Activities
May-June 2014
Mon. May 5—Red Cross Blood Drive
Wed. May 14—Regular Meeting—Trull Awards
Sat, May
17---Flag Day/Summer Flag Presentation
Wed. May 21---Board of Directors Meeting
Sat. May
24—Great Pootatuck Duck Race
Wed. May 28—Regular Meeting Wed.
Sun. June 8—Ladies Night and Awards and Installation
Wed. June 11—Hospice Breakfast
Sat. June 14—Home Front
Day
Wed. June 18—Board of Directors Meeting
Dear Fellow Lions,
Happy Spring! At long last the long winter is over and
the club is in full swing on our spring time activities. We had a very
successful Earthday and Loose the Litter in spite of the rain. Thanks to
Lion Glenn Nanavaty and Lion Ed Miklaszewski for heading that whole effort
and making it a success. In March we helped host the US Army Rock Band and
thanks to Lion Dan O’Grady and Lion Bruce Walczak for working this event so
hard. The Leos came out to help as well under the new leadership of Ellie
Hanna the Leo Club advisor at the high achool and Lion Doug Hensal .We also
had a great Progressive Dinner so a big thank you goes to Bill Brett for
organizing it so well.
The Mustang Car Raffle is off to a great start under
the leadership once again of Lion Paul Krueger and Lion Jack Russo. We are
pushing new records on the website this early in the season and I think we
are doing very well with our venues as well. As always, we do need all Lions
to step up and go out with the car at least two times. So let Lion Skip Sims
know when you can go out so you can get on the schedule.
Lion Bob Schmidt has got the Duck Race all tuned up for
this year’s event on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend which we hope to be
dry this year. We have a full cadre of prizes ready to go. The Race will be
different this year. SHOP has been vocal about wanting greater participation
in our event. In response to that we are bringing the event into the village
and will be operating the festivities from the
So Lion Denny McLaughlin and Lion Jerry Cole along with
the stimulus of Lion Gordon Williams have set out to do a HomeFront project
this year. We were planning for early May as always but the home is not
going to be ready for us until Saturday June 14th. Please write
it down on your calendars. This is an all Lions hands event that we are
doing with the Congregational and Methodist Churches this year.
Our efforts for SHEF continue by trying to attract
grants and holding a golf tournament. Lion Jon Christiansen is doing good
work trying to attract another grant from Lions International. The Wrentham
Lions Club has again stepped up to the tune of $5,000 for SHEF. They ran
another very successful Dancing with
the Stars event. Wrentham has also invited us to a meeting which I am trying
to coordinate for early next fall. These guys are very special and they are
great brothers in Lionism. This is just in time as Lion Bob Schmidt is still
closing out claims from our effort. As previously reported we have closed
down our direct support of providers under SHEF as of February 28th
2014 and the Newtown Lions Club is now teamed with the Newtown Rotary and
Newtown Memorial Fund to continue to provide support for Mental Health
counseling. Elizabeth Goehring of
Even though SHEF no longer is administering directly to
providers and patients, we still have a need to support the new consortium.
As such we have planned a golf tournament for June 30th. All
Lions that play golf are invited to sign-up for this event on our website.
The fee is $175 per player which includes lunch and dinner. There is also a
live and silent auction planned for the event and we hope to have some
special celebrity guests playing with us. We are looking into providing
dinner only tickets for those that don’t play golf as well. It should be a
great fund raiser and lot of fun.
As always as you can see, we Lions are not idle. There
is a lot going on in this club and we need to get everyone out to support
the car raffle and upcoming Great Pootatuck Duck Race and the golf
tournament. We will be having the installation of new officers this year at
our last meeting in May on the 28th. Our awards meeting will be
on June 8th at Rock Ridge and will feature special guests First
Selectman Pat Llodra and Lions President
Stephanie Jacobson of the Danbury Lions Club who sponsored the Newtown Lions
Club back in 1949. We will be celebrating 65 years of Lionism at this
meeting which is a great milestone for the Newtown Lions. Hope to see you
all there.
Well that’s it for now.
Remember participation in our club is what makes us such an effective group.
We need all the Lions to pitch in and get involved.. You all have a lot to
contribute and that is why you are Lions, “We Serve”.
Best Regards,
Pete
Is it True that Blondes Have
More Fun or is it True that they are Dumb?
A beautiful blonde was driving home and got caught in a
really bad hailstorm which left her car covered with dents.
The next day she took it to a repair shop.
