 6:30 and 7:00 respectively.

Our usual dinner meeting has a different flair to it this month: On Monday, October 16, members of the Moultonborough Lions Club invited the public to attend a special lecture on “Black Bear Behavior” presented by wildlife rehabilitator Ben Kilham from Lyme, NH. Ben, his sister Phoebe and his wife Debbie have raised over 150 black bear cub orphans over the past 20 plus years!  Between Lions and guests, about 70 people attended the fascinating and informative presentation.

A social hour was held from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Moultonborough Lions Club on Old Route 109 in Moultonborough. Appetizers provided by the Lions and non-alcoholic beverages were available. Lions Club president Mark Cotrupi welcomed all attendees at 7:00 p.m. sharp. Ben’s hour long slide and video presentation began afterwards and he  stayed to answer questions.  Special thanks to Mike and Kate Lancor for inviting Ben and his wife.

Ben Kilham is licensed by the State of NH as a wildlife rehabilitator and has a special license to conduct research on black bears. He has been featured on NH Crossroads (NH Public TV), NBC Dateline, National Geographic Television, Discovery Channel, Good Morning American, The Today Show, and the list goes on. Ben is often called “The Bear Whisperer” and raises black bear cubs with minimum human contact so the bears retain their wild nature and can be reintroduced to the wild.

Ben received a B.S. in wildlife from the University of New Hampshire and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Drexel University. Books authored by Ben include “ Among the Bears” and “Out on a Limb: What Black Bears Have Taught Me About Intelligence and Intuition.” Indeed, Ben is a nationally renown expert on the behavior of black bears.

Raffle:  Four Lions:  Ed and Sandy Meskys, Joanne Lau, and Peter Allen will be selling raffle tickets at Heath’s on Saturday, October 7, starting at 9:30.

AND on Friday, October 27 Lions Eileen and Bob Zewski, Mark and Sarah Cotrupi, Pat and Joe Keegan, Bob and Betty Purdy, Peter and Judy Strople, Larry and Linda LaPointe, Sally Sibulkin, John Menken, and Mike Lancor, stuffed raffle tickets and letters into 1848 envelopes.  The process began at 9 with cider belly donuts and ended at noon with pizza.  We are hoping for high yields from this mailing as we were only able to do four selling dates at Heaths this year.  Remember it is not too late to get a ticket if you don’t receive any in the mail.  We will be selling them until minutes before the drawing for the $5000 prize at the Holiday Fair at Moultonborough Central School on Saturday, December 2.

September 2017

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Who thought that the end of September would feel more like July, even with the leaves starting to change colors!!!

Anyway, thanks to our President and OKS Coordinator, Mark, September was a very busy month doing vision screening in the Lakes Region.  On September 7, Mark and John screened 173 InterLakes Middle School students (with 24 referrals).  On September 12, Mark, Don, Peter and Kathy, screened 170 students at Laconia Middle School with 25 referrals.  Mark, Peter and Kathy were at Thornton Elementary on September 19 and screened 194 students with 27 referrals.  And on the 22nd of September, Mark, Sally, Peter, and Don screened 226 students during picture day at Moultonborough Academy (with 17 referrals).  Pretty amazing — that’s 763 area students who had their vision screened in four September days!

And of the helping but fun side, on Saturday September 9 Lions George and Carol Englehart, Bob and Betty Purdy, John Menken and Sandy Meskys donated their afternoon to helping Community Caregivers with their Mini-Golf annual Fundraiser.  Dressing up in costume on one hole, using the handle side of the club on another, and putting with the incorrect hand were just some of the challenges and fun they faced.

 

And, of the very last day of September, four Lions (see below) went to do a fall cleaning of our bunkhouse at Camp Pride.  Since it was raining we vacuumed, took down and cleaned the window screens, and took down the curtains.  Removing the drain pipes and painting trip will have to wait until the spring.  The new metal roof has been done!