2013 Feb 18 Pleasant Hill Lions Host Multiple Clubs
On Feb 18, the Pleasant Hill Lions hosted several Lions Clubs in the area for a dinnner and meeting with Lions District Governor Zane Vokes.

The following pictures are from that meeting.

2013 Feb 18 Pleasant Hill Lions, Dist Governor Zane Vokes

2013 Feb 18 Pleasant Hill Lion,
Dennis Crabtree is shown receiving distinguished service recognition at multiple club meeting at Pleasant Hill

2013 Feb 18 Pleasant Hill Lions
Shown are Bill Pollard and Dennis Crabtree.

2013 Feb 18 Pleasant Hill Lions multi-club meeting meeting

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 1
On Feb 11, the Altoona Lions held their annual Valentines dinner at the HyVee conference room. The following 7 photos are from the dinner event.

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 2

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 2
Photo 2

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 3
Photo3

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 4

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 4
Photo4

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 5
Photo 5

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 6
Photo6

2013 Feb 11 Valentines Dinner 7
Photo 7

2012 Dec Xmas dinner1
Monday Dec 10 was the night for the annual Altoona Lions Christmas dinner, held at the HyVee conference room. Attendance was good, the food great, and the entertainment excellent. All had a nice evening

2012 Dec Xmas dinner2
Xmas photo 2.

2012 Dec Xmas dinner3
Don't bother us, we're busy eating, was it before the tail twister ate his pie? You'll never know.

2012 Dec Xmas dinner4
Our entertainment, R B J trio and their golden oldies. Toe tapping tunes.!!!

2012 Dec Xmas dinner5
Xmas photo 5.

2012 Dec Xmas dinner6
Xmas photo 6.

2012 Dec Xmas dinner7
Santa Barb, and her elf Larry, surprising some lucky ticket holders.

2012 Dec Xmas dinner8
Margaret Gowin, a lucky ticket holder and her "Santa" gift.

Thanks to Helen and Herb Phillips for the photos and notes.

2012 11 22 A very old young man
Does anyone recognize this 80 year old kid? A Lion disguised as a Hawk fan.

Nov 12 Lions Meeting
The guest speaker for the Nov 12 Altoona Lions meeting was Kent Keil. He
presented his Austrian lion's youth camp trip experience from this past summer at Dolomites.
Kent presented a slide show and gave an discussion about places and events and his experiences.

2012 Oct 22 Bi Monthly Meeting at Altoona Fire Station
Altoona Jerry Whetstone was the guest speaker at the Altoona Lions meeting. Jerry provided a very informative presentation. As the photo shows, there was a very good turn-out.

2012 Oct 22 Bill Pollard reveives Coleman Award
Bill Pollard was presented the Warren Coleman award. The Coleman award is presented to Lion members that have provided long term community support and have been very active in Lions projects. Bill certainly fits that description. He was the past Altoona Lions President, is very active in the Altoona palooza, is a Lions Zone chair, and with his wife is active annually in support work in Jamaica. Congratulations Bill.

Roger Mahnke is trying to pin the Coleman pin on Bill. Bob Aalbers is the pinning understudy. The photo of Bill with his Coleman plaque will be included later.

2012 Oct Lion Bill Pollard in Jamaica
This is picture of Bill Pollard's visit with the Lions of St. Mary’s Parish, in Highgate, Jamaica. This was during a recent mission trip.

2012 10 Don T Fair Card Cost Calculations
In case you have been waiting for the details on Donnie Townsend's calculations of expenses per card for the State Fair Spin Art, here they are.

2012 Oct 8 Altoona Lions Meeting, Cookies
The Altoona Lions bi-monthly meeting was held Oct 8 at the old Social Center (whatever it is called now). There was no speaker, but a few items of business and lots of fun. Roger reported that we have received two requests for hearing aids. Each will be evaluated for the correct criteria. Several thank you cards/letters were distributed.

In the attached photo pof the "head table", note the cookies in front of Rog. These were provided by Anthony Guzzi, and are his secret recipe. I think they said that HyVee will start selling these soon. They were great.

2012 Oct 8 Iceland Lions
MaryAnn and John Vedder recently spent a couple weeks in Europe and returned via Iceland. They had set up through Gary Fry to meet with an Iceland Lions Club. MaryAnn gave an interesting report about their visit with the Iceland folks, and brought back a small flag that shows their Club's name, MOSFELLSBAEJAR. I will leave it up to you to pronounce that. Thanks MaryAnn and John.

2012 Oct 8 Altoona Lions Meeting, Auction 1
At our last Lions meeting, the Appreciation Dinner, Donnie Townsend held one of his auctions where he auctions off for little or nothing, items that he has found in his garage or stolen from a neighbors garage. Brad Keil had some complaints about the items he bought. First an electric clock would not even light up. Second, a pair of glasses (shown on photo) were such that Brad could not see through them (but don't they make him look handsome)?. Third, see the next photo.

2012 Oct 8 Altoona Lions Meeting, Auction 2
Continuing with the auction, Brad thought that Donnie's stories might have been a little too much, so Brad gave Don a bar of soap to clean up his act.

2012 Oct 8 Altoona Lions Meeting, Honk
TailTwwister Don fined Duane Auten for trying to open his car door after the last meeting. However it was not Duane's car, so the security on the car started honking the horn. And everyone had to listen to the horn blare for several minutes. Nice going Duane.

2012 Sep 24 Lions Appreciation Dinner Fair financial analysis
Roger Mahnke provided a handout that showed the results of Spin Art at the State Fair. The net profit was an amazing $12,912. Thanks so much to all who helped with the 2012 State Fair spin art booth, or any part of the process. And you all know that this money goes to help the needy in our area and for community projects in Altoona or the scchools or the police or fire dept. Just a great organization for our community, thanks to a silly little game called Spin Art, and thanks to over 100 people that helped make it happen. And a huge thank you to Roger Mahnke, who makes it all work.

2012 Sep 24 Lions Appreciation Dinner Awards
Gene Gardner got a pin for 35 yrs perfect attendance.

2012 Sep 24 Lions Appreciation Dinner awards2
Roger Mahnke got an award for 12 yrs perfect attendance and Dennis Crabtree got a pin for 44 yrs perfect attendance.

2012 Sep 24 Lions Appreciation Dinner awards4
We were able to give a second Warren Coleman award this year. And that winner was Linda Crabtree. Everyone knows Linda works so hard for the Lions all the time, taking care of the many secretary duties. She is such a great Lion for our club. We all support her winning of the Coleman award. She is shown with her husband, Lion Dennis Crabtree.

2012 Sep 24 Lions Appreciation Dinner Pants
It seems that Bob Aalbers had a little trouble with the paint at the Spin Art booth. It was reported that he spilled about 2 gallons of paint on his shorts. He did not bring the shorts to show at the dinner to show that they did actually clean up. But instead he impressed us with his eating prowess by showing us the steak stain on his pants from the meal. That is stain 1. He did not say what stain 2 was from. Looks like maybe salad?? Esther Aalbers told the Lions that she was able to clean up Bob's painty shorts with a 2 step process...Resolve and wash, then Resolve and wash. However after the meeting Esther told me in confidence that she actually had to add a third step...get a match and burn them.

2012 Feb 10 Benefit Supper for Dollars for Scholars
On Feb. 10 the Altoona Lions joined forces with the East Polk Rotary and the Altoona Kiwanis to hold a benefit soup/sandwich supper for the SEP Dollars for Scholars. The supper collected about $1400, all of which will go directly to Dollars for Scholars. Many parties contributed to the event, including the Altoona Fire Station (donated their facility), McDonalds (donated the juice), Prairie Meadows (donated the potato Soup and desert bars), many ladies that brought desert bars, and of course the Rotary (cooked the toasted cheese sandwiches), the Kiwanis (helped with many items and serving), and the Lions (made the best chili ever, as usual). And many many others that contributed. The photo shows (starting on the right) Mike Beckett (Kiwanis Treasurer), Jen Book (Lions 1st VP), and Larry Wilson (Rotary ex-President).

Thanks to all that helped with the event, and many thanks also to the folks that came out on a very cold night to help the SEP future College students.

2012 Feb 10 Benefit Supper
This is a photo of the many people that came to the supper. Even though our supper had to compete with the Girls basketball game at SEP, we had a nice crowd.

And congrats to the SEP Girls BB team for whopping Ankeny for the Worlds Championship of Girls Basketball.

2012 Feb 10 Benefit Supper 2

2012 JAN 23 Multiple Club Meeting at Mitchellville
On Jan. 23, 2012 five Lions Clubs, including our Altoona Club, met to hear the Lions District 9MC Governor. Gary Fry's wife chaired the meeting. Bill Pollard called on each club present to tell of current activities. Bondurant, Altoona, Runnells, Mitchellville, & Montezuma reported. Ted Griffeon auctioned off a lion stirring up some good fun in the process. Margaret Stout also received a prize. District Gov. Charlotte Miller spoke about leadership teams. Thanks to the Mitchellville Club for hosting this meeting.

2012 JAN 23 Multiple Club Meeting at Mitchellville 2
Another photo from Mville meeting.

2012 JAN 23 Multiple Club Meeting at Mitchellville 3
A 3rd photo from Mville meeting. Thanks to Herb and Helen Phillips for taking notes and photos for the web site.

2012 Jan 9 Altoona Lions Bi-weekly Meeting
Our first meeting of the new year was a shortened business meeting, covering a mixture of topics. Seems like there was a football game of some sort that the members wanted to rush home to see.

The next meeting will be at Mitchellville. This will be a multi-club meeting with the Lions District Governor.

2011 Dec 12 Lions Christmas Dinner
On Dec 12, the Altoona Lions held their annual Christmas dinner at Griff's RV Clubhouse northwest of Altoona. 44 Lions and spouses attended. The food was great, and the after-meal entertainment by the RBJ Trio was great. The following photos show shots of the many attendees enjoying the evening.

2011 12 Xmas Dinner 2
More photos. In the lower right is the RBJ Trio that presented musical entertainment after the meal.

