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Call to Order — President David Lin called the meeting to order and led in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Invocation – Dave Hunter - We thank Thee, oh Lord, for this food and for a chance to serve. Help us not be too tired or too busy. Amen. Vittles – Fried chicken, mixed vegetables, seasoned potatoes, salad and toppings, rolls and butter, Mandarin Orange Cake, tea and coffee.

Attendance – 21 members, 0 visitors. Guests – No guests. Birthdays – No birthdays. Lions Report – Fred Frehner is having eyesight problems and would appreciate phone calls. We have a card for Bob Suter. Jim Smith is headed for Florida. If you are ill or know a fellow Lion that is under the weather, please call Pat Bryan at 586-4535.

Lottery – Rich King won the $9.50 lottery.

Announcements – Sam McGrew reminded everyone to invite one friend to help build our club. Sam caught the club up on Lions activities and pointed out that the Lions have planted over 6 million trees.

Weldon Garrelts, chair of Tootsie Pop Day recruited volunteers for May 4-5.

Program – Business Meeting. Secretary Fonda Bowden sent the minutes of the April 3 meeting of the Board of Directors to President David Lin who read them.

Present: President David Lin, Directors: Rich King and Sam McGrew, Lion Tamer Floyd “Gordie” Gordon, 1st VP Ted Gonsiorowski, 2nd VP Weldon Garrelts, Past President Marvin Paulsen, Treasurer Karl Drake and Secretary Fonda Bowden. Members present: David Hunter and Charlie Osborne. Treasurer’s Report - Karl Drake provided financial reports for February and March. Rich King is still planning a monthly evening meeting for Champaign Lions Club members who have difficulty attending lunch time meetings. Ted Gonsiorowski said we still have several Sight and Sound booklets to sell. Weldon Garrelts has reserved 4 locations on Friday and 3 on Saturday, May 4 and 5 for Tootsie Pop days. Sam McGrew noted we still need the plaque for the trees we planted. Charlie Osborne has program openings for May. He suggested we ask members what kind of programs they would be interested in. OLD BUSINESS: The Club plans to give $280 to recent speaker, Emily. $100 from the Club plus $180 donations from members. She has been asked to speak to the club again. The Club will donate $300 to the Harrisburg tornado recovery. Club bowling social/fundraiser is on Saturday, April 7, at 1:00 pm at Old Orchard Lanes. $20 per person. The Club will man a Water Station, for the 4th year, at the C-U Marathon on April 28 -- Rich King has a sign-up sheet. 30 volunteers are needed. He has 25. Gordie reported on the proposed Bingo fundraiser. His contact in Paxton said it takes 4 people to run the games. They have 4 teams of 4 people and rotate working. A gaming permit must be purchased from the State of Illinois and there is a 5% tax on the total collected. It is a lot of work. Walk for Sight is June 10 in Tuscola. Rich King and Marvin Paulsen plan to walk. Others are welcome to join in. Pledges will be collected. Herb Bail, Ted Gonsiorowski and others collected 266 pairs of used eyeglasses for the month of March.

Rich King announced the website for Lions Dristrict 1-E: www.lionsdistrict1-e.org

Paul Kunkel interviewed Lion Rex Hess for “Know your Lion.” He asked if knew what PK stood for? Yes, preacher’s kid, which he was. Rex was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas and in several towns including Little Rock.

His family moved to Columbia, MO when he was in the 9th grade. He graduated from Hickman High and received B.S. in Zoology/Education and M.S. in Physiology from the University of Missouri.

He then worked full time in Electron Microscopy at Washington University in St. Louis and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York before receiving his Ph.D. in Physiology at Clemson University in 1983.

After 3 years Postdoctoral training in Toxicology, he became Professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, in 1986 and has been there for 26 years. He retired in 2009 as Professor Emeritus and continues some teaching and research.

He was sponsored in Lions by Nomy Sharief and became close friends with Jack Richmond, who had sponsored Nomy.

When asked what is the ideal Lion, Rex said, “I wouldn’t try to recognize the ideal Lion but the individual talents. Each Lion has unique interests and talents and they should try to find a way to utilize those interests to help with Lionism.”

Tail Twister – Omer Benn asked Marvin Paulsen to carry the bucket.

Paul Hendren reported a $30 payout for the NCAA tournement pool. The winner was Marvin Paulsen who won $7; Jay Hoeflinger won $4; Pat Bryan won $3; and Bob Tuchel won $2.

Omer fined Rich King for having won the lottery;

Pat’s table for not remembering the District Convention; and Dave Hunter and Lew Leymon for getting special treatment today with pecan pies. (I’ll get him for that!)

Master gardener Marvin Paulsen brought in asparagus to auction,

which Pedro Heller bought for $9. David Lin asked if Pedro was going to serve it at the Esquire Lounge, which he owns.

April 11 - Dr. Tom Ramage – President of Parkland College, “Recent expansion and other news at the College.”

Greeters: Karl Drake and Frank Duff

April 18 - Angie Armstrong – CU 1 to 1 Mentoring

Click here osborne@bankchampaign.com to email Charlie Osborne and let him know what you would like to see in a Lions Club Program some time.

Coming up

Thank you for watching

Editor

Rex Hess

Publisher

David Hunter

To email Dave with your comments, click here → hunter4000@comcast.net

To go to the our website, click here → http://www.champaignlions.org/

Gordy’s GotchasGordy’s Gotchas

Each week, Gordy will provide us with a quiz question. The Lion who can telephone Gordy first with the correct answer will be recognized as the winner in our next Chatter.

This week’s question: In the last 5 years eleven of our members have died. Can you name 6 of them?

La Triviata