June 3, 2003
After opening the meeting, King Lion Roger called for moment of silence to honor the memory of our recently departed Lion...Allan Moller. Lion Al's unique sense of humor and his dedication to others, will be greatly missed.
Lion Bob Smiley, armed
with press clippings and a handful of bills to pay fines, gave us a blow-by-blow
report on the Montesano Bulldogs girls softball team. The Lady Bulldogs won the
State Softball Championship and Bob's two granddaughters were stand-out players
on this team. It was very apparent that Lion Bob is a proud grandpa. What made
it even more pleasurable for him was the fact that he ripped this writer
for the remarks I made last week about the Lady Grizzlies beating the Lady
Bulldogs.
Lion Pete Hegg was not to be outdone. Paying
his fine in advance, Lion Pete reported that his grandson's team, South Kitsap
high school, won the State Championship Baseball title.
The program
presentation today was our own ...Lion Dee Johnson. For several years, Lion Dee
and his wife Judy have spent the winter
months on their sailboat sailing the
waters of Central America and the Caribbean.
His program today
was about his favorite Central American country....Panama. He told of the
country's beauty and diverse topography, the friendliness of the people, and
climate.
The main portion of Dee's
program today was a video documentary of his first trip through the Panama
Canal.
He prefaced his video with some history regarding the construction of the
Canal, which was started by the French in 1882. By the early 1900's,
France had to stop construction for several reasons...inadequate engineering,
disease, and money. As they had a lease from Columbia on the land, they needed
to find a buyer. In 1903, the United States "bailed them out" and took over the
construction. In 1914 the Canal was completed and opened.
Dee
then presented (and narrated) his very interesting video of their 10 hour
transit through the Canal. He confessed that his small boat sharing locks with a
huge transport ship was, to say the least, was a little scary. In the video one
could tell by the look on Dee's face that the transit through the Canal was
complete.
This was a very interesting and informative program
indeed. Most, if not all, of the Lions here today were envious of Dee and
Judy's adventures.
da Pot - Ken Miller was the lucky winner of the attendance pot.
June 10, 2003
Lion 3rd VP Bob
Smiley manned the bell for this meeting... Lions Roger and Dean were both
absent. The only visitor that we had today, Matt Ballance, turned in his
application (together with his dues) for membership in our Club. There is no
doubt that Matt will be a great Lion.
After several more "proud Grandfather" remarks from both Lions Smiley and Spanich, we proceeded to the announcements....After extolling his granddaughter's athletic accomplishments, Lion Rudy informed us that Lion Carroll Wayman had taken a fall and broken some bones. He didn't know how serious, but will keep us informed.....Lion Rich Brown passed a sign-up sheet around for volunteers to man the Fireworks Stand....Lion Dr. Paul Prichard reminded us that Sunday, June 15th is the annual Aberdeen Elks Band's Flag Day concert. This will be at the 7th Street Theatre in Hoquiam. The concert starts at 3:00 PM with refreshments served after at the Hoquiam Elks. For those who have not attended this concert in the past, you have missed a very entertaining and patriotic event. There is little doubt that the Elks Band could tour professionally....Tune of the Fortnight was King of the Road. As this song was made popular by the singer Roger Miller, it was only fitting that the winner was Lion Ken Miller. (no family connection)
Lion Rich Brown
introduced our luncheon speaker, Todd Hoiness. Many of you will remember
Todd as a Hoquiam High School student and a stand-out athlete. After graduation,
Todd attended the University of Idaho majoring in Education. Upon graduating,
he took a one year
teaching and coaching position at a high school in Portland.
The next year he returned to the University of Idaho as an assistant football
coach....a position he held for 11 years. Todd's first love has always been
teaching and coaching at the high school level, and when he was offered a
temporary teaching/coaching position at a high school in Lompoc, CA, he jumped
at the opportunity and moved to CA. While he was in CA, the job as head coach
for Hoquiam High School came open...he applied and is now the HHS head football
coach.
Todd gave us a brief overview of the personnel that he
will have on his coaching staff and the young men that will be playing football
for Hoquiam the next school year. Unlike most coaches we have had for speakers,
Todd didn't dwell on the "X's and O's" of the sport nor the past history of the
players. It is Todd's contention that proper physical conditioning, good mental
attitude, and motivation, will bring out the very best in any athlete. Only when
athletes meet these conditions can you field a "TEAM".
It is
very refreshing to have a man who is in tune with Hoquiam and it's young people,
in this position. We wish him well and "Win, Lose or Draw"...we will support his
program.
da Pot - Lion Jerry Erickson was the recipient of the "big bucks" this day.
June 17, 2003
The first order of business after the bell today was the recognition of the June birthday Lions. They are: Lions Helge Erickson, Joan Smiley, Bryson Langel and Rick Thomas. Lion Helge...92 years old this month...made a "healthy" donation to the Club as a birthday fine. We thank Helge for the money, but far more important than cash,...we thank Helge for being a great Lion and a great friend.
For the past few weeks, we have had several proud "Lion Grandfathers" tell of their grandchildren's athletic achievements. Today Lion Paul Prichard announced that his 13 year old grandson...who lives in New Mexico...had won 1st place in both a regional and state Junior Physics competition in the New Mexico State Science Fair. Quite a prestigious honor for this young man.
