Lions Clubs of Montana

Greetings Lions of Montana:

International First Vice President Dr. Jung-Yul Choi and his wife Lion Seong-Bok Yang will visit Montana District 37 May 14-16. They wish to visit with as many Lions as possible during their stay. Our guests will arrive at the Bozeman Yellowstone International airport on May 14 at 4:50pm. A welcoming party will meet them at the airport.

Headquarters for the event will be the Element Hotel, 25 East Mendenhall, in downtown Bozeman. A meet and greet reception with hors d’oeuvres sponsored by the Montana Lions District 37 Friendship Committee will be held from 6:30pm to 8:00pm for the four Bozeman area Lions Clubs and all out of town Lions. Please RSVP to Lion Ben Apeland at benjamin@montana.com or 406-595-0102 no later than May 11^th.

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Friday night auction raised over $5,000 for the Montana Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation.

Saturday’s Parade of Green raised $26,289.02 for distribtion to authorized projects.

Presentations were made on behalf of many activities including:

• MT Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation
• MT Association of the Blind
• Leader Dog
• Plusoptix Eye Screening
• Lions/MT School for the Deaf and Blind Reader Project
• Lions Sight for Life
• Lions Clubs International Foundation
• NAMI – a new membership and Lions clubs growth initiative.
• Questions and answers about Lions International.

Entertainment was provided by a local band, school choir, and a cowboy poet.

PCC Ben Apeland

Ben was officially endorsed by the District 37 Convention to be a candidate for International Director.

Prodiji Connect reader

Hey Lions! The first 25 magnifying readers for vision impaired students have been delivered and are being used! The machines are part of a lending library at the Montana School fot the Deaf and Blind where specialized equipment is made available for students.

The program is now fully funded so the goal of 100 machines has been met. More machines are in the process of being manufactured (the supplier custom crafts each machine). This is a significant success story for readers and Lions that are continuing to meet the need. Our work is not done yet.

Save the date of September 27-28 for the Forum in Helena. Information will be available as plans ate developed.

The Convention opened with training, tours, and other events on Friday, April 26. The evening was a fun gathering with auction benefiting the Montana Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation.

Sidney Leos plant a linden tree as part of the convention as an Arbor Day event.

Friday social and auction.

Register before the end of April and save. Click on “Sidney Convention” in banner above for the convention information package. The registration form is at the end of the document.

A complete package of convention information is now available. It has been distributed to clubs and is also available HERE. Included in the package is venue locations, speakers, schedule, info on hotels and local attractions and the most important registration form (last page of the packet).

Register today and be part of what looks to be a great and informative convention! And thanks to the Sidney Lions for a great effort!

NOTE: the following phone numbers for lodging were corrected in the original packet:

Click HERE to open a copy of the newsletter.

To the Lions of Montana District 37.

We have received word that Lion Pat Witzel, Spouse and Companion in Service of PDG Ted Witzel of the Kalispell Lions Club,  passed away Sunday, January 10.  Services have been scheduled for Wednesday, January 16, 11:00am, at Michelotti-Sawyers Funeral Home, 1001 Alderson Ave., Billings, Montana.  PDG Ted and Lion Pat represented District A on the Multiple District 37 Council of Governors during the Lionistic year 1969-1970. Lion Pat’s obituary is available at michelottisawyers.com/patricia-ann-larson-witzel/

She will be greatly missed by the Kalispell Lions Club.

Respectfully submitted, PCC Lion Ben

Click HERE to open a copy of the newsletter. Print it and share with others in your club.

Click here to open the December newsletter.

PDG Andy Black of the Billing Heights Lions Club passed away November 17. Continue reading →

Click here to open a copy of the newsletter. Be sure to print a copy and take it to your next club meeting to share with others.

Dr. Hill getting some lunch at the 2016 Montana Lions Forum.

Following the official Endorsement of Dr. Patti Hill by the International Board of Directors, Dr. Patti Hill’s campaign began Sept. 7-9 at the ANZI Pacific Forum in New Zealand. During this Forum she met with Lions members from New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia and the Pacific region. She obtained several endorsements in her favor for Milan.

Click here to open a copy of Patti’s newsletter.

See menu item in the banner above.

Some of our Instructors & Attendes; from left to right Lions;
Sara DeCock, Tracy Guenther, Dela Chatraind, Angela Wintrow, DG Dennis Kopitzke, PDG George Chenoweth, and Lion Charlene Willett-
and her faith companion in training.