2011 Dec 12 Xmas Dinner c
More photos. In addition, after the musical entertainment, there was a drawing for very nice prizes. In the lower left, Nancy Gill was a winner, and in the lower right, Denise Green and Darlene Townsend were winners.

2011 Dec 12 Xmas Dinner d
More drawing winners. Upper left, Denise Green gets a second photo, upper right Marla Carr was a winner. Lower left Doug White was a winner and lower right Herb and Helen Phillips were winners.

2011 Dec 12 Xmas Dinner e
More Photos. Upper left Joyce White was a winner. Upper right, Secretary Linda Crabtree presents Larry Laurens with an attendance award.

After the drawing for the nice prizes, Don Townsend presented some really really nice prizes. The first winner was Herb Phillips (lower left), modelling the white and gray shirt he won. Don T. said "Herb, I am so tired of seeing you on TV with that Red checkered shirt, I want you to wear this shirt for all commercials from now on."

Lower right is Dick Green. In planning for this meeting, Don T. asked various Lions if they had a checkered shirt he could use for a gift. Dick offered the shirt he is holding. Turned out Don did not need Dick's shirt, so he gave it back to Dick as a present.

2011 Dec 12 Lions Xmas Dinner f
Upper left is Jay Rosenberger, who won a tremendous prize. Don Townsend said "Jay is a tremendous gardener, and we wanted to present him with a wonderful plant in recognition of his gardening prowess".

Jay's prize...a sack of cuckleburrs.

Upper right shows Lions President Dennis Crabtree with the mic, Don Townsend (Mr. all-time funny) sitting, and Jay Rosenberger opening his present.

Overall, a very nice evening. Good food, good entertainment, great company.

2011 Nov 14 Tom Hadden Guest Speaker
At the Altoona Lions bi-monthly meeting on Nov. 14, Tom Hadden, Executive Director of the Metro Waste Authority, gave a very informative presentation. Much of the information Tom presented can be found at their web site at http://www.mwatoday.com/. Here are some of the highlights.

The facility started up in 1969, and Tom has been the Executive Director since 1996. They own 1800 acres at their East Polk facility, of which 400 acres has been permanently used and closed. The Authority has made steady improvements over the years, including adding the automated dumpster pickup, the recycling facility, the great improvements to customers in unloading their materials, and many others. There are also several other smaller facilities owned and manages by the Authority. You can read about these on their web site.

66% of the waste at the East location comes from commercial sources. The East Polk location also offers a shredding service and sells the materials back to anyone that needs them. The first 75 lbs are free.

The Authority is recognized as one of the most modern and automated in the United States and has been awarded "Best In America" for multiple of it's services.

2011 11 Birthday Boy
Bob Aalbers celebrated his 82nd birthday on meeting day. Happy birthday Bob. You don't look a day over 40 (to those of us that can not see well anymore)

2011 Sep 12 Lions Bi Monthly Meeting
The Sep 12 Altoona Lions meeting was primarily a business meeting to review many topics that needed to be discussed. 19 members were present. A few of the items are listed:

SEP Homecoming is Sep 22. The Lions will have the float again. Need a few more volunteers to assist with parking.

The State Fair profit was about $9,000, a great year. Roger will present the full report at the Appreciation dinner on Oct 10 at HyVee.

Prairie Meadows will not sponsor the spinart at the Latino festival this year, and it is unclear whether Prairie Meadows will sponsor any spinart this year. If that is the case, the Lions recently approved annual budget will have to be revised.

We will have a booth again at the Taste of Altoona on Oct 20. We need volunteers to man the booth in the 3 1-hour segments.

Dennic C. received a certificate for the Lions for screening 574 children's eye sight in a month. Way to go team.

The Annual SEP Dollars For Scholars Auction is Oct 8. Need volunteers to help setup and take down tables.

We will pursue whether we can participate in a tree planting project with the City/Chamber.

2011 09 Altoona Food Bank
Each year our Altoona Lions Club donates money to the Altoona Food Bank. This is one of the most important recipients of our fund raising efforts. A recent newsletter from the Food Bank was routed to all Lions via email, but we wanted to put this summary information on our Lions web site so that all members (and anyone that access our site) can see this important information. Here is an extract from the Caring Hands Food Bank Newsletter for Aug 2011.

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Another record was set at the Caring Hands Food Pantry in August of 2011, when 270 families came for assistance. Thirty-seven of these families were new this year. There were 540 adults and 350 children, for a total of 890 individuals. Two hundred seventy boxes of food was distributed weighing 7,251 lbs., and 269 Fareway vouchers given for perishable items such as milk, butter, eggs, etc. Also, 270 bags of personal items (soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc.) were handed out. There has also been garden produce available this month.

This amount of 270 families in August of 2011 compares to 229 families in August of 2010 – an increase of 41 families. Also, in August, $546.06 was given for utility assistance, and $300. to help clients with rent. The maximum monetary amount we are able to give clients is $150.00, and they can receive this assistance once a year.

2011 07 Spinart booth at Altoona Ragbrai
Haines Park in Altoona was the site for "family" type activities and entertainment for the Ragbrai bikers. Our Altoona Lions ran our Spinart booth. However business was pretty slow. Lots of fun to see all the bikers in town, but Spinart was not the hit that it is at the State fair. Thanks to those that worked the booth. Duane and (I think) Doni Auten are shown working the booth.

2011 07 Ragbrai Hits Altoona
On July 27, 2011 Altoona hosted the Ragbrai bikers for an overnight entertainment and sleepover. Overall the event was a great success for the city. Great job done by lots of Altoona volunteers.

2011 May 23 CARGILL PRESENTATION ON PORK INDUSTRY
At the May 23, 2011 meeting of the Altoona Lions, Art Halstead, Cargill Pork Growing/Fnishing Executive presented on Cargill's vast hog raising/finishing/marketing programs. Art presented very interesting statistics, such as:

24% of the US pigs are raised in Iowa

Pork consumes 10% of US corn

Cargill manages about 3 million pigs per year in the US (out of about 105 million for all companies/growers), with about 1 million in Iowa.

Cargill contracts with farmers to own the facilities and raise the hogs.

Since the 1970s, pork has changed a lot because of science, becoming a much leaner product and high in protein.

Overall, this was a very interesting presentation.

2011 May 23 Presentation to Herb Phillips
Linda Crabtree is shown presenting Herbert Phillps with his 50 year Monarch Milestone Chevron Award. Congratulations Herb.

2011 SCIP Day Planning 1
Many people wonder how the Altoona Lions do so many projects so well. Everything always turns out perfect.

Well, my friends, the answer is plan, plan, plan. And we always make lists of activities to be done, always on legal yellow sheets. And then we double check each other's lists. And just to make sure all is correct, we have an outside auditor triple check. Shown in this photo is Larry Lourens and Don Townsend matching their lists for SEP SCIP Day 2011, and Kit McDowall representing the University of Iowa Auditing Department, checking their work.

2011 SCIP Day 2
In case you do not buy all the above baloney, the real truth is Roger Mahnke, our great planner of everything, could not be at SCIP Day when it started, so he made lists for everyone. Don and Larry are trying to figure out what Rog wants them to do. And Kit is just loafing, waiting for the kids to arrive.

Thanks to Helen Phillips for the pictures.

2011 June 13 Iowa Dept of Blind
The guest speaker for the June 13 2011 Altoona Lions meeting was Karen A Keninger, the Director of the Iowa Department for the Blind. She shared that she's been blind all of her life, but admonished us that she's "same as others, however, OUR world is a little different." When people loose or have diminished vision they have two choices, a) sit and do nothing, or b) learn to do things a different way. Karen shared stories of several clients and how they dealt with sight loss.

The Department offers a one week course on Independent living that includes cooking classes, shop, and use of the white cane. There is also an extended training that last for 6-9 months. The staff at the Dept. of Blind visit in the client's home to help determine their needs. This program is funded through both state and federal government programs at no cost to the client.

Audio books started in the 1930's. The current equipment now used is all digital, and is called a talking machine.

The department has a library that offers large print books, braille books, and video/movies with special audio features. It is also now possible to down load some books via one's computer. This library is known to have materials that are not available in the national library in Washington, DC. Iowa's library has over 100,000 titles as well as magazines.

We were all challenged by Karen to talk with our legislators regarding a) this program and its funding needs, b)share with those visually affected about this program, and c) talk with employers about working/hiring visually impaired as employees.

Karen is a Lion Club member of the new Newton Lions Club and they have just elected her Secretary. Her leader dog is her 6th, and was a friendly guy.

Karen is a Lion Club member of the new Newton Lions Club and they have just elected her Secretary. Her leader dog is her 6th, and was a friendly guy.

Note: Thanks to Helen Phillips for the above meeting summary and for the photo.

Altoona Palooza Aug 26-27
The Altoona Lions will be participating again in this years Altoona Palooza. The photo is the official Palooza graphic showing the Lions are a Sponsor of the event.

2011 July 11 Meeting, Ragbrai presentation
At the July 7, 2011 Altoona Lions meeting, Lori Slings presented an update on the Altoona Ragbrai upcoming event. Lori also answered many questions from Lions members.

The Altoona Ragbrai web site is at http://ragbrai-altoona.com/

Lori is very active in the Altoona and Southeast Polk communities. She is the event manager for the Altoona Ragbrai event, she publishes a really neat and informative weekly newsletter about SEP avtivities, and she is President of the SEP School Board. Seems like more than one person could handle. But Lori has boundless energy and always seems to enjoy whatever she does.

Thanks to Lori for the presentation.

Altoona Lions support of SEP Central Place part 1
This is the first in a series of articles about the places that our Altoona Lions provide financial support.

The first place described is the Southeast Polk Central Place. As you are probably all aware, the Central Place had a significant budget cut and mission cut for this coming year. However, they still provide many incredibly valuable services for our SEP community needy families.

On July 12, 2011 the Altoona Lions gave Central Place a check for $600, half of their annual Altoona Lions allocation. The purpose of this article is to dig in a little deeper on a couple of the Central Place functions to let the Lions members know where our hard earned money goes.

