Kindness Goes Farther Than You Think

     I would like to share with you this month another article that I recently read that I believe reinforces one of the reasons we all joined Lions. The article’s title was, “Kindness Goes Farther Than You Think.”  In his last paragraph, Amit Kumar says “These findings suggest that what might seem small when we are deciding whether or not to do something nice for someone else could matter a great deal to the person we do it for. Given that these warm gestures can enhance our own mood and brighten the day of another person, why not choose kindness when we can?”

     At our district cabinet meeting in February one of the discussion topics was LCIF grants that were available to us as a district.  After the cabinet meeting one club did reach out about a community project they were looking to get involved in which resulted in more research.  If we had Leo clubs in our district another grant path becomes available to our communities that mostly requires a partnership between the local Lions club and the local Leos club. Project examples include painting, cleaning, and repairing a community center; organizing a dinner for seniors; and assisting with adding a sensory garden in a local playground. As a district we would be eligible for one of these grants per year, $1500 - $5000.  Another insight this year is that Leo clubs do not have to be exclusively in our schools.  We can have community-based Leos clubs, which creates the opportunity to recruit from a larger population.

     In closing, your district leadership is working on a retreat for Saturday, June 3rd.  The theme of this retreat will be “New Voices.”  It will be an in-person retreat, at a central location that encourages participation.  As we prepared for this retreat surprising facts emerged: our district has ~700 members, ~200 of our members have been Lions for 3 years or less, and ~300 of our members are 5 years or less. There will be team building, orientation, fellowship, and we want to hear these “New Voices” and what they would propose to create a more effective district.  We propose that an effective district leads to better support for our clubs and their efforts to provide service for their communities. More details to come.  Our ask is that our new Lions consider attending and our longer serving Lions encourage them so that we can hear their “Voices.”

Happy Spring - DG 36R Lion David O’Kelley – Together We Can and Together We Will