Plusoptix – Lion David Falcon – May 2026
District 37 PlusOptix Update
Hello Lions:
PlusOptix has recently released the new S20 screening devices, and we’d like to see if your club would be interested in upgrading. Your current S12 machines will remain under warranty for the next 10 years. After that period, any repairs would be at the club’s full expense. The approximate cost of the S20 is $7,500. PlusOptix has offered a $750 rebate for your S12 in the past.
I will be attending a PlusOptix seminar this summer and hope to bring a total number of clubs that would like to upgrade to the S20 machines. This may allow us to explore potential group pricing or additional incentives.
We are also going to look into getting another grant to help with the cost of new machines.
If your club is interested in upgrading, please reply back to me no later than June 1, 2026.
PlusOptix screening totals for school year September 2025 to June 2026 – 34,206 students screened with 4,072 refers through April 2026.
Thank you,
Lion David Falcon, District 37 PlusOptix Chair
314 9th St. W., Kalispell, MT 59901; C. 406-253-1726: [email protected]
By PlusOptix CoordinatorSpecial Notices – May 2026
For Club Secretaries
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ALL LIONS CLUBS OFFICERS FOR THE 2026-27 YEAR MUST BE REPORTED TO LCI EVEN IF NONE OF YOUR OFFICERS HAVE CHANGED! THERE ARE TWO METHODS AVAILABLE FOR COMPLETING THIS TASK.
1. Log into the Lion Portal and complete the process online (see the short Lion Portal video on montanalions.org – “Club Management – How to Assign an Officer”).
2. Complete a paper PU101 document available at montanalions.org and send it via email or regular mail to the district secretary, Peggy Tobin, at [email protected] or PO Box 408, Sunburst MT 59482
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS PROCESS, PLEASE CALL PEGGY TOBIN AT 406-461-4206!!
For Club Treasurers
Please remember that all Lions clubs with annual gross receipts less than US$50,000 that are not required to file Forms 990 or 990-EZ must file the e-Postcard (also known as the 990-N). Please be advised this filing relates specifically to the 501(c)(4). If your Lions club has a foundation, which is a separate legal entity, the appropriate form will need to be filed as well. If you are unfamiliar with this process, please see the short video noted below.
District 37 Club Officer Training Videos
These videos are all accessible via the district website, www.montanalions.org under “Training/Resources”:
- All Club officers: Trainer PDG Mike Collins
- Club President: Trainer PDG Mike Tobin
- Club Secretary: Trainer Lion Peggy Tobin
- Club Treasurer: Trainer PDG Mike Collins
Short videos about how to do specific secretary or treasurer tasks:
Filing your 990-N (e-Postcard) (9 minutes)
With the release of the new LionPortal, we have added links to some of the short videos provided by LCI (please note that these were recorded prior to updates that have made changes to the “look” of the pages – but the blue boxes are still there:
Newsletter Information
Any Lions club member can submit information associated with any type of Lions project or general club information. You can submit Club News ANYTIME! You are also welcome to email your news (hopefully with photo) to: Lion Peggy Tobin at [email protected].
Website Updates
In Addition to the “Tri-Fold Generator” for clubs to create their own club brochures, additional documents have been added including Leo Application forms and Club Service Project Ideas. If you have trouble finding a resource and it’s not currently available on the website, please contact Peggy Tobin at [email protected] or call 406-461-4206.
Free Club Websites!
The club-level website is still being offered by Montana District 37 at NO COST! If you don’t already have a domain name, Deanna can provide one for a cost of $20/year after the first year. If you are interested in getting a website for your club, please contact Peggy Tobin at [email protected] or call 406-461-4206.
By Lion Peggy TobinDates to Remember – May 2026
MAY CLUB ANNIVERSARIES
520 years of service!!!
Helena – 05/03/1933 – 93 years
Kalispell – 05/04/1942
Chinook – 05/05/1925 –101 years!