The first Central Place function discussed is their “New Shoes For You” program. This program lets needy Southeast Polk children start the school year off on the “right foot." Back-to-school time is expensive for families, so Central Place began “New Shoes for You”.
In May, June and July, families with a child entering a Southeast Polk school, who meet income guidelines, sign their children up to receive a new pair of tennis shoes for the beginning of the school year. Each child is matched with a donor.
Donors can either purchase shoes for a child or give a monetary donation that Central Place staff uses to purchase shoes through Shoe Carnival and Payless Shoes.
One of the best aspects of New Shoes for You was our collaboration with Payless Shoes. Families who signed up for the program will go to Payless with vouchers sent from Central Place to use as verification/payment for shoes at the store. Families will be checked in at the front of the store as they are given a pair of socks for their child to keep and use to try on shoes. They will have their choice of any athletic shoe in the store including a large amount of over stock ordered specifically for the event.
Central Place offers the Payless option to all students and also give the choice to junior high and high school students if they would like to be matched with a direct sponsorship donor. Donors who choose direct sponsorship will be sent an information card for a designated student with their shoe size, color and style preferences listed.
If a lower amount of donors choose direct sponsorship the monetary donations received for New Shoes For You will be used by Central Place staff to purchase shoes for students at Shoe Carnival or Payless Shoes.
New Shoes for You relies on the help of volunteers who assist staff in distributing shoes and socks, ensuring proper fit of shoes and assisting with check- in and check-out of shoes.
New Shoes For You Totals for 2010: Altoona Elementary 31, Centenial 19, Clay, Delaware 34, 4Mile 23, Runnells 5, Mitchellville 42, Willowbrook 18, Spring Creek 42, Jr. High 69, High School 89. Total 395.
The photo shows a part of the shoes stocked at Central Place. These are shoes purchased by Central Place staff with donated money. Most shoes in the program are purchased by the students/families at the stores participating.

Altoona Lions support of SEP Central Place part 2
The Southeast Polk Central Place, “School Supply Giveaway” program is the next function described. Last August, Central Place, with the aid of volunteers and community donors, including a premiere supporter Cargill Inc., sponsored a one-day school supply giveaway for any student entering a Southeast Polk school.

For one day in August the junior high gymnasium was transformed into a school supply extravaganza. Students brought their supply lists, and with the help of volunteers, they filled backpacks of their choice with nearly all the necessary supply items. They were able to give supplies to 600 kids. It was Central Place's first year to prepackage all supplies in backpacks and it went smoother than ever before. Families simply had to check-in get a ticket for each one of their children and turn the ticket in for a backpack! We hope give even more students a fresh start for the upcoming school year.

The photo shows some of the supplies housed at the Central Place storage building.

School Supply Giveaway totals for 2010: Altoona Elementary 23, Centenial 37, Clay 31, Delaware 61, 4Mile 43, Runnells 9, Mitchellville 47, Willowbrook 31, Spring Creek 62, Jr. High 112, High School 139. Harbor 5, Total 600.

Altoona Lions support of SEP Central Place part 3
The photo shows more of the Central Place supplies, especially the backpacks. Also pictured are Cathy Beck-Cross and Judy Hamlin. Cathy is the Central Place Director. She has been the Central Place since it started in 1995. Judy is an Administrative Assistant and has been at Central Place for about 4 years.. Central Place has had a dramatic reduction in staff, but still continues to offer so many really essential programs for the area needy. We have highlighted just 2 of their programs. If you check their web site at www.centralplace.org/index.html you will see descriptions of all of their programs and resources.

Overall, Central Place is just a great place for putting part of our Altoona Lions revenues to good work helping needy area families.

Holy Corndog
Thanks to Larry and Joyce Lourens for manning the Spinart booth at the annual State Fair Corndog Kickoff. But where are the corndogs???

2011 06 27 Harding Award
At the June 27 Altoona Lions meeting, Secretary Linda Crabtree prsents Jerry Harding with his 45 year membership chevron. Congratulations Jerry.

2011 May 6 SCIP Day 1
Each year Southeast Polk Schools have a SCIP Day for seniors where they can sign up to go help on service projects around the school district. This year there were 306 students and teachers that participated. 8 SEP school buses took the seniors around to the various projects. Then when they are finished with their projects, they come to Thomas Mitchell Park for a lunch provided by the area Lions cliub. This year the Altoona Lions provided the lunch with assistance by the Pleasant Hill Lions. There were 14 Altoona Lions working and 3 PH Lions. The students started arriving about 11:00 and all 306 were gone by about 11:30, so when they started arriving, things had to be cooked and ready. We provided hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, cookies, and pop, plus of course all of the planning, setup, serving, and cleanup. It is always such a pleasure to participate in these SCIP days, because the students are all so mannerly and clean up when they leave. Everyone that participated had a good time seeing these future leaders.

2011 May 6 SCIP Day 2011 2
This is another set of photos from SCIP Day.

2011 May 6 SCIP Day 3
And a third set of photos from SCIP Day. Notice the bottom pictures. We were down to the last drop of catsup, and Bob Aalbers, der catsupmeister, had to pour the red stuff from the large container on each haamburger. And he over applied just a little...such that the student could not see his hamburger any more. The last picture shows Bob applying the very last drop. Talk about capacity planning.

2011 May SCIP Day 4
Photos from SCIP Day 2011'

2011 SCIP Day 5
More photos.

2011 May 9 Terri Hamm on Strokes
At the Altoona Lions May 9, 2011 meeting, the guest speaker was Terri Hamm, Stroke Coordinator at the Mercy Medical Center. This is Stroke month in Iowa, and she is starting a month long series of presentations to increase stroke awareness. She discussed the common causes of strokes, the common symptoms of strokes, and the things that one can do to help prevent strokes. She said that 80% of strokes are preventable. Terri left handouts that are great stroke awaremess checklists, such as regrigerator magnets, with the common symptoms.

2011 May 9 25 Yr Pin for Pollard
Lions Secretary Linda Crabtree is shown presenting a 25 year service pin to Altoona Lions President Bill Pollard. Congratulations Bill.

Also at the meeting, the following items were discussed:
1. The SCIP Day cost was $836. Pleasant Hill will pay part of that.
2. 4 Altoona Lions members went to the Colfax Lions Charter meeting.
3. The State of Iowa Lions Golf outing is June 13. A 4 man team will represent Altoona
4. May 29 Prairie Meadows wants us to do a one booth Spin Art at the Fair Grounds.
5. 21 Lions attended the meeting.

2011 May 14 Asian Festival
The Altoona Lions ran the Spin Art booth for Prairie Meadows at the 2011 Asian Fesitval on the Iowa Capitol grounds Saturday May 14. Although the day was cloudy, cool, and occasionally rainy, there was a great turnout. This photo shows Bill Pollard helping a child make his Spin Art card.

2011 May 14 Asian Festival
This photo shows one of the many rows of tents set up for the Asian Festival. Most of these tents had foodv vendors. An estimated 100 different types of foods were available.

2011 May 14 Asian Festival
Since the day was very chilly by time for the last shift at the Lions Spin Art booth, Larry Lourens and Roger Mahnke warmed up before their shift with a bowl of Asian soup.

2011 Mar 28 District Governor Sparks Guest Speaker
The March 28 meeting of the Altoona Lions was held at the HyVee conference room, with a BYO dinner before the meeting. Our group has really grown to like these "eat-in BYO meetings" and do it regularly. It adds a nice meal out and a chance to chat a bit more with Lion friends. The guest speaker for the evening was District 9MC Governor Boyd Sparks. He started by asking us "what do you do", in order to find out what makes us tick. And we gave him the full load. Nearly every member present pitched in on the discussion of all the many things we do to raise money (all centered around Spin Art), and of course the many great causes that we support and service projects we do.

After the above discussion, Gov. Sparks talked about a few ways others have been able to add membership.

2011 Mar 28 Governor Sparks and wife Jean
This photo shows Lions District 9MC Governor Boyd Sparks and his wife Jean, along with Lions President Bill Pollard, 1st VP Dennis Crabtree, Secretary Linda Crabtree, and Treasurer Roger Mahnke.

Notice the very cool US flag in the background. The HyVee conference room did not have a flag, and we always like to start Lions meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance to a REAL flag. So we bought our own. Anyone that cares to can use the flag in this room. But when we have use of the room, we get to use our US flag. Nice going, us.

2011 Mar 28 Meeting discussion
At the March 28 meeting, the officer nominees for next year were presented and voted on. Our next slate of officers will be: President Dennis Crabtree, 1st VP Jen Book, 2nd VP Lance Hudson, Lion Tamer Dick Green, Tail Twister Jerry Carr, 1 YR directors Doug White and Gene gardner, 2 YR Directors Helen Phillips and Michelle Bonner, Secretary Linda Crabtree, Treasurer Roger Mahnke. Tail-Twister-to-be Jerry Carr got off to a fast start even before his term started. In one round of the table, he picked up about 8 quarters and jerked several chains. He will be a good fit for the job. Advice for future meeting attendees...bring quarters.

Other discussions... the April 11 meeting should be great fun. It will be at the old SEP Jr. High school, now called Spring Creek 6th Grade. The 6th graders will prepare and cook and serve the meal for us, at $8 per person. The 6th graders will also provide the entertainment. Everyone should attend this unique event. Should be a hoot.

Also, the first meeting in May will include a presentation by Terri Hamm from Mercy Hospitals, presenting on strokes.

Dennis and Linda Crabtree recently went on a cruise vacation. While on the cruise, they found that there were several other Lions on the ship, including several from Europe. So they had a Lions meeting there. Who would'da thunk??? There are Lions everywhere.

2011 Mar 28 Grassroots Award
At the March 28 Lions meeting, District Governor Boyd Sparks presented Lion Kit McDowall with a "District Governor's Grassroots Lion Award". The award is presented for "...hard work, often without thanks or award, that often pays off for the people of your community and the world".

