On February 15, Fairfax Lions Club held the annual “James Bland Music Contest” for area youth. Four vocalists and eight instrumentalists competed. Both 1st & 2nd place vocalists and instrumentalists each received cash awards. The top vocalist and instrumentalist advance to Lions District 24-L competition at the Lyceum in Old Town, Alexandria, Sunday, March 29.

1st Place Instrumentalist: Justin Lee, 14, 8^th grader at Luther Jackson Middle School.  Cello.  Composition:  Zigeunerweisen op. 20 by Pablo de Sarasate. 

1st Place Vocalist: Heidi Hager, 15, 10^th grade – Oakton High School.  Soprano.  Composition:  Deh Vieni, non tardar by W. A. Mozart.

2nd Place Instrumentalist: Connor Kim, 14, 9^th grader at Centreville High School.  Piano.  Composition:  Piano sonata No. 2, Movement 1 by S. Rachmaninoff.  

2nd Place Vocalist: Kiara Brunner, 14, 8^th grader at Homeschool.  Mezzo Soprano.  Composition:  I Could Have Danced All Night  by Lerner and Loewe  

Other participating contestants…

Wroten Mcquirter, 15, 10^th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.  Piano.  Composition:  Transcendental Etude No. 4   by Franz Liszt.

Sophie Li, 14, 9^th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.  Flute. Composition:  Danse de la chevre by Arthur Honegger. 

Andrew Lam, 14, 9^th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.  Viola.  Composition:  Viola Concerto, 1^st Movement by W. Walton.

James Abiden, 15, 10^th grader at Trinity Christian School.  Tenor.  Composition:  O’del mio amato ben by Stefano Donaudy.

Geneva Brunner, 11, 5^th grader at Homeschool.  Piano.  Composition:  Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum by Claude Debussy.  

Benjamina Bolger, 11, 5^th grader at Homeschool.  Violin.  Composition:  Violin concerto No 1, Op. 6, 1^st movement by Niccolo Paganini.

Naomi Rosner, 14, 8^th grader at Kilmer Middle School.  Soprano.  Composition:  Lydia  by Gabriel Faure.

Michael Nguyen, 11, 5^th grader at Canterbury Elementary School.  Piano.  Composition:  Nocturne in c minor op 48 no. 1 by Frederic Chopin.

The Lions State Music Contest Finals are in Bristol, VA on Friday, May 29 where the VA Association of Lions Clubs will award 12 scholarships totaling $18,000.

Who was James Bland? James A. Bland composed over seven hundred American folk songs.  His song, “Carry Me Back to Ol’ Virginny,” is the former VA state song.  To learn more about James Bland and how his music inspired Lions Clubs of Virginia to sponsor the James A. Bland Music Scholarship Competition, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Bland.

One purpose of the Fairfax Inter-Service Club Council (ISCC) is to share information about service club operations.  At the Feb 4th ISCC meeting, Lion Treasurer Mike Rumberg gave a great talk about technology useful for service club financials.

Lion Mike spoke about the evolution (and pros & cons) in Fairfax Lions Club financials:

• From entirely manual pen and paper Club records, mailing member invoices with members mailing payment checks, and all manual recording of cash/check charity sales; 
• To EXCEL electronic data records;
• To QUICKBOOKS for all Club financials for both charity and admin accounts, to invoice members, and to generate tax reports;  
• To SQUARE for charity fund raising sales (using SQUARE hardware to accept customer credit card payments, in person or on-line);
• And finally, to our current progress using ZEFFY

FX lions to donate $25,000 to INOVA Lions Eye Clinic to treat Glaucoma patients.

In FX Lions 75th year of serving our community, we will equip the area’s only free advanced eye clinic with this special machine for Glaucoma patients.

Please consider donating to the FX Lions; your contributions will increase our ability to serve others!

Silvia Nakasone, Director of the Lions Eye Clinic, and Katie Coyle, Senior Director of Philanthrophy for INOVA Health Foundation, tell FX Lions about the successes of the eye clinic.

Read about the INOVA Lions Eye Clinic at: https://www.inova.org/locations/inova-lions-eye-clinic

Fairfax Lions Club picks up donated eyeglasses from numerous locations in the Fairfax County area, and takes them to the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center of No VA, http://lercnova.org. At LERCNOVA, volunteers inspect, clean, sort and package the eyeglasses to go with medical mission teams around the world. Medical professionals on the mission teams dispense the eyeglasses to people in need.

Lions FOCUS on vision programs, thanks to Hellen Keller’s inspiration, in 1925.

Club Treasurer reports receiving a donation from a very generous individual, who prefers to remain anonymous. The donor experienced FX Lions local service programs, and expressed his appreciation with a significant donation to the Club charity account. We Serve!