San Jose Mercury News, Letter to the Editor
From Milpitas Host Lions Club on Sept. 30, 2009
CLICK HERE
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Our Lions Club MIRACLES
and Charities that we support:
2008-2009 Charitable Giving
– Collected 804 Recycled Eye Glasses
– $1,200 Eye Glasses for 8 Milpitas Students/Residents
– $1,000 Milpitas Food Pantry
– $500 Milpitas Boy Scout Troop 163
– $500 Santa Clara County (SCC) Lions Blind Center
– $500 SCC Diabetes Society (Luncheon donation)
– $500 SCC Friends Outside (Adopt a Family)
– $250 San Jose Holiday Parade Balloon
– $200 Lions Eye Foundation Hospital
– $200 Lions in Sight
– $100 Firefighters Toys for Tots
– $100 Canine Companions
– $100 Student Speakers Contest
Project Participation
All members of the club dedicated many
service hours into the following projects:
2008 – 2009
– Student Speaker Contest
– Diabetes Luncheon – helped organize
$10,000 was collected for the Diabetes Society
– Friends Outside, “Adopt a Family” – bought presents for Mother and 2 children at Christmas
– Special Kids Day at De Luna Ranch, May 9
– pictures with Santa Claus
– Pro Speaker Series
– Milpitas High School Leo Club
- African Library Project – helped build 2 African Libraries
- The Hunger Site (www.thehungersite.com)
Charities that we support:
** Provide Free eye glasses for students at several Milpitas Schools
** Sent many children to Diabetes Education camps
** Eye Glass Recycling –sending used eye glasses to 3rd world countries
** Donations to Milpitas Food Pantry
** Support Canine Companions à highly trained assistance dogs for people with disabilities other than
blindness
** Free BBQs at Family Homeless Shelters
** Organize Book Drives to Build Libraries in Africa
** Mentor High School Leo Clubs
** Provide Boy Scouts Troop 163 with camping equipment
** Organize Book Drives to Build Libraries in Alum Rock School District
** Provide Free Eye Operations forMilpitans at the Lions Eye Foundation Hospital in San Francisco
WE SERVE
Milpitas Host Pro Speakers Series
The Milpitas Host Lions in partnership with the Milpitas Chamber of Commerce presents the PRO SPEAKER SERIES on the 4th Tuesday of each month. This Series features Professional Community Leaders.
On October 28th, 2008, we were honored to host Carl Guardino CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. The title of Carl's speech was "Challenges Facing Silicon Valley – The Future".
The speech and PowerPoint covered the Silicon Valley Leadership Group's Clean & Green efforts featuring the innovation that is occurring in our Valley to tackle the environmental challenges.
MH LIONS HELP GIRL SCOUTS: African Library Project
Saturday, January 11: Lion Irene and Lion Brant helped Girl Scout Troop 60053 with their African Library Project. These girls collected enough books to create 2 libraries in Lesotho, Africa: one for Early Childhood Development (ages 3 to 5) and the other a Primary School (grades 1-4). The Milpitas Host Lions had a few left-over early childhood books from their book drive, so those were added to the Girl Scouts' shipment.
Milpitas High School Leos Build 2 African Libraries!
The members of the Milpitas High School Leo Club, under the student leadership of co-Presidents Bruce Tayag and Omair Khan, and with the guidance of their faculty advisor, Lion Diane Kung, recently completed a Book Drive to create two Libraries in the countries of Swaziland, and the Kingdom of Lesotho, Africa. The project was part of the "African Library Project" organized by Chris Bradshaw and her family in Portola Valley, California.
The students collected over 2,000 books, and will be sorting and packing them for shipment to Africa on November 15th. They are currently trying to raise over $1,000 in funds to pay the costs of getting them there. The African students and teachers who will receive the books, currently have very few books and eagerly await their arrival. Due to the primitive state of communications there, they will not likely learn of the books' impending arrival until they get there, and will likely be unable to communicate their gratitude back to the students at MHS.
The Leo Club is an opportunity for secondary school students to learn leadership by gaining experience working on service projects for their community, being mentored along the way by Lions and other adult advisors. The word Leo itself, besides invoking the image of a young lion, means Leadership, Experience and Opportunity.
The Leo Club received $100 donations towards their fundraiser from each of the following electoral candidates: Pete McHugh, Dave Cortese, and Otto Lee. Councilwoman Debbie Giordano donated the use of her moving truck to transport the books to a storage facility donated by Shapell Homes.
“Our community has truly come together to help these most impressive young future leaders. The impact of what our local youth have done on the lives of the students of these African villages will be so immense that we can hardly fully appreciate it.” said Irene Whiteside, District Leo Advisor.
Milpitas Host Halloween Party
The Milpitas Host Lions had a great pot luck Halloween party at Lion Peter’s House again this year. Lion Joan brought her special marinated chicken, Lion Jim brought his special cheesy scallop potatoes, Lion Peter supplied the BBQ ribs that Lion Brant BBQ’d, Lion Irene brought macaroni salad and rice pilaf, and Lion Peter made a great salad! Rhiannon made a most “INTERESTING” cake!! Lion Luis was especially “devilish”, and Lion Joan’s husband, Ed, was dapper in his card-shark suit! We had a wonderful relaxing time!