2011 Apr 11 SEP 6th Grade Dinner for Lions
For the April 11, 2011 Altoona Lions meeting, we met at the Spring Creek Sixth Grade Center (Old Junior High Building) for a wonderful dinner, prepared and served by the Spring Creek Cooking Class. They prepared a meal of chili soup or potato soup, Carrots/celery, corn bread, Oreo Fluff dessert, and ice tea/lemonade. The cooking Class is lead by Missy Pearson and Nicole Kooiker. As can be seen on the following photos, everyone really enjoyed the meal and the very pleasant,mannerly 6th graders.

2011 Apr 11 6th Grader Serving Line
Another photo of most of the 6th grade servers, once all of the Lions had filled their plates.

2011 Apr 11 Another photo of servers
The meal was so good, they get 3 photos.

2011 Apr 11 Lion Table 1
There were 35 Lions in attendance. Everyone enjoyed the meal and the entertainment, coming in a few photos. Note that Lion Helen Phillips has a guest with her, her son Perry Phillips, a teacher at SEP. Herb could not attend the evening.

2011 Apr 11 Table 2
Lion Table 2.

2011 Apr 11 Lion Table 3

2011 Apr 11 Lion Table 4

2011 Apr 11 6th Grade Swing Choir
After the meal, we were entertained by the 6th Grade Swing Choir. They sang 3 songs. This photo shows the first, a sing and dance routine.

2011 Apr 11 6th Grade Swing CHoir
The second number was an acapella slow song, very neat.

2011 Apr 11 6th Grade Swing CHoir
The third song was a duet by sisters Hanna and Chloe Mueller. They are super talented and were really appreciated. The 6th Grade Swing Choir is lead by Lorie Wyatt.

2011 Jan 20 Multi Club Mtg With District Governor
On Jan 20, 2011 four local Lions Clubs, Altoona, Bondurant, Mitchellville, and Pleasant Hill met near Bondurant (Griff's RV Park) for a presentation by Lions District 9MC Governor Boyd Sparks. Following a half hour social time, the Bondurant Lions served a great meal. Then Governor Sparks discussed many of the same old issues that face all clubs these days (not just Lions clubs)...recruiting new members, and recruiting younger members.

It was a very very cold night, but we were warmed up by the ornery Bondurant TailTwister. He stole the gavel, then auctioned it off. Luckily for Bondurant, they came up with the $60 it took to retain their own gavel.

The collage of photos shows some of the evening activities.

2011 February Iowa Lion
The photo and description appeared in the February issue of the Iowa Lion magazine.

2011 Feb 14 Valentines Dinner 1
The Altoona Lions enjoyed a nice evening and great meal at Ted & Carol Griffieon's Campgroiund northwest of Altoona. There were 12 couples and several singles that enjoyed the pleasant surroundings and meal. The Sweetheart Couples are: Row 1: Herb & Helen Phillips. Gordon & Nancy Gill. Gordon was just named the Altoona Man of the Year by the Altoona Chamber of Commerce. What a great honor for a great man and great friend. Row 2: Jerry & Faye Harding. Bob & Esther Aalbers. This was Bob & Esther's 60th wedding anniversary. What a joyous occasion for a great couple. Congrats. Row 3: Dennis & Linda Crabtree, Lance Hudson & Michelle Bonner.

2011 Feb 14 Valentines Dinner 2
This is the next set couples photos. The Sweetheart Couples are: Row 1: Ted & Carol Griffieon, owners of the Campsite and hosts for the evening. They provided the facility to our Lions at no cost. A great thanks to them. Row 1 (Cont): Larry & Joyce Lourens. Row 2: Bill & Barb McGrean, Bob & June Stuart. Row 3: Jerry & Joan Nolin. Don & Darlene Townsend.

2011 Feb 14 Valentines Dinner 3
Two more Sweetheart Couples. Row 1. Dick & Denise Green. Bill & Diane Pollard. Row 2 and Row 3 1st photo: shots of the beautiful Park lodge. The last Row 3 photo is of Helen Phillips with the drawing prize she won.

Overall, a great evening.

2011 feb 28 Bailey presents on Senior Care
At the Feb 28 2011 meeting of the Altoona Lions, the guest presenter was Kim Bailey. He and his wife were long time owners/operators of Bailey Cleaners across from HyVee. They sold the business about 3 years ago and have now started a business that offers services to seniors that need a variety of small and/or medium size projects done. Such things as assessing the readiness of a home for a senior that might have become disabled, adding grip bars, preparing meals, providing baths, and all the other things that sometimes are needed but are hard to find anyone to do. They currently employ 18 part time helpers, and have 20 clients, although that number goes up and down often. Their goal is to help seniors be able to stay in their own home, and to provide whatever assistance that might be needed. They have a web site at www.fromtheheartseniorcare.com.

Kim is pictured with Gwen Norris, who was Kim's 5th and 6th grade teacher. Nice reunion. And always nice for ex-teachers to see how well their students have turned out.

2011 Feb 28 Snazy Glasses
One of the International Lions primary ojectives is to help needy people obtain help and/or glasses to assist with their eye-sight.

Just to be clear, the glasses modeled by Margaret Gowin did NOT come the Lions. But doesnt she look....nice.

Nov 8 2010 Lions Meeting
At the Nov 8 Lions meeting, President Bill Pollard showed a DVD movie about the Camp Courageous of Iowa. Our Altoona Lions contributes $200 to this camp each year, as do many other Lions clubs. The camp is in Monticello Iowa, and is for kids and adults with a variety of forms of disablement. Last year over 1,000 disabled Iowans attended this unique camp. The camp was first constructed in 1973 and has been growing each year since.

Also at the meeting, Roger Mahnke read a quiz of questions about places in Iowa, a very interesting discussion. The Lions members are very knowledgeable about the unique places in Iowa.

One more item...the American flag we ordered is here now and will be on display at the HyVee conference room when we have our next meeting hthere.

The Lions Christmas Dinner will be Dec. 13.

The photo shows the Lions watching the Camp Courageous video.

2010 Dec 13 Christmas Dinner Entertainment
The entertainment for the evening was provided by Keith & Joann Lambertsen - Squeezebox Ministries. Keith is shown with the many accordians he brought (about 12?). He gave a short and interesting history of how he acquired each one, then played each. At the end of the performance, Joann joined Keith, singing while Keith played. They provided an entertaining program for the shivering audience. The heater in the Altoona Campus room was not working too well.

2010 Dec 13 Sander Award
Bill Sander is shown receiving his 45 year membership award from Lions Secretary Linda Crabtree.

2010 Dec 13 Altoona Lions Christmas Dinner
The Altoona Lions held our Christmas dinner at the Altoona Campus on Dec 13, 2010. About 60 people attended. The food was excellent, and the conversation and company the best. After the dinner, a few awards were presented. The photo shows Lion Dennis Crabtree receiving a surprise award. Dennis is just totally involved in Lions work and service. He does so many things for so many others, and this award was our way of showing Dennis and his wife Linda how much we appreciate all that he does and all that she does. Somehow this was kept as a surprise to both.

The award is wall cloth picture of a male and female lion made by Bob Stuart. Great job Dennis, and also Linda, and thanks to Bob for making this most appropriate appreciation gift.

2010 Dec 13 Drawing winners
This set of photos shows the winners of the gift drawings. All of the prizes were provided by Bill and Barb McGrean. The winners are: Linda Crabtree, Lois Skinner, Gene Gardner, Sandy Gilkison, Margaret Gowin, Jim Hurley, Marge Sander, Darlene Townsend,Betty Gardner, Larry Lourens, Dennis Crabtree, Joan Nolin, and Kit McDowall (not pictured...bad photo.)

Oct 25 2010 New Member Installation
At the Oct 25 meeting, three new members were installed as Altoona Lions. Shown in the photo are, left to right, Bill Pollard (Altoona Lions President), new members Dale and Jan Hartgraves (sponsor is Dennis Crabtree), new member Gary Garvis (sponsor is Roger Mahnke), Roger Mahnke (Club Treasurer), and Dennis Crabtree (Club Vice President who conducted the installation).

Welcome to all three new members. We are very proud of our Club and the many great projects we support and hope you also will enjoy our Club.

Oct 7 2010 Homecoming Parade
The Altoona Lions had a "float" in the 2010 Southeast Polk Homecoming parade in Altoona. The float was mounted in Gordon Gill's El Camino by Gordon, Duane Auten, Jay Rosenberger, and Kit McDowall. Becky Rosenberger did the touchup painting to change the number of years of service to 63.

The parade was fun and very very long. There were people everywhere, and hundreds of kids, collecting candy. We were towards the end of the parade, so by the time we got to them, almost every kid already had a huge sack of candy. Must have been a great sales week for local candy stores.

Gordon is shown driving the float, and Kit was riding shotgun. Duane Auten is the Lion. The theme for this year's parade was "The Jungle" so our Lion fit right in.

The parade started at 6 pm. Our float passed the starting line at 6:40. Since we were close to the end of the parade, the parade was probably about 50 minutes long. The last half of our route was pretty dark. We are going to suggest that they start earlier next year. It is not very safe having a parade where you cannot see the people lined along the route.

Oct 7 2010 Jungle Play
Since the theme of the SEP Homecoming parade was "the Jungle", there were a lot of jungle animals roaming around. The photo shows one of the Jungle friends our Lion found to play with.

Oct 11 2010 Lions Visit Camp Dodge Museum
On Oct 11 the Lions visited the Camp Dodge Museum. The photos show the presentation room and a few of the items from the evening. Attendance was 19 Lion members, 2 guests from Australia (part of Friendship Force staying with Carr's), and 8 from the Mitchellville Club. Mike Vogt,Director of the Museum, talked about the history and how Camp Dodge originated, the museum history and about the exhibits. There was a gentleman there painting a mural on the wall and that was very interesting watching him do the painting. They are doing some remodeling in the museum. Displays are from families of World War II veterans and whoever wants to donate any old uniforms, etc can do so.

Oct 11 2010 Camp Dodge (Cont.)
The tour included many interesting miliutary items such as the helicopter shown.

Oct 11 2010 Camp Dodge visit (Cont)
Another photo of the museum.

Oct 25 2010 IRIS Presentation
At our Oct. 25 meeeting, Maryfrances Evans, Executive Director of the Iowa ISRS (Iowa Radio Reading Information Service) gave a great overview of the IRIS program and how it works. The following are a few of the items she presented.

