CSFII Surpasses Goal

Campaign SightFirst II has surpassed the $150 million minimum goal. On Worldwide Report Day February 20, National and Multi-National Coordinators’ telephone calls and reports revealed that Lions have raised more than US$157.9 million for CSFII. With four months remaining, Lions are now looking ahead to the additional challenge goal and helping ensure the future of SightFirst through continued and expanded efforts to eliminate preventable blindness worldwide. Lions’ support of CSFII is crucial in the remaining months. Visit the CSFII Web site for more information on the campaign and fundraising ideas.

LCIF #1 NGO Ads Available

In a special report released in July, LCIF was ranked the number one non-governmental organization worldwide. From 34 global organizations, LCIF came in first. As a result of the ranking, LCIF has received a great deal of media coverage and has also placed special ads in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and several other nationwide daily newspapers around the world. These ads are available to download online for Lions to use in their local newspapers as well. To localize the information, simply add a local telephone number and club Web site. The press release of this announcement is also online to share with your local media.

Milestone in Trachoma Treatments

LCIF reached a major milestone in trachoma treatments January 23 when LCIF Chairperson Jimmy Ross distributed the 10 millionth dose of azithromycin (Zithromax®) to 16-year-old Messeleche Tilahun. The antibiotic, donated by Pfizer Inc, is a main strategy in the fight against the blinding disease in poor, rural areas. Messeleche lives in the Awi Zone in Ethiopia , the most trachoma-endemic part of the country, where an estimated 18 million are at risk. Representatives from The Carter Center, Lions clubs of Ethiopia , Pfizer, the national trachoma program, government of Ethiopia , and other partner organizations joined the celebration and are a part of the coalition working toward elimination of trachoma in the region by 2012. Lions in Ethiopiatrachoma control, outreach and training projects in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa . have been integral to achieving remarkable results in the country. The 10 millionth dose comes after just 18 months of full scale intervention and points toward meeting the elimination target date. Through SightFirst, LCIF has awarded numerous grants for

SightFirst Grants Awarded

The SightFirst Advisory Committee Meeting awarded nine grants at its January meeting. This included grant funding to continue the childhood blindness project with the World Health Organization, which has established 30 need-based centers around the world. Other grants included cataract surgery campaigns, upgrading a Lions eye hospital and establishing and equipping a teaching hospital. A total of US$9,554,378 was awarded, US$3,580,708 of which represents grants from undesignated SightFirst funds. The full list is available online.

Grants Approved for Lions Quest

Seven grants totaling US$364,872 were approved at the January Lions Quest Advisory Meeting. The grants enable Lions Quest programs to expand in countries currently participating in the program or to begin the program in new countries. Japan , Kenya , Canada and Turkey received grants to implement and expand the program. Pakistan and Sri Lanka became the newest countries to launch the program. The full list of approved grants is online.

Lions Join Coalition

Lions Clubs International has joined the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) as a sustaining member and partner to enhance the work of local communities and help youth resist alcohol and other drugs. Lions will support their mission to build stronger capacity for anti-drug efforts through the 5,000 community coalitions nationwide. Through Lions Quest, Lions can teach youth how to avoid drugs and make responsible decisions. A letter announcing the partnership was sent to the 500 other organizations in the coalition encouraging these organizations and communities to work with their local Lions club on drug-free programs. LCIF also had a booth at CADCA’s annual convention this month, the largest training conference in the U.S. for community coalition activists and substance abuse professionals.

New Giving Publication

A new publication, ForSight in Gift Planning, is available to those Lions wishing to increase their support to LCIF. It provides an overview of various donation programs, news updates and stories of those helped through Lions’ contributions. The publication is available online or by contacting LCIF Development Staff.

Increase Your Support Through an MJF

Have you considered becoming a Melvin Jones Fellow or extending your generosity through a Progressive Melvin Jones Fellow? Fellows are a group of dedicated philanthropists who have changed the lives of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. To increase support for CSFII in the final months, President Mahendra Amarasuriya has issued a challenge to raise the number of Melvin Jones Fellows to 300,000 total. One Fellowship can save the sight at 167 individuals, each with a story, a family and a face. The application form is available online or credit card donations can be made securely online.

Cruise with the Chairperson

Support LCIF while soaking up the sun in the Caribbean . Join the LCIF Chairperson and fellow Lions from around the world for the 9th annual LCIF Cruise, which will set sail November 9, 2008 for 12 nights in the southern Caribbean . The cruise visits with local Lions in ports of call and there is a special Melvin Jones Fellowship reception on board. All of the cruises are open to the public and US$1,000 of every cruise is tax deductible. The cruise has raised over $300,000 for LCIF. To learn more about the cruise, download the brochure or email lcifdevelopment@lionsclubs.org. Space is limited.

Lions’ support and promotion of LCIF is crucial. I thank you for your continued dedication to LCIF.