The program for
today was our own Lion Ken Miller. Ken gave us a brief history of the "old"
Hoquiam High School building, from it's construction in 1913 to it's demolition
in 2002. Throughout his historical time-line, Ken injected several nostalgic
bits of
information that included;.. prices of the time, favorite student
hamburger joints, ice cream parlors, dances, etc.
This lead him
into the main reason for his program for today...selling bricks. Not just any
brick, but bricks from the old Hoquiam High building.
Ken's Hoquiam High School
class of 1948 has a Scholarship Fund for graduating HHS seniors.
(They award 2-$800 scholarships each year) To
assist in the funding of this program, they devised a plan to salvage bricks
from the old HHS and sell them as memorabilia. Ken persuaded the demolition
people to donate some bricks for this project and he proceeded to salvage many
of the bricks.
When each brick has been cleaned, a brass plate
displaying a drawing of the building and the dates of it's lifespan is attached.
The bricks sell for $25 each and 100% of the money raised goes into the
scholarship fund as all materials and labor, for the project, have been donated.
Ken reports
that sales have been brisk. [ For more information, contact Ken at 533-0587 ]
da Pot - The last duty of our luncheon speakers is to draw a name from the attendance pot. Displaying his wily technique, Ken drew his own name. This sent up cries of .....AUDIT !!!!!
June 19, 2003
Installation
of Officers for 2003 -2004
For those of you who couldn't attend the 2003-2004 Installation
of Officers , Thursday night, you missed a great evening of warm
fellowship, super entertainment and delicious food. There were several Lion
visitors from Central Park and Ocean Shores, whose presence helped set the
friendly tone of the evening.
The entertainment was provided by the young,
highly accomplished guitarist, Bryan Napiontek. Bryan aspires to be a
professional musician and from his performance this evening his "big break"
could be just around the corner.
Lion District Governor Mel
Mackey , after giving some very motivating remarks about Lionism, honored our
Club by installing our Officers for the 2003-2004 Lion year. Our new officers
are: President - Dean Parsons / 1st VP -Chris Eide / 2nd VP-
Bob Smiley / 3rd VP- Ray Pumphrey / Secretary - Jerry Schaefer /
Treasurer - Jack Strom / Tail Twister - Gordon Lanning / Lion
Tamer - Joan Smiley / 1 yr Directors - Bud Meservey and Jack
Schrauger / 2 yr Directors - Dr. Paul Prichard and Jerry Erickson /
Immediate Past President - Roger Smith.
PDG Mike Gayda
gave a very comprehensive explanation of the Melvin Jones award and, on
behalf of the Hoquiam Lions Club, presented Lions Larry Jones and Fred Kogin
with these awards. To say that Larry and I were overwhelmed would be an
understatement of galactic proportion.
Thanks to the efforts of
Lion Jerry Schaefer, his wife Nola and Lion Chris Eide, another fabulous Lions
gathering is now history,
(Photos will be in the Club photo album in the near future)
June 24, 2003
The last meeting of the month of June was the first meeting of the year for our new King Lion Dean Parsons. Don't know what happened to King Lion Roger today...he was a no show??? As this was to be Roger's last meeting to lead, we (the rowdies to the North) had major plans for him. Damn...the best laid plans, etc. We had one visitor today, Jeff Wetzel. Jeff is a Hoquiam City Councilman who recently took a teaching position in Montesano. (When Montesano was mentioned, Lion Smiley's ears perked up....Boy were we glad that his tongue didn't start wagging)
Lion Rudy Spanich reported that Lion Carroll Wayman had broken his hip and is in rehab at GH Community Hospital's East Campus. He will have to remain there until he can demonstrate mobility sufficient to take care of himself.
Lion Rich Brown called for volunteers to setup the fireworks stand after this meeting. He also made a tearful plea for more Lions to sign up to sell fireworks. He only has 3 time slots to fill to round out the sales period. As this is one of our biggest fund-raisers of the year, I would hope that we can get these slots filled SOON. Call Rich at 532-5808.
The song this time, in honor of Flag Day, was: It's a Grand Old Flag. 10 Lions responded and the winner was Lion Bob (Tin Ear) Aiken.
Lion Steve Lewis
provided our program today and a good one it was. He spoke of love and passion,
not the kind that you get from the
paperback romance novels, but
rather....fly-fishing. Steve has been an avid fly-fisherman for 60+ years and
today he told us of his many fishing trips around the world.
As
he is a "blue water" fly-fisherman, all of his fishing excursions have been to
resorts on some ocean. Steve stated that his favorite area is in the country of
Belize as the people are friendly and the fish are plentiful. He passed some
pictures around the meeting and we could certainly see why he likes this
country.
One would think that after all of his years of
fishing, Steve should be getting tire of eating fish. Surprisingly, Steve
doesn't eat the fish that he catches. After he lands the critters, this
venerable nimrod turns them loose. (a true fisherman) Another amazing
revelation...for the thousands of fish that he has caught, he has only killed a
couple.
Steve showed us his equipment (get your minds out of the
gutter...fishing equipment) and flies, and explained how the bait is cast and
presented to the fish.
This was an excellent program and it
certainly made every fisherman (fisherperson, if you prefer) at the meeting
envious of Steve's many exciting adventures.
da Pot - King Lion Dean asked his guest to draw the attendance pot. You guessed it...his guest drew Dean's name.