The IRIS service is primarily for the blind, but also for anyone that has trouble holding, seeing, or any other consideration where they would need help to hear the local newspaper read. IRIS has many programs that they broadcast. One is reading of the newspaper that is local to where the client lives. There are 7 IRIS offices throughout the state, and each reads whatever paper is most read by their comunity. In addition to reading the newspaper every day, IRIS also carries many programs that they acquire at no cost, such as National Geographic, Money Matters, Smithsonian, Animal watch, and many other segments.

The IRIS broadcasts are primarily carried via an FM "sideband" which requires a special radio that IRIS furnishes. Currently there are 2700 radios in Iowa. However IRIS can also be accessed via the internet at IowaRadioReading.ORG, and there is even a new app for an iPhone to listen to the broadcasts. Clients can also download the broadcasts and listen to them from their computer.

IRIS does all this magic service with only 2 full time staff, plus lots of volunteers. Their total annual budget is about $170,000. The Altoona Lions contributes $200 per year to IRIS. And also, Lion Dennis Crabtree is one of their regular readers, reading for 2 segments a month.

26 Lions attended this great presentation.

Sep 13, 2010 Appreciation Dinner Table 2
See Photo.

Sep 13, 2010 Appreciation Dinner Table 3
See Photo.

Sep 13, 2010 Report on Card making
Professor Donald Q Townsend gave a sterling and captivating presentation on the scientific and mathematical making and costing of spin art cards. He presented many statistics far to complex for the audience (or him) to understand.

As usual, Don had us all laughing for the whole presentation.

Sep 13, 2010 Mahnke Report of Fair Revenues
Lions Treasurer Roger Mahnke presented the financial results of the 2010 State Fair spin art booth. The net profits were a wonderful $8,507. That is about $2,300 more than last year, even though we sold about 3,600 fewer cards. This is due to raising cost per card from $1.00 to $1.50. As usual, Roger presented a detail analysis of the costs and revenues and net profit.

Sep 13, 2010 Appreciation Dinner Table 1
Each year after the State Fair concludes, the Altoona Lions hold an Appreciation Dinner for all the Lions members, spouses, and friends that helped work the booth. It takes over 100 people to man the booth for the 11 days of the fair. And we had over 60 in attendance at the dinner. This photo and the next 2 photos are to show a glimpse of all the attendees as we are about to start the dinner.

Sep 13 ,2010 Warren Coleman award to Phillips
Roger Mahnke presents the Warren Coleman award to Herb Phillips. This award is presented to members in recognition of their contributions to Lionism. Herb has been an Altoona Lions member for an amazing 50 years, and has been involved in so many projects. We all owe Herb a debt of gratitude for all of his long time service to the Lions and to the community.

Sep 13, 2010 Perfect Attendance
Past President Bob Aalbers presents perfect attendance pins to Roger Mahnke (13 years), Jerry Harding (6 years), Linda Crabtree (14 years), Dennis Crabtree (a truly amazing 42 years).

Sep 13, 2010 Long Term Membership Awards
Lions Secretary Linda Crabtree presents long term membership pins to Gordon Gill (57 years), Moe Gilkison (40 years), Herb Phillips 50 years), Roger Mahnke (45 years), Earl Freel (45 years), and Bob Stuart (54 years). Wow, what an amazing base of Lions leaders we have had for so many years.

Sep 13, 2010 Phillips skit
At the 2010 Appreciation dinner, Herb Phillips presented a tongue in cheek set of ideas on how the process could be improved for our card making at Townsends garage. All of the people standing in line were given a "tool" that could help improve the process. For example, Joyce White was given a tiny hand twirled fan that would keep us all cool, Jen Book was given a plumb-bob that could help us keep things straight, Larry Laurens was given an old level that could help keep things on the level, and so on. Herb had us all rolling in the isles.

Sep 13, 2010 Warren Coleman Award for Gilkison
Roger Mahnke presents the Warren Coleman award to Maurice (Moe) Gilkison. This award is presented to LIONS members in recognition of their contributions to Lionism. Moe is a 40 year member of the Altoona Lions and has been involved in so many projects over his years with the Lions. He has been a great asset to the Lions and the community.

Altoona Palooza 2010
The first annual Altoona Palooza was held Aug. 28, 2010. There were a huge number of events during the day's activities. At the Sam Wise soccer field area, there were what looked like over 100 tents where vendors sold their wares, kids could play on about 10 huge inflated "rides", several places to eat, and of course good old Spin Art (the smaller 2 hole version). It sure seemed good to again have our city have an annual celebration where everyone could come out and have a fun time doing whatever suited their fancy. The picture shows Bob Aalbers running the smaller spin art setup. In the photo background you can see some of the many tents and vendor setups.

Overall, a fun day, and we raised a little money.

Sep 27 2010 Meeting
The Altoona Lions held a bi-monthly meeting at the Social Center on Sep 27. Many items of business were discussed. Some of the items are listed below.

The Lions will have a "float" in the SEP Homecoming parade Oct 7. Gill, Rosenberger, Auten and McDowall will convert Gordon's El Camino into a Lion float. Considerable drilling may be required (on the passenger door only).
We will donate $100 to the Iowa Lions flood relief project.
We will participate in the Taste of Altoona event on Oct. 28.
We will purchase a US flag that will reside at the HyVee Conference Room, that we use for meetings on a frequent basis.
From May 2000 through today, the Altoona Lions have tested 4108 pre-school kids in the area for potential eye sight problems, and 106 of those tested have been referred for furthur testing.
The next Lions meting will be at Camp Dodge Museum. Enter through the South gate. We need to be at the Museum at 6:50.

The photo shows some of the meeting attendees. There were 21 present.

Sep 27 2010 New Lion Member Gary Garvis
We have a new Lions Club member, Gary Garvis. Gary transferred from the Eldora Lions Club. Gary and his wife Laurene previously lived in Oskaloosa, but that town does not have a Lions Club. Prior to last year Gary was the Dean at William Penn University in Oskaloosa. They just recently moving to Altoona to help open the new office here in town.

We also have two other new members, Dale and Janice Hartgraves. Dale was at the meeting but Janice could not make it, so their photo will be included later.

Sep 30 2010 Update: Eye Glasses Delivery
Lion Roger Mahnke reported that on Wednesday Sep 29, Jerry Harding, Bob Aalbers and Roger delivered 46 boxes (box size that reams of paper come in) to Pella so that they could be sent to help needy folks wherever...anywhere in the world, and mostly outside the US.

Thirty one boxes were from the Altoona Lions, and Kenny Dean from Pleasant Lions dropped off 15 boxes. The folks at Pella were impressed with the number of glasses they delivered. Thanks to all the volunteers that pick these up around town.

And thanks to the many thoughtful people around town that donated their used glasses for others to use.

With all the crumby news we hear every day, and now the goofy half-true political ads we are blasted with, this is just a breath of fresh air. Nice people helping needy people.

Thanks to everyone.

Aug 9 2010 Fair Setup
Here we go again. It is time for the wonderful Iowa State Fair and for the Altoona ions Spin Art booth. The fair runs Aug 12-22. Our setup night was on Monday Aug 9. About 25 Lions helped with the many things that have to be done to get the booth ready to make about 1,200 cards per day.

Aug 9 Fair Setup Night
The Spin Art setup involves cleaning, hanging the sign, connecting the pods, and considerable sideline coaching. In addition to the many things to be done at the fair on setup night, there are all the things that have been done by Roger Mahnke, Linda Crabtree, Bob Stuart, and many others to get tickets, schedules, calling workers, and dozens of other things. It is of course all so worth while, because all the money we make goes to needy folks in Altoona and around the world. Just helping a kid make a spin art card brings a smile to every Lion's face, because the kid making the card is beaming with joy, and the Lion or Lion friend knows the money is going to do so much good for peole that need it.

2010 State Fair 1
Wow, another great fair. As usual, some hot days, a couple rainy days, and a lotta nice Iowa summer days. And a zillion spin art artists to serve. To pull off this annual feat of making about 10,000 spin art cards in 11 days, it takes about 150 people. Some are Lions members, some are Lion's spouses, many are just great Altoona area friends who know that the money raised goes to great projects in the Altoona area.

This is the first of a few pictures of the spin art booth. John and Maryann Veddar are working, along with two unidentified workers. In this and the following pictures, for those workers I cannot identify, please send me (kit.mcdowall@q.com) info on who is in each picture.

2010 State Fair 2
This is just a typical packed line of happy artists at work designing their masterpiece spin art.

2010 State Fair 3
Jay Rosenberger is just starting his shift. The other worker is unidentified (help). This is the way spin art goes. One minute noone is there. The next minute people are standing in like for a pod.

2010 State Fair 4
Another of those few slow times. I wanted to show this picture to let you see the great annual assistance we get from the Southeast Polk Administrators and teachers. Steve Miller is behind the lady's pony tail. Tom Downs is waving. Do not know the name of the third person (help).

For the past many many years we have always had multiple shifts of SEP Administrators help with the spin art booth.

2010 State Fair 5
This is more typical. People stacked up waiting to paint. The far helper with the white hat is Gary McFarlan (not the customer with the white hat), an Altoona resident and my friend who like many others just likes to help the Lion cause. He is typical of a large number of the booth workers. We so appreciate their help.

2010 State Fair 6
The worker at the far end of the pods is Joy (Mrs Glen) Jordan. She is not a Lion member but helps with the booth, like so many Lions' spouses. Glen is at the other end of the booth. In a busy booth, the workers end up moving from place to place depending on the needs at the time.

The young folks that are working in this photo (sorry I do not have either name) are both (I think) part of Sally Duer's church group. They work the booth every year to earn credits towards their church class goals. These young folks were just wonderful, so professional and helpful. Please send me names.

So there you have a collage of the types of folks that help make this spin art booth work every year. And in the process, many things happen. Feet get very tired. Bodies get extremely hot and sweaty. Other projects at the workers homes get delayed.

But, the workers have a lot of fun seeing the joy of the kids and adults making the cards. Lots of good fellowship takes place.