The shop owner saw that she was a blonde so he decided to have some
fun. He told her to go home and
blow into the tail pipe really hard and all the dents would pop out.
So the blonde went home and started blowing into her tailpipe.
Nothing happened. So she
kept blowing and still nothing happened.
Her blonde roommate saw her and asked, “What are you doing?”
The first blonde told her how the
repairman had instructed her to blow into the tail pipe in order to get all
the dents to pop out. The
roommate rolled her eyes and said, “Uh, like Hello!
You need to roll up the windows first.”
THE BULLY PULPIT:
Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
by Doris
Reviewed by Lion Gordon Mounts
In over 900 pages Doris Kearns Goodwin presents a “dynamic history of
the first decade of the Progressive era.”
The book consists of three stories: Theodore Roosevelt-the man who
desperately wanted to be president, William Howard Taft-the man who never
wanted to be president, and the muckrakers-the writers that helped
Taft was born into a good
Doris Kearns Goodwin is an
outstanding writer and this is an excellent book.
Doings of the Pride
Frank Gardner had a neat spring
adventure. He went up state to
the
Although the day had started out with a light snow on
the ground, the sun began to shine brightly and George Arfaras, and
grandson, Johnny, took off for Yankee stadium to celebrate Johnny’s 10th
birthday. The seats about
nine rows behinds the visitors’ dugout couldn’t have been better.
Tanaka was pitching and thrilled the fans with ten strikeouts in a
row. The highlight of the game
for the Arfaras family came when after a play the ball was thrown into the
visiters’ dugout and one of the players threw it into the crowd and the
young man who caught it turned and threw it to Johnny.
Later the Yankee scoreboard lit up with a sign wishing Johnny McMahon
of Southbury a happy tenth birthday.
As George commented, “There is no way to describe the awe and joy of
a little boy to think that the New York Yankees would wish him a happy
birthday.” . .
A good many
Lions and spouses enjoyed the
evening spent at the Waterbury Symphony starring our own Lion, trumpeter
Ryan Storms. Everyone
especially liked the “Grand Canyon Suite” as it was quite familiar to many.
“The Planets” was not as well known but people were impressed with it
as well. A very special added
effect was the great pictures that accompanied each planet.
. . . Our Progressive Dinner, ably chaired by Bill Brett was a great
success. Amazingly, our President
and wife Jane also participated even though they had hosted a gala bridal
shower that day. Accompanying
them was one of their two brides to be.
She has her mother’s good smile!
Lions dinner meetings are filling up again as all but
one of our winter birds has returned and the last, Gordon Mounts, will come
back on May 16th.
One of the travelers was Wayland Johnson who with Diana Johnson and friends
went to
Comments
about Wives and Other Matters
My wife is such a bad cook, in my house we pray
after the meal.
My wife likes to talk to me during sex:
last night she called me from a hotel.
My wife only has sex with me for a purpose.
Last night she used me to time an egg.
I went to a massage parlor:
it was self service.
It’s been a rough day.
I got up this morning put a shirt on and a button fell off.
I picked up my briefcase, and the handle came off.
I’m afraid to go to the bathroom.
I remember the time that I was kidnapped and they
sent a piece of my finger to my father.
He said he wanted more proof.
Requested
Helen Kruger’s appetizer recipes from the recent Progressive Dinner
Jezebel Sauce
Ingredients:
8 ounces pineapple preserves, 8 ounces apple jelly, 5 ounces drained,
white horseradish, small can dry mustard, l tablespoon cracked black pepper.
Directions:
Heat together all ingredients with a whisk.
Can be made two days ahead of serving and it will keep for weeks.
To serve, pour some of the sauce over a brick of cream cheese on a
platter. Serve with crackers
and a small knife to spread the cheese and sauce.
Cheese Ball
Combine the following ingredients: 8 ounces of softened
cream cheese, 4 ½ ounces canned deviled ham, ¼ teaspoon Tabasco, 1/8
teaspoon garlic salt, ½ teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce.
Form into a ball and roll in 1/4 cup chopped walnuts.
The
It was a beautiful day in
The second
guy won the remaining sixteen holes with ease.
As they were walking off number eighteen, the second guy was busy
counting his $80.00. He then
confessed that he was the pro at a neighboring golf club.
Then the first fellow revealed that he was a
The
still embarrassed pro then asked, “Is there anything I can do to make it up
to you?” The priest smiled and
said, “Well, you could come to Mass on Sunday and make a donation. . . And
if you want to bring your mother and father along, I’ll marry them.”