April 2015

Greetings!!!! What a wonderful, exuberant, full of fellowship convention we had the last weekend. We showed our guests……”our celebration, District 1A style”. Hospitality rooms decorated and lions dressed with their super heroes costumes. Everything seemed so real that it was sometimes difficult for me to recognize them. From the parade of banners on Friday night, to the bloody-mary toast on Saturday morning celebrating milestones of a cumulation of over 855 years of service to our district and to mankind. This is tremendous lions. Thank you for your service. Four of these clubs celebrated 75 years of service to their communities and to the world at large. Keep up the great work. Also, at the convention eight of our lions were honored with prestigious, well deserved awards. Athough three of the lions will be formally awarded their medals at

the State Convention on May 16th, 2015, they were given a certificate honoring them in front of the district and in front of their peers. Lion Ben Zoleta of Filipino American Lions Club was awarded the 2nd highest award “The Presidendial Medal”. Lions Rafael Alvarado of Puerto Rico Lions Club and PDG Steve Anton of Orland Park Lions Club were awarded “The Presidential Leadership Award”, the third highest award in lionism. Five other lions were awarded “The Presidential Certificate of Appreciation”: Lion Rich Polanek of MtClare-Elmwood Park, Lion Austin D’Souza of the Forest Kala Sampath, Cabinet Secretary Lion Brenda Block of Calumet City, Cabinet Treasurer Lion Pat Duda of Mexica Lions Club and Lion Janice Wiggins of Cook County Lions Club. Congratulations to all Lions.!!!!!

As you know on April 9th there were a few tornado touchdowns in District 1D from Kirkland to Rochelle to Fairdale. Many of our lions responded in helping disaster victims. District 1A has also responded and have sent District

ID $500.00 to help in disaster relief. If you or your club can help in any way, please let me know. Month of March was tremendous in membership. We inducted into our district 35 new lions as below:I

NAME OF CLUB # New Name of New Mbr Name of Sponsor Joined

Bellwood 1 Victoria Hansen Ted Steiskal 3-24-2015

Calumet City 1 Steven E. Dugan, DO David Kacanowski 3-24-2015

Bronzeville 2 Victoria Evans Marva Allison 3-21-2015

Shirley A. Lawrence Marva Allison 3-21-2015

Mt. Greenwood 1 Nancy Landgraf Kiley Gallagher 3/4/2015

Franklin Pk - Manila 1 Debra Benacka Teresita Zaretsky 3-18-2015

Hickory Hills 1 Sara olson Judy Dineff 2/4/2015

Orland Park 2 Gail Blummer Timothy McCarthy 1-27-2015

Logan Burnson James Jankowski 1-27-2015

Riverside Township 1 Jessica Frances Joseph Ballerine 3-10-2015

River Grove 4 Amber Rena Franz Todd Woods 2-18-2015

Janis Lariviere Sean Flynn 2-18-2015

Larry Lariviere Sean Flynn 2-18-2015

Zachary McWherter Tom McWherter 2-18-2015

Thornton 1 Douglas Beckman Dan Tondu 2/18/2015

NEW! -Chicago Magnificent Lions 20 Tita Alonsagay

3-11-2015

Julie Ann Gruezo 3-11-2015

Esperanza Hemmens 3-11-2015

Gilbert Iroma 3-11-2015

Elena P. Maguad 3-11-2015

Venus Pantaleon 3-11-2015

Duane Parreno 3-11-2015

Michelle Parreno 3-11-2015

Luciano Pebenito 3-11-2015

Maria Pebenito 3-11-2015

Juanito Roque 3-11-2015

Maynard Sanchez 3-11-2015

Vicky Sanchez 3-11-2015

Joe Sciackitano 3-11-2015

Maria Sciackitano 3-11-2015

Evelyn Tolledo 3-11-2015

Roberto Tolledo 3-11-2015

Maria Vaughn 3-11-2015

Criag Wynkoop 3-11-2015

Maritess Wynkoop 3-11-2015

TOTAL IN ARCH 35 NEW MEMBERS! -Terry D’Souza, District 1A Governor

Pictorial Editorial:

No doubt we had a wonderful

convention with fun and frolic. Super

heroes of District 1A were fantastic

with their costumes and action.

Our International Guest ID Karla Harrison and her

husband Clarence Harrison thrilled with our convention

– the way we organized, the way we celebrated and the

way we had fellowship. She mentioned the following

on her facebook:

“1A - the Mother District of Lionism. What an

amazing District!! DG Terry has a super active

cabinet of super Hero's! Up 60 in membership,1

new club started, another on its way,

And a fabulous convention. One hospitality room

even had a 10 piece swing band! The weekend,

the Lions and the 1A service projects were all

very impressive.”

My hats off to PDG Steve Anton and his Team Super

Heroes Convention Committee Members for their hard

work, dedication, participation and hospitality with the

help of 543 registered members who attended this one

of a kind District 1A Convention.

Following were the highest award winners from Lions

Clubs International:

ZC Ben Zolita- International President’s Leadership Medal

PDG Steve Anton – International President’s Medal

Lion Rafael Alvarado – International President’s Medal.

Lion Maryanne O’Reilly, ID Karla & Lion Clarence Harris received US President’s Life Time Voluntary Service Award.

Lioness of the Year Award Winner Claudette Z.