And most important, over $10,000 is raised to go towards many projects for the Altoona area, for needy people (mostly in Altoona), for the SEP school, and for a wide variety of other projects. If you look through this web site in News and in Upcoming Activities (which is really Past Major Lions Projects) you will see and read a wonderful story of service to the community and beyond.

Thanks so much to everyone that helped.

July 26 2010 Big Birthday With Tiny Cake
Our chief Chef, Jerry Harding, celebrated his 83rd birthday on the work night. We gave him a huge cake with one candle.

July 26 2010 Awards for Recruiting New Members
Four Altoona Lions, Jerry Carr, Roger Mahnke, Bob Aalbers, and Jay Rosenberger were presented pins for each recruiting 2 new Lion members. Also shown are Lion president Bill Pollard (right) and Secretary Linda Crabtree (left). Congratulations to all four. Our club is in a growth spurt and we have lots of new members in the past 3 years.

July 25 2010 Nolin 10 Year Award
Lions Secretary presented a 10 year membership pin to Jerry Nolin. Note that Jerry was previously a Lions member, but moved for several years. So he has been a Lion for many more than 10 years.

July 26 2010 New Member Michelle Bonner
Lion Dennis Crabtree is shown swearing in new Lion Michelle Bonner. Also shown are her sponsor Lance Hudson, and President Bill Pollard. Welcome Michelle.

July 26 2010 work night refreshments
On July 26 the Altoona Lions had the 3rd work night to finish making Spin Art picture frames for the State Fair and for other events. 42 people showed up, again a teriffic turnout. The photo shows many of the ladies that brought the many great things to eat, and have done so at each of the work nights for several years. Note that Earl Freel did not cook anything...he is just borrowing a chair to visit. Each work night we have burgers and brats, plus multiple drinks and lots of salads and deserts. Just wonderful eating. Thanks so much to all that have contributed over the years.

July 12 2010 Work Night at Townsends
We had a great turnout of 41 people at the 2nd work night. We made lots of cards for Spin Art and had great food. There was a short business meeting afterwards. As the photo shows, the group took most of Townsends yard.

June 21 2010 Work Night
On June 21 the Altoona Lions had a work night to make card frames for Spin Art for the State Fair and for Prairie Meadows. The event was again at Townsends garage and yard. The photo shows the card line designed and built by the Altoona Lions and tweaked over the years. Three people at the head of the line feed card stock with a glue strip on the cards. The people on the line then pick the card backs off the line and put a front on them to make a complete spinart picture frame.

June 21 Work Night
This photo shows the head of the line, where the card backs are fed and the glue applied to the cards. One person at the head of the line adds glue to the machine, a second person fluffs the paper to make sure it feeds well, and a third person feeds the paper so that the pieces with glue can be sent down the line. The feeding process is quite demanding. Again, all are custom Altoona Lions invention.

June 21 Work Night
After all the work to make new Spin Art card frames, the workers enjoyed burgers, hotdogs, many great deserts, and drinks. And of course good conversation.

June 21 Work Night
This is a second photo of the workers enjoying food and conversation.

July 21 Work Night
All great meals need a great cook (or several). This photo shows the cooks Jerry Harding, chief cook, Dick Green, and Don Townsend relaxing after all the cooking is done. Don and Darlene Townsend have kindly let the Lions use their garage and yard for many years to build the cards.

July 21 2010 Installation of New Officers
After the card making, eating, and business meeting, Lion Dennis Crabtree conducted the installation of the new officers for the next year that starts July 1. The new officers from left to right are: Bob Aalbers, past President, Bill Pollard, new President, Jen Book, 2nd VP, Dick Green, Lion Tamer, Roger Mahnke, Treasurer, Linda Crabtree Secretary, Doug White, 2 YR Director Jay Rosenberger,1 YR Director, Duane Auten, TailTwister, Dennis Crabtree, 1st VP. Absent were Dan Janssen, 1 YR Director and Steve Moyna, 2 YR Director.

Jul 12 2010 State Award Presented to Dennis Crabtree
Lion Dennis Crabtree was awarded the Ralph A. Whitten Service Award at the Iowa Lions State Convention in Des Moines, June 5, 2010. The award is given to honor Lions who have demonstrated exemplary service and dedication to ideals of Lionism, and is named in honor of Past Lion International Director, Ralph A. Whitten. Altoona Lions President Bob Aalbers nominated Dennis for the award. Only one of these awards is given each year in Iowa.

Please give Dennis your congratulations for this great honor.

July 12 2010 Awards
Lions Secretary Linda Crabtree and President Bill Pollard (left) presented membership awards to Lions Jim Hurley 20 years, Marion Vande Wall 40 years, Jeff Nolin 10 years.

July 12 2010 Der Gluemeister
One of the important jobs in making the Spin Art frames is adding the glue to the magic Lions Spin Art card machine. Larry Lourens is shown adding the glue. The machine then places a small strip of glue to the card backs. The backs with glue are then sent down the line on the belt where Lion members add the card front to the back, and the card frame is finished.

SEP SCIP Day May 7
The annual SCIP Day for Southeast Polk Seniors was May 7, 2010. About 350 students worked on community service projects in the morning and then were treated to a lunch by area Lions clubs. The picture shows a packed shelter house at Thomas Mitchell Park. The Lions cooked burgers and hotdogs,and had other food items (drinks, chips, cookies, etc) for the seniors and SEP staff. About 12 Lions put on the lunch, 8 from Altoona and 4 from Pleasant Hill. The meal cost about $750...$100 from Mitchellville Lions, and the rest split betwen Altoona and Pleasant Hill Lions. Overall a great event to help start young folks in the community service spirit.

April 12, 2010 meeting, presentation by Altoona Chamber
At the Altoona Lions April 12, 2010 meeting at HyVee, Adam Kline, 2010 President of the Altoona Chamber of Commerce, was the guest speaker (see photo to the left). Adam talked about the Chamber activities and projects. They sponsor the Taste of Altoona event each year. They are working with many other organizations to start up the AltoonaPalooza event scheduled for Aug 28. This is an attempt to start again a city wide celebration, much like the Altoona Baloona Fest was in the past.

The Chamber has informal noon meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month, at a varying restaurant. There is a speaker at each, and since the Lions are a Chamber member, any Lions member can attend these meetings. The Chamber sends out the Friday Flash, which Roger Mahnke then forwards to each Lion member. The Altoona Chamber is a member of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, so is joined with about 4000 other businesses. And any Lion can also attend any of these meetings if desired. A link to the Altoona Chamber of Commerce web site can be found in the LINKS tab on this web site.

April 26 2010 meeting: Duane Auten tries to Tame Lions
He tried, but his attempt to fine anyone that did not find a spelling error on the treasurer's report was thwarted by his wife Doni's line "how would you know a spelling error". She got the "line of the night" award.

We do have fun at the meetings, even when there is business to conduct.

Apr 26 meeting, Spin Art Price discussion
At the April 26 meeting, we had multiple business decisions to discuss. The most important one was whether to change the State Fair price of the Spin Art cards. There were valid opinions stated for no change, for a somewhat higher price, and for a much higher price. At the end of the discussion, we voted to change the price to $1.50 per card.

Many other business items were discussed.

There were 24 Lions at the meeting. This picture and the following 2 pictures were taken just because they show nice people having fun while doing Club business.

April 26 meeting photo
Just another nice photo.

April 26 one more photo

April 9 Soup and Supper
The picture to the right shows the food line serving the great food to visitors. The food included a choice of Potato soup or Chili, Toasted Cheese sandwich, relish, and dozens of deserts. Great food.

April 9 Soup Supper
The photo to the right shows one of the tables at the Altoona Fire Station where the Soup and Sandwich supper was held to raise funds for Dollars for Scholars.

This picture was taken early in the evening. Later, all the tables in the Station were full of guests.

The Lions also had Spin Art at the Station for the kids to have fun.

Veddar's Receive Award
At the April 12 and April 26 meetings Lions meeting, Maryann and John Veddar were presented with a awards for their help in distribution of the eye tissues, as part of the EyeSight program. Other Lions received a similar award last winter when Veddars were in the "south".

SCIP Day photo
Lions cooking burgers and dogs for SCIP day.

Cancer Society Relay for Life, Spin Art at SEP May 1 2010
On May 1 the American Cancer Society hosted a Relay for Life at the Southeast Polk track. The Altoona Lions ran the Spin Art booth for the many kids present. There were folks running/walking the track for about 9 hours, along with a silent auction and other attractions for participants.

Also, on May 15 the Lions ran the Spin Art booth for the Asian Festival at the Iowa Capitol.

Lots of great activities in the area, and the Lions are a great helping spirit for the community.

May 10 Meeting; Dennis Crabtree presenting to new members
At the end of the May 10 2010 meeting, Lion Dennis Crabtree gave an overview presentation on Lionism and the many things involved with being a Lion. This presentation was offered by Dennis for the many new members so that they could get an understanding of the Lions history, procedures, and the Altoona Lions specifics. Great job Dennis.

May 10 2010 Meeting; Presentation by Center on Sustainable Communities
At the May 10 meeting, the presenters were Julie Fish and Leslie Berkess. They discussed information from the Iowa Center on Sustainable Communities (COSC). The COSC provides plannning and information assistance to individuals, groups, and communities on "green" techniques for building new homes or remodelling homes. The information they presented and much more can be seen at www.icosc.com. They discussed many types of non-standard materials and approaches that can both lower the cost of a home and make the home more in line with self sustaining (green) principles.

Jan 11 2010 Meeting With Dist Governor
On Jan. 11, 2010, the Altoona Lions hosted the Lions District Governor, Jerry Roland and his wife Michelle. Also present were Steve Halstead, District Foundation, Terry Dean, Zone Chair Director, and Mary Halstead, LCIF, and Gary Fry, State Lions Secretary and Past International Director. Our guests included members of the Runnells, Mitchellville, and Pleasant Hill Lions Clubs. We had a dinner of sandwiches and soup. Then Governor Roland discussed the status of the district, membership considerations and retention considerations. He also thanked all the people that were involved with driving the eye tissues to Iowa City.

