The Fairfax Lions enjoyed another wonderful holiday party at American Legion Post 177 this evening. Lions Tammy Harless and Steve Haywood put forth a great effort in organizing the pary, and the end result included a pleasant meal and talented entertainment by Fairfax’s own Sound Advice women’s barbershop quartet.

The Fairfax Lions Holiday Food Basket Program was again a great success this year. The need to assist families was greater than ever before, because of the state of our economy and the cost of living in the Fairfax area. Fairfax Lions delivered food to 80 struggling families. 40 were delivered just before Thanksgiving and 40 again just prior to Christmas. An additional 21 were delivered earlier this year at Easter, for a total of 101 families helped throughout the year. (See Delivery Lions Honor Role below for the many delivery Lions and Leo’s).

In addition, the Fairfax Lions were assisted by the Oakton H. S. Leo Club. This is a club made up of dedicated High School students who have banned together, similar to Lions, to provide community support in the Oakton/Fairfax area. A special thanks to the Leo’s, it is great to have them with us.

Fairfax Host requested names from “Our Daily Bread”, who in turn worked with the Fairfax County Office of Systems Management for Human Services to identify, screen and authenticate the recipient names provided. This assured us our recipient families were people truly in need.Funds for the food purchases for this program resulted through the Fairfax Lions fund raising efforts throughout the year, including, the Lion Vehicle Donation Program, Lion Citrus Food Sales, summer Food Booth sales, the sale of Entertainment Books and other Lion activity designed to raise money which is then returned to the community in many varied services.

In addition, the Lockheed Martin Corporation supported the program by providing a very large donation of food for our Thanksgiving Food Basket delivery. The Safeway Corporation made a significant donation towards our Food purchase at Christmas.

The pictures included here provide a thousand words, all by themselves, of Lion activity, in Food Basket delivery.

Food Basket Honor Role for Food Basket Delivery in the Year 2007

Ron Weber, Eve Bierman, Ben Wiles, Jim Dellinger, Tom Edick, Walter Juraszek, Darrell Dalkin, Ed Smith, Russ Preuit, Phil Mayo, Carl Enix, Jim Davis, Bob Helland, Pete Bennett, Joe Giroux, Chan Medwedeff, Marilyn Tanner, Gary Maxwell, Mike Rumberg, Ken Schutz, Jeff Root, Ron Zabel, Frank Teets, Dick Ferraro, Tom Ashford, Ed Marinich,

Leo Humanitarians:
Danielle DeRosa, Claire Mathews, April O’Brien, Danielle Filipponi, Charlotte Martin, Maley Nordberg

The Fairfax Lions December citrus fruit sale became history at 4:00 PM on Saturday the 15th. To the dismay of many afternoon shoppers, we sold out of oranges a few minutes after noon and by 4:00 PM just three cases of grapefruit remained.

Lion Bill Trent organized this great effort and thanks each and every Lion who contributed time and effort. The weather was tough at times, but so were the Fairfax Lions. Fingers were frozen and toes were frosted, and many happy customers are warm at home enjoying fresh oranges and grapefruit from Ft. Pierce, Florida.

Our next sale is scheduled for March 6-9, 2008. Contact us to sign up for our mailing list and coupons!

The next Fairfax Lions Club citrus sale starts on Thursday, December 13 and goes through Sunday, December 16 (unless we sell out on the 15th!). We will be set up in our usual location on Old Lee Highway, adjacent to the Home Depot at Fairfax Circle.

We will have Florida naval oranges, Ruby Red grapefruit, Virginia peanuts, Vermont maple syrup, pecans and 2008 Entertainment books for Virginia, DC and Maryland.
Don’t forget to bring your postcards or e-mail coupons to receive your discount, or sign up for our mailing list when you stop by the sale.

Fairfax Lions Club sponsored five local art students who submitted entries into the annual Peace Poster Contest.

Sara Amos from Frost Middle School submitted the following poster with her quote, “We all need to come together to support peace on its journey to help the world.”

Lya Ferreyra from Lanier Middle School submitted this poster with the quote, “We are all one united.”

Jacqueline Hogg from Liberty Middle School submitted the following poster with her quote, “Peace is an important part of our society, without it there would be chaos.”

Shivani Pandey from Rocky Run Middle School submitted this poster and the quote, “Peace is the reward of friendship among all nations.”

Sivasankari Rajamarthandan from Robinson Middle School submitted the following poster.

Congratulations to these fine young artists!