Below: Lions of the Year Award Winner Sharon Morey

International President’s Certificate of Appreciation winners: Cabinet Tail Twister and Artist – Lion Richard Polanek, Cabinet Secretary – Lion Brenda Block, Cabinet Treasurer – Lion Pat Duda, Your Editor – PDG Austin D’Souza and District GLT Member – Lion Janice Wiggins.

Progressive LCIF Melvin Jones Fellows Recognition: PDG Steve Anton, PDG Harold Burkette, ZC Myrna Cordova & PDG Austin D’Souza.

Progressive Lions of Illinois Foundation Fellows: PDG Ralph & District Open Areas Chair Millie Koller. On Sunday during District Breakfast we had the honor to felicitate District 1A Citizen of the Year Award Winner was none other than a young and

energetic fellow who made a difference in hundreds of needy people in his community -

Nick Gore

District 1A and MD1 Peace Poster Winner – Tina Li from St. Anastesia School. Her picture took part in Worldwide Peace Posters for 2015 and came #32. Hearty congratulations to this talented artist sponsored by Chicago Philippine Lions Club.

PID Salim Moussan flew all the way from Beirut, Lebanon just to attend District 1A Convention!

Past Exe. Director of Lions of

Illinois Foundation

Lion Van Stone took part in Pie on the Face Contest to raise money. Quite a few Lions took part in this contest on

Friday evening and Saturday and

raised money for Lions of Illinois Foundation. Something new for this year’s convention.

There was a photo booth to take your choice of pictures. This was also something new this year. Following Lions got elected as District Officers for the year 2015-2016:

Lion Pat Duda from Chicago Mexica Lions Club as II Vice District Governor Elect.

Lion Ernie Lapid from Chicago Philippine Lions Club as I Vice District Governor Elect

Lion Ralph Zarada from River Grove Lions Club as District Governor Elect.

Lion Dr. Richard Rucoba as Lions of Illinois Foundation Trustee for next 2 years.

Lion Leilanie Magana from Chicago FIL-USA Lions Club, RC Bob Hoffman from Logan Square Lions Club and PCST Dawn Grogan from Bridgeview Lions Club were unanimously selected as VOICES new Board of Directors for 2015-2018.

Good News is – Lions Clubs International reached today (4-18-2015) reached 1,401928 and our Disdtrict 1A reached 1806 with 81 Plus Members and one New Club – Chicago Magnificent Lions Club. Let us keep on growing to celebrate Lions’ 100th Anniversary in 2017, Amen.

-Austin D’Souza, Editor

DGE Ralph Zarada Says: My fellow District 1A Lions

The district convention is now in

the history books and we are

moving forward towards the start

of a new leadership year. This district convention

was an outstanding event with the parade of

banners, the hospitality rooms and International

Director Karla Harris as our keynote speaker .The

district membership has made their choices as to

who will lead our district for the upcoming

leadership years. Thank you for entrusting me for

being your District Governor for 2015-2016. I am

grateful as well as humbled by this honor. The

installation of the governors, LIF trustees, and

VOICES directors will take place on June 7th. Please

come and Join us to witness the installation of the

officers, trustees and directors for 2015-2016.

We still have some work to do as we move forward

with this year’s leadership of Lion DG Terry. There

are 3 months left for Lion Terry to accomplish her

goals as the District Governor. If you have not

gotten a governor visit in for your club let Lion

Terry know. If you have not gotten your Plus One

member for your club, there is still time to get that

done.

Please support and help her achieve these goals so

that we can all be proud of what we have

accomplished as a district.

In Lionism,

Lion Ralph Zarada, DGE

From District 1A Convention Chair:

Yet another District 1-A

Convention is done, over and

finished but not yet complete. The

Convention Committee will now

start the process of going over the

entire convention and making sure that we

acknowledge what worked and what didn’t. We

will go over our books and make our report to

the Cabinet and then close the book on the

District 1-A 47th Annual Convention.

I’m sure that the Lions that attended had a great

time, enjoyed the Convention and the

“Superhero” theme that Governor Terry D’Souza

chose for her convention. We received a lot of

feedback on the “Superhero” skit that was

presented by the Logan Square Lions Club. The

Lions enjoyed their time and efforts to present

an old time radio program and have some fun

doing it. Also, the “Bloody Mary” toast honoring

those clubs celebrating a major service

anniversary, was met with a lot of enthusiasm

and request were made to make this an annual

part of the convention. I would like to thank the

Thornton Lions Club for their support at the

toast.

Governor Terry, Vice District Governors Ralph,

Ernie, Pat and Doc were very happy with the way

the convention was presented. It was the

pleasure of the Convention Committee to be of

service to all of you. Of course, as the chairman

of the committee, it needs to be said, THANK

YOU for your hard work, your time and efforts

and realize that you have shown everyone in

Illinois and around the globe, thanks to Lion

Austin and Lion Gail for pushing our Facebook

exposure, that we still have the Number 1

Convention and one that they should attend

every year.

PDG Steve

Super Heroes Convention Chairman

Thank You Lions for the Super

Convention of Super Heroes!

Also Thank You for making our

District 1A – the only District in

Illinois with plus in

Membership and with a brand

New Club – Chicago Magnificent Lions Club.

Governor’s Newsletter Edited and Published District 1A Lions by PDG Austin

D’Souza. govaustin@gmail.com