He mentioned also that the Lions International club is the only worldwide organization that has been allowed to form clubs in China, which is to a great extent because of the work of 2nd International VP Dr. Tam.

The three photos show the Lions that were present.

Jan 11 Meeting Photo
This Photo is also from the Jan 11 meeting.

Not related to the meeting on Jan 11, Lion Don Townsend mentioned that he and Darlene have friends in England that visited them in Iowa, and they met several of the Lions members while they were here. Don said that they regularly view this web site and keep track of what our Altoona Lions are doing.

So when you are at a Lions meeting, better behave, because you are being watched all around the world.

Pretty neat stuff.

Jan 11 Meeting Photo
Another photo from the Jan 11 meeting.

Feb 22 Meeting; Bruce Mason Speaker
Well the snow has caused cancellation of many central Iowa events this winter, including the last 2 Lions meetings. We finally got to meet on Feb 22, with 22 Lions in attendance. Bruce Mason, Director of the Altoona Campus Facility was the guest speaker. Before he talked about the Campus, he talked about his “night job”. He is Assistant Director for managing the women’s basketball officials for several college conferences including the Big 10, Big 12, Missouri Valley, Horizon, Summit, and others. He is responsible for all things that have to do with officials, including hiring, scheduling, reviewing complaints, etc. It was a very interesting discussion with many questions. I think we could have talked for a couple hours on this subject, since we are all such great referee critics, but the main subject was the Campus.

Bruce is Director of the Altoona Campus Facility. It has an annual budget of $3.3 million, employs about 250 staff, and has about 8100 members. The Campus offers many programs for all age groups. Bruce discussed both the current offerings and some of the short and long range plans. One of the possible future new projects is an elevated track, but that is not firm yet. The Campus has a nice brochure that describes the various programs, and also a web site at www.altoonacampus.com.

The photo shows Bruce during his presentation.

Feb 22 2010 Our Lions Flag; and a Great Poem
At the Feb 22 2010 Altoona Lions meeting, Secretary Linda Crabtree read a letter from the Past Lions International Director congratulating our Lions Club for our club membership retention and additions during 2009. During that year we had 11 new Lions members. Hooray…we are so so happy to have all of the new members to join our quest in service to our Altoona and Southeast Polk community and beyond.

The photo shows our Altoona Lions Flag. There are two new patches on the flag, on the upper left and lower right. Both are for achieving membership goals.

On a different subject, as all of you know, one of the major goals of the Lions everywhere is to enhance eyesight, in many ways. One way that each of us individually can help others with eyesight issues is to become an organ donor, and thus offer the possibility that your eyes could possibly be used after you pass away for someone with eyesight problems.

Lion Margaret Gowin found the following beautiful poem that describes that joy one can gain from offering such a gift to others. Please read this poem a couple times. It is so great. If you are not now an organ donor, maybe this poem might cause you to reconsider.

A Gift, by Mrs. Katherine Johns

I leave to one- I know not who
The right to see and live anew.
I will not need the sight I give
For I will have another place to live.

I cannot leave a thought, a dream-
Only the chance to see a beam
Of light that touches each new day
And a chance to find “a way”.

I cannot help, or touch a hand
Or point to wonders of this land.
I only leave a chance to see
Because I gave a part of me.

Know not the donor – nor the name –
It makes no difference whence it came
Just us it well for all mankind,
For now you see, who once was blind.

And I shall watch from where I live
To see you use the gift I give
To fight for truth, deny the lies –
For no one really dies who gives his eyes

Mar 8 2010 Award to Lion Bob Aalbers
The photo shows Lions Secretary Linda Crabtree presenting current President Bob Aalbers with an award for recruiting three new Lions members.

The officers for the next year, which starts July 1, were announced. The new officers will be as follows:

President Bill Pollard
1ST VP Dennis Crabtree
2nd VP Jen Book
Secretary Linda Crabtree
Treasurer Roger Mahnke
Tail Twister Duane Auten
Lion Tamer Dick Green
1 Yr Directors Jerry Carr, Eugene Gardner
2 Yr Director Doug White, Steve Moyna

Mar 8, 2010 Presentation on Neil Smith Wild Life Refuge
The March 8, 2010 meeting of the Altoona Lions Club was held at the HyVee conference room, preceded by a buy your own meal. The guest speaker was Ranger Al Murray representing the Neil Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City. The Refuge, visitor’s center, and animal care are under the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Mr. Murray, shown in the photo, gave a very interesting presentation about the Refuge and the various programs it runs. There were about 25 members present.

Nov 9 Meeting at HyVee
The November 9 meeting of the Altoona Lions was held at HyVewe, with a BYOF (buy your own food) buffet before the meeting.

The speaker for the meeting was Aaron Putnbam of the Altoona Public Works Dept. He showed diagrams and discussed the upcoming changes to the Hubbell Av / I80 interchange. While the project is paid for and managed by the Iowa DOT, the City of Altoona coordinates with them on the project.

Aaron also showed a diagram of the planned area around the new HyVee, with a pond and a wetland area, and other neat features.

Aaron is shown in the photo to the left.

On a different subject, we have thanked the tireless Lions that do the eye testing for pre-school children many times. We also need to thank the Lions that help with Relay Tissue Transport, the service that transports the eye tissue from the eye tests to Iowa City for analysis. Pickup points for the tissue are are in Ames and Des Moines. Someone brings the tissue from Ames and one of our Lions meets them in Ankeny or whenever they decide and our Lions pickup in Des Moines, if there is any to pick up. Then we transport the tissue to Grinnell and meet someone there who takes it on to Iowa City.

The following Lions have been doing the Relay Tissue Transport: Herb & Helen Phillips, John & MaryAnn Vedder, Jay Rosenberger, and Dennis Crabtree. For the months of July, August and September, they have logged a total of 1253 miles.

And on a third subject, two new members were inducted as Altoona Lions: Lance & Elizabeth Hudson. A photo of them will be included later. Welcome Lance and Elizabeth.

Lion Gordon Gill on Flight to DC
At the Nov 9 Lions meeting, long time Lion Gordon Gill described his trip to the World War II Memorial in Washington DC. This trip (as well as others) were sponsored by HyVee and Caseys and were done to honor the courageous soldiers that fought in World War II. Gordon described the full day of sight seeing that had been arranged for them, including all of the war monuments and Arlington Cemetery.

Gordon was assigned to the Germany area during the war and fought in the infamous Battle of the Bulge.

We had a show of hands at the meeting (32 in attendance) and there were 12 that had served in the armed forces.

We thank Gordon and all of the brave soldiers that helped protect our way of life.

Lions Christmas Dinner 2009
The Altoona Lions enjoyed a very nice, fun, and relaxing Christmas dinner at the Altoona Campus on December 14, 2009. There were about 42 people in attendance, smaller than usual due to the extremely cold weather. Good old Iowa. The photo shows the Lions enjoying the wonderful meal, ans also shows the serving line to the left side.

Christmas Dinner Entertainment
The entertainbment for the evening was provided by Julie Kay Moss jkmoss@ecity.net. She sang and played many beautiful Christmas songs in her Acoustic Country Gospel Music style. I think all would agree that she was one of the best entertainers we have had for our Christmas dinners.

Drawings For Prizes
There were several winers of a drawing for prizes.

The one gift basket was donated by Bill Pollard. He had won this at
the District Convention back in November.

Several other gifts that were handed out were donated by Barb and Bill Mc
Grean.

The photo shows Joan Nolin with the prize she won.

We had a Santa family that handed Roger a $100 check toward our vision
testing and helping those in need of glasses. This couple had also
given us a $100 check a few moons back. They want to remain anonymous.

As always, everyone in attendance brought food to be donated to the Altoona Food Bank.

Drawing Winner Xmas 2009
Sally Duer was one of the drawing winners.

Drawing Winner Xmas 2009
Joyce Lourens was also a drawing winner.

Drawing winner Xmas 2009
Linda Crabtree was a winner.

Drawing Winner Xmas 2009
And Bob Stuart was a drawing winner.

Last Drawing Winner Xmas 2009
Millie McDowall won a beautiful hand made wooden car, made by Bill McGrean. What a great craftsman he is.

Millie has decided to donate the car to next year's SEP Dollars for Scholars auction.

Millie got the idea from Jerry and Joan Nolin. They won a similar car at last year's Lions Xmas drawing and they donated it to the Dollars for Scholars auction. It sold for $100.

Lions Win Growth Award
The Altoona Lions have had many wonderful new members join our Club in the past year. As a result, the Altoona Lions Club was presented with an award by the national Lions for meeting the membership recruiting goals of the Year-Round Growth program. Secretary Linda Crabtree is shown presenting the award to 2008-2009 Lions President Barb McGrean.

Where Is The Missing Lion???
One of the age-old customs of the Lions Clubs is that the Lion Tamer (Duane Auten for this year) carries a Gold Lion Bank to collect "fines" for whatever silly penalty they think of. And another custom is for Lions members to try to steal the Gold Lion Bank.

At the 2009 Christmas party, Duane left the Gold Lion in it's green bag on his seat when he went to pick up his food. And of course the green bag disappeared for most of the evening, until it was presented as a gift to our singing guest. Of course this drew a great laugh from everyone.

Duane The Ornery
Of course Duane was setting us up. He left the bag in his chair, but it had a rock in it and not the Gold Lion Bank. I think we have the right guy for tail Twister.

Sep 14 Award for Yard Work
Duane Auten is shown presenting a plaque to Roger Mahnke for his magic weed control in his yard.

Seems like ole Rog used Roundup to kill some weeds and got a little grass with the weeds.

Maybe the Lions could have a yard weed cleanup project, since Roger is so fast at killing weeds???

Sep14 Award Harding
Altoona Lions President Bob Aalbers presents a 5 year perfect attendance award to Jerry Harding

Sep 14 Award Linda
President Bob Aalbers presents a 13 year perfect attendance pin to Linda Crabtree.

Sep 13 Award Roger
President Bob Aalbers presents a 12 year perfect attendance pin to Roger Mahnke.