Serving Through LCIF,

Jimmy M. Ross
Chairperson, LCIF

For more information about Lions Clubs International Foundation contact Alecia Dimar at (630) 468-6967.

We are fast approaching our last citrus sale of the season. We will be selling fresh Florida Grapefruits and Valencia oranges from March 6 – 8, 2008 (or while supplies last.) We will be open from 9am – 6pm Daily. At this sale we are also selling Vermont Maple Syrup and Virginia Peanuts.

Please come find us at Fairfax Circle, along Old Lee Hwy, adjacent to Home Depot.

If you haven’t signed up for our notification list, please CLICK HERE so you will receive notification prior to each sale. You’ll also receive a coupon for savings on your purchases!

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!

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!

The Fairfax Host Lions Club enjoyed spending the day with the community for the Independence Day parade and celebration on the 4th of July. We had our food booth open along the parade route and drove an eye-catching caravan in the parade.

Pictures are available in the Photo Gallery.

On Monday, June 18, 2007, three Fairfax Host Lions (King Lion Joe Giroux, Past President Bob Helland and PDG Bill Bartlett) participated in the opening ceremony for the new Fairfax City Senior Center Bocce Ball Courts. Funding support for the new bocce ball courts was provided by Fairfax Host Lions Club and construction work was accomplished by Senior Center members and Fairfax City Parks Department personnel. Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, PDG Bill Bartlett joined three members from the senior center and played the first game. A picnic lunch – hosted by Karen Bixler, senior center director – was enjoyed by approximately 35 people that were present for the ceremony.

Pictures of the event are available in the Photo Gallery.

The Lions fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30. This means our Lion year of 2006-2007 is now quickly coming to a close.

It has been a very fruitful year for the Fairfax Host Lions Club, in many ways. The Club helped prevent blindness in Fairfax and across the world, especially with the medical facility in Uganda, Africa which we lead in expanding and modenerizing.

We became a model club in Lion’s International Campaign Sight First II.

We helped the poor by providing over 20 pair of new eye glasses, and recycled hundreds of donated eye glasses which will be distributed for use all over the world.

We helped our youth by conducting a Lion Fairfax Host Peace Poster art competition, and a very successful Fairfax Host BLAND music competition.

We helped make life easier for the elderly by managing Bingo games at local nursing homes.

We delivered over 100 holiday meals, so people who otherwise could not afford it, enjoyed a nice holiday meal at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

We find it very rewarding to help the poor, the young, the old, the sight impaired and the hard of hearing, all those which are less fortunate than ourselves.

You have made me very proud to work with you in all of your efforts to establish this club as a leader in assisting people in need, as evidenced above .

However, it has not been all work. We had so much fun with our Annual “Retreat”, with Jay Kahn’s jokes at each of our meetings (Our own Jay Leno), with the antics Tom Edick as Tail Twister, and with the fellowship enjoyed by all, at all times.

In less than a month I will be leaving as your president. I thank you all for your support and your work in what I believe to be the best Lion Year Ever.

I am sure you will keep up the good work, in the Lion tradition.

Lions make a difference to someone, everyday, everywhere.

Yours in Lionism,
President Joe Giroux

There were three citrus fruit sales during Lions Year 2006-2007. The results were mixed, with some strong points and some problem areas. As a general rule, it appears that our overall fruit sale results are down somewhat from previous years. Some of the reasons for this included: [1.] Weather conditions resulting in lower customer turnouts; [2.] Significant price increases from our Florida supplier. The severe damage to the citrus crops in California resulted in increased demand and higher prices on the Florida crops; [3.] Rescheduling of the February sale to March; [4.] Technical problems with the postcard mailing announcing the rescheduling to March. These problems have now been corrected; [5.] Lower grapefruit sales resulting, in part, from more people taking medications (Lipitor) who have been advised to avoid eating grapefruit which causes the potency of the drug to be reduced.

Many thanks go out to the Lions who helped to staff these three sales. We had excellent turnouts for all three sales and there were no last minute calls for more help. While all Lions earned our heartfelt thanks, there was one group in particular that deserves special thanks. The signs for the November/December sales were taken down after the December sale and were put up again in mid-February for the March sale. Several areas where the signs needed to go were covered with mounds of ice and snow caused by the snow plows clearing the parking lot. Much of this had turned into solid ice up to three feet thick. The problem was solved by some serious chopping with any ax. Lion Tom Edick gets the Paul Bunyan Award for his perseverance and hard work.

Thanks also go to Lion Ken Schutz for his work on our postcard mailing list. We are mailing just under 1,000 postcards per fruit sale. These postcards are being mailed by “snail mail” and, thanks to Ken’s initiative, by email. More customers are signing up for the email coupons in lieu of the postcards. As the email list grows, this should have a significant decrease in our postage costs.

Again, thanks to all the FHLC members who assisted in the citrus fruit sales for this Lion’s Year.