The 2018 Montana Lions Leadership Retreat was held October 5th & 6th in Butte. The tallies are in and according to the evaluations, it was a great success. The clubs represented at this event came from Butte, Bozeman, Coutts-Sweet grass, Helena and Townsend.

On Friday evening, our own District Governor Dennis Kopitzke spoke to the leadership trainees regarding his goals and vision for our district. We had a great Pasty dinner via arrangement by Lion Kerry Sewell (Dillion), live entertainment provided by The Ruby Range Band, and PCC Ben Apeland, hosted the PDG Hospitality bar! We also raised $100 for the MLSHF through pin sales thanks to PCC Apeland.

Our Saturday morning speaker was none other than Former Coach Bob Green from Butte. Needless to say, he inspired us all speaking on “Team Leadership”.

Our Saturday morning speaker was none other than Former Coach Bob Green from Butte. Needless to say, he inspired us all speaking on “Team Leadership”.

The committee is most appreciative to IPID Lary Garrison, our moderator, who was invaluable for keeping things flowing smoothly; PID  Dave Hajny for sharing his wisdom in Conflict Resolution; PCC Ben Apeland for sharing information about Pin Collecting and how it relates to the Friendship Committee; PDG Steve Hadnagy for dropping in and sharing his support; and last, but certainly not least, District Governor, Dennis Kopitzke, who after much travel during the week, lent his support, approval and leadership for this event.

The purpose of such training session is to inspire District 37 Lions toward leadership – this one yielded a Zone Chair Person, Lion Dela Chatriand, (Townsend) and next year’s Cabinet Secretary Lion Peggy Tobin,    (Coutts – Sweet Grass). Lion Dela will take the lead in organizing the 2019 Retreat in Big Sky.

Thanks for all you do for MONTANA LIONS!

Below is a list of endorsed projects as of the October 13, 2018, Cabinet Meeting. The sponsoring Lion and their email follow each project as well as any links to associated information. Look for more details on these projects on this site in the near future.

• American Diabetes Association – Montana Chapter  – 2nd VDG Mike Collins; mikeaollins@bresnan.net; www.diabetes.org
• Florence Crittenton Home (Helena) – Lion Danielle Vincent; craftycpa@gmail.com; www.florencecrittenton.org
• Leader Dogs for the Blind – PDG Jim Johnke, jrjohnke@gmail.com; www.lionsclubs.org/leaderdog
• LCIF –  PDG Monte Weisser; 533 West Arizona; Kalispell, 59901; 756-8528; monte014@gmail.com; www.lcif.org
• Lions Gift of Sight, – PDG Dan Sturdevant; sturdydan@gmail.com; www.opthalmology.umn.edu
• Montana School for Deaf & Blind Children Reader Project – PDG Jack Beckman; jtbeckman@bresnan.net
• Montana Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation  – Lion Jessica Falcon; lion.jfalcon@gmail.com; www.mtlionsshfnd.org
• Ronald McDonald House (Billings & Missoula) – PDG George Chenoweth;  osugeorge@gmail.com; www.rmhc.org/missionandvision
• Women’s Resource Center  – 1st VDG Verna Love; vprosgroup@hotmail.com

Click here to open a copy of the newsletter.

The Lions of Constitutional Area 1 (USA, Bermuda, Bahamas and the Islands of the Caribbean) are off to a great start. Since July 1, we have served more than 5.3 million people. Give yourself a pat on the back. Unfortunately, the needs of those in our communities continue to grow.

How can we improve and do more?

• Make sure that all service projects are properly reported by the Club Service Chair (CSC) or Club Secretary. Click here to listen to our recent webinar, which explained why reporting is important.
• Work with service project committees to ensure that at least four hands-on service projects per year are completed.
• Monitor member engagement in service activities. Members who are engaged have a more valuable experience and tend to remain Lions.
• Give members an opportunity to develop leadership skills by asking different Lions to lead service projects on an annual basis.

Many Montana Lions Clubs assist Special Olympics through donations and projects for local/regional/state games. Lions Clubs International awarded an 8.8 million dollar grant to Special Olympics this past July as part of Lion’s ongoing commitment.

LCI and LCIF have been one of the Special Olympics movement’s largest and most active Global Partners since 2001, providing support to Special Olympics – Lions Clubs International Opening Eyes, as well as key initiatives such as the Special Olympics Unified Sports program, Special Olympics Family Health Forums, the Special Olympics Leadership Academy, and the ongoing shared commitment to full youth empowerment and activation.

Click this link to open a copy of the newsletter. The newsletter includes registration form for the upcoming Forum!