Sep 14 award Dennis
President Bob Aalbers presents a perfect attendance pin to Dennis Crabtree. Dennis has had perfect attendance for an amazing 41 years. Dennis has dedicated much of his adult life to Lionism.

Sep 28 Mike Warren Presentation on WW II
The Sep 28 meeting of the Altoona Lions was held at HyVee, with a buy-your-own dinner and eat in the upstairs conference room.

The guest speakers were Mike Warren, presenting a power point presentation on the places that he and his family and Ed have visited recently. And then Ed presented on the the planes he flew in World War II. They were very interesting presentations, enjoyed by all.

About 35 Lions members/guests attended.

Sep 14 Warren Coleman Award
Lions President presented Kit Mcdowall with the Warren Coleman award. This award is presented to members in recognition of their contributions to Lionism. Kit established this Altoona Lions Web Site and does the regular updates to the web site. He has also been involved in many other Lions projects over the years, and is a past Altoona Lions President.

Sep14 Guest Gift
For a number of years the lady that has a booth next to our Lions Spin Art booth, Jean Goheen, has baked a cake for us on the Monday prior to fair, and brings it to us when we
are setting up the booth. This past year she had baked two cakes,
brought some lemonade, plates, etc. The last day of the fair she came
in with another chocolate cake for us. Since Karr, Don and Roger closed up that night,
we had cake. But she did not come back to get her pan.

The Lions invited her to the Sep 14 dinner, and gave her a "gift", the pan that she delivered her eats on.

Sep 14 Happy Anniversary
Bill and Barb McGrean had a really wild 41st Anniversary celebration. They came to the Lions State Fair celebration dinner.

However Bill would not let us congratulate them until 8:00 p.m., the time they were married.

Happy Anniversary. Thanks for joining us on your important date.

Sep14 State Fair Celebration Dinner
On September 14, 2009, the Altoona Lions gathered for a catered dinner at the Altoona Campus. About 60 people were in attendance. Most attendees helped work the State Fair Spin Art booth, which was again a tremendous success. Roger Mahnke presented a summary of the financial results of the Fair booth, and also the projected Lions budget for this fiscal year. The State Fair booth had a gross income this year of $12,816 and net revenue of $6,561.

Sept 2009 Homecoming Parade
The Southeast Polk homecoming parade was held Sept 24 in Altoona. The Lions prepared a "float" and showed it in the parade. The accompanying pictures show the float. The signs were made by Lions members years ago, and were touched up this year by Jay R., Gordon G., and Kit M. Dick Green also helped us mount the sign structure in Gordon's cool El Camino.

The parade was very long. The parade started at 6 p.m., and by the time our float got to the starting point, it was 6:25. It ended at 7:15. Gil and Kit rode in the El Camino, throwing out candy and waving to and greeting Altoona citizens. There was a great turnout for the parade. Adults and kids were around the entire parade route.

I heard the following things that I thought you would be interested in:

1. Nice car, cool wheels, great El Camino. Seems lots of people loved Gordon's vehicle.
2. "Those guys are the Lions. They do great stuff." I heard things like
this maybe 10 times. They really made me feel good.
3. "Thanks". Many kids said thanks when they got some candy. Very good stuff.

Sep 2009 Homecoming Parade Float
This is the back of the Lions Homecoming float. Becky Rosenberger made this several years ago.

June 8, 2009 Lions Visit Altoona Historical Society Museum
The bi-monthly meeting of the Altoona Lions Club was held at the Altoona Historical Society Museum. Details of the museum can be found on their web site at http://www.altoonahistory.org/

Tim & Diane Burget and Helen Blaney gave a brief history of Altoona, the purpose of the Historical Society and their goals. We toured the building and Helen Blaney gave history on several old articles, such as the elevator, floors in the building, old cash register, military uniforms, old farm tools and others too numerous to mention. It was a very interesting tour/presentation.

They asked if anyone had any old pictures or antiques they would like to donate, they would be happy to have them.

On May 5, 2003, the Altoona City Council recognized the Altoona Area Historical Society as the City's official organization to collect, secure, and preserve the artifacts and records of the City of Altoona and surrounding area.

Goals of the Altoona Area Historical Society are to create an Altoona Are Historical Musuem and to educate citizens about our local history.

Membership in the Society is open to anyone in the Altoona Area committed to preserving the area's history.

Aug 10 2009 And the State Fair starts again
Here we go again. 13 Wonderful days of full time fun running the Altoona Lions Spin Art booth. The tired feet and hot faces are quickly replaced by the smiling faces of all the kids (big kids and small kids).

As you all know, the Spin Art booth takes lots of work. It starts each year on the Monday before Fair opening, like this week. The picture shows part of the Lions that came to help with setup of the booth.

Aug 10 State Fair setup
About 13 Altoona Lions showed up to help set up the Spin Art booth for the Fair. Before the Fair is done, about 150 people, Lions members and friends, will have worked the booth.

This is an early THANK YOU to everyone that helps out with this great operation. The proceeds go to finance so many wonderful projects. You should all be so proud of how much you are helping so many needy folks in the Altona area. Try to think about that when your feet get especially hot and tired.

And now, On To The Fair 2009.

State Fair Daily Setup
The Spin Art Booth does not just magically get ready for each State Fair day by itself. Each morning of each fair, Roger Mahnke and whoever he can recruit go to the booth about 7:30 a.m. to make sure the booth is clean and set up appropriately. Roger also then goes to the Fair Adnmin Office to turn in the previous day's receipts. In This photo, Larry Lourens is helping Roger. Roger has been doing this for every fair since 1992.

Fair 2009 Aprons
Last winter the Lions voted to get new aprons for the booth workers. Jerry Carr and Bill Pollard are modelling the aprons in this photo. Nice advertising for the Altoona Lions. You sure look nice guys

Fair 09
Well, another State Fair is over. The revenues were a little below last year, but that is to be expected based on the attendance and the economy.

Many many thanks to the 150+ people that helped work the booth. We encourage each of you to please take a look at the Altoona Lions annual budget (will be available at the Lions Steak Dinner) and see where the Lions revenues go, and you will then know that your help will do great good for many area needy families.

Thanks thanks thanks.

Fair 09 Busy Booth
This is a typical busy Spin Art Booth. Check any time during the fair each year and chances are you will see something like this.

June 22 Installation of New Lions Officers
At the June 22 meeting of the Altoona Lions club, held at the HyVee Meeting Room, the new Club officers were installed. In the photo to the right, Dennis Crabtree is conducting the Installation process. The new officers, from left to right, are: Kit McDowall, Lion Tamer, Roger Mahnke, Treasurer, Barb McGrean, Past President, Bob Aalbers, President, Dennis Crabtree, 2nd Vice President, Linda Crabtree, Secretary, Duane Auten, Lion Twister, Bill Pollard, 1st Vice President, Eugene Gardner, 1 Year Director, Jay Rosenberger, 2 Year Director. Missing is Dan Janssen, 2 Year Director.

June 22 Bi-Monthly Meeting
The June 22 bi-monthly meeting of the Altoona lions Club was held at the HyVee Conference Room. Each Lion purchased their own meal at the HyVee Deli and we ate as a group in the Conference room. Spouses of Lions members were invited to the meeting. The attendance was 38.

July 13 Polly Antonelli 15 year pin
At the July 13 work night, Polly Antonelli was awarded the 15 year pin.

July 27 Work Night
We all helped old man Jerry Harding celebrate his 97th birthday. Actually, it was his 6X birthday and Jerry is one of our great cooks, always manning the grill or some part of the cooking process at all such outings. Thanks also to Bill Pollard for also cooking. We had lots of great stuff to eat at, as at all work nights. Burgers, chcken sandwiches, mellon, cookies, brownies, pop, and much more.

July 27 2009 Work Night at Townsends
Wow. About 55 Lions and friends showed up to help make spin art cards for the State Fair and other events. This picture shows the card line (in Don Townsend's new barn), where the cards have glue added, and are sent down the "belt line". Workers grab a card and press it to the other side of the card. Walla...the card is made and for cheapo price. Super engineering and years of tweaking. All to let kids have a great time splashing paint on a card to show their creativity, and for the Lions to collect money for great community service projects. This great Spin Art machine brings in about $12,000+ every year (net) and that in turn supports many many worthwhile service projects.

July 27 Awards
At the July 27 Work Night, Lions Secretary Linda Crabtree presented the following awards:

10 year pin to Kit McDowall
Past President pin to Barb McGrean
President Pin to Bob Aalbers

Mar 10 2008 Runnells Lions Host 3 Lions Clubs and Dist Gov
On March 10 the Runnells Lions hosted the Lions Clubs from Altoona, Mitchellville, and Pleasant Hill for a potato bar dinner. The guest speakers for the meeting were Lions District Governor Randy Kirkbride from the Ankeny Club and Vice District Governor Jerry Roland from the East Des Moines Club.

Both discussed their history, interests, and passions with Lions.

You can read more about Randy and the District staff at http://www.iowalions.org/cgi-bin/districtinfo.pl?5~3

See www.iowalions.org for info on all of the State of Iowa Lions Districts.

Apr 27 Don Townsend Receives Melvin Jones Award
At the April 27 Lions Club meeting, Don Townsend was presented with the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. This is the highest award given by the International Lions. The award is named after the International Lions Club founder.

In the photo, Altoona Lions President Barb McGrean is presenting the award to Don as Lions Vice District Governor Jerry Roland watches.

Mar 23 Townsend 45 Year Pin
March 23 Altoona Lions Club President Barb McGrean and Secretary Linda Crabtree present a 45 year pin to Lion Don Townsend.

May 11, Shelly Heimer presents on Leader Dogs
At the May 11 meeting of the Altoona Lions club, Shelly Heimer, spokeswoman for Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota presented on her experience with Leader Dogs. Shelly also brought her friend, a beautiful black lab Leader Dog. Shelly is the daughter of Moe & Sandy Gilkison.

May 1 SCIP Day
The photo to the left shows Altoona Lions Jay Rosenberger and Don Townsend and Lions Vice District Governor Jerry Roland cooking the food and inhaling lots of smoke.

Thanks to all Altoona Lions members that helped make this a successful SCIP day for the seniors.