Scobey – 05/18/1936 – 90 years
Deer Lodge – 05/22/1984
Great Falls Sunrise – 05/25/1966
Laurel – 05/25/1976
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
UPCOMING DISTRICT MEETING DATES
MT Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation – July 12, 2026 @ 10:00 at the MT School for the Deaf and the Blind, Great Falls, MT
District Cabinet Meeting – July 12, 2026 @ noon at the MT School for the Deaf and the Blind, Great Falls, MT LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED
LIONS CLUB INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION SCHEDULE
2026 Hong Kong – Jul 3-7
2027 Washington DC – July 2-6
2028 Singapore -June 23-27
2029 Minneapolis, MN
2030 San Antonio TX
2031 – Helsinki Finland
UPCOMING USA/CANADA FORUMS
USA/CANADA LIONS LEADERSHIP FORUMS CAN BE RELATED TO ALL AREAS OF YOUR LIFE – NOT JUST LIONS
2026 Memphis TN – September 3 – 5
2027 Huntsville, AB – September 16-18
2028 Grand Rapids, MI – To be announced
2029 Shreveport, LA – To be announced
Kalispell Sunrisers Lions at the 2026 District Convention
April 17th and18th was the Montana Lions State convention held in Columbia Falls. It was attended by large and small cities across the state with 150 Lions and guests attending. The meeting was very educational with classes for officers, and presentations from many Lions promoting humanitarian organizations.
We heard from Leader Dog’s for the Blind, who have served 80 clients in Montana, MT Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation have covered 49 patients with hearing aids plus some Cataract surgeries. We also learned from the School for the Deaf and the Blind in Great Falls that have 1,500 students in the state. Miss Montana, Haley Joy Tate, and Miss Teen Montana from Kalispell spoke about their passion for Chicks in Chaps, a breast cancer financial help group. There were many more learning experiences.
Next year, the convention will be in Choteau MT. The International Lions Clubs are the largest humanitarian organization in the world, with USA having the 3rd most members following Japan and India. Come join use and help USA become #1. We Serve!!!
By Kalispell Sunrisers Lions ClubSeeley Lake Lions Attend 2026 District Convention
This past April 17-18, 2026 we held the convention in Columbia Falls. While I’m sure the host Lions club will be posting an article, this one was special for Seeley lake. Our own Lion Jon Kimble was voted our new District 37 Governor and our 2nd Vice governor was elected 1st Vice District Governor. As an extra surprise and well-deserved accolade was the presentation of the International Presidents Award to Lion Cheryl Lewis. All of us in Seeley Lake are proud of all three of these Lions and their dedication to service and our community. They are very deserving of these accomplishments.
Everyone had a great time with guest speakers Miss Montana and Miss Teen Montana both giving very heartfelt and inspiring speeches. Thank You Columbia Falls Lions for hosting such a terrific convention with training, great accommodations, food, music and lots of laughs.
By Seeley Lake Lions Club
Don’t Buy That Gift Card: A Warning to Montana Lions
If you have received an email recently from someone claiming to be your Club President, Zone Chair, District Governor, or another Lions officer asking you to purchase gift cards on their behalf, stop. Do not buy the cards. Do not reply. It is a scam.
This type of fraud is called a gift card scam, and it is one of the most common email cons targeting civic and nonprofit organizations right now. The playbook is simple: a scammer finds the name of a real officer or leader from a public website or directory, creates a fake email address that looks similar to the real one, and sends urgent requests to members asking them to buy gift cards and share the redemption codes. By the time anyone realizes what happened, the money is gone and unrecoverable.
No District 37 or Club officer will ever ask you to buy gift cards by email. Full stop.
Not for a service project. Not for a surprise gift. Not as a favor. Not urgently and not quietly. If you receive this kind of request, it did not come from a legitimate Lions officer, regardless of what name appears in the “From” field.
How to spot a spoofed or fake email
The name displayed in your inbox is not the same as the actual email address sending the message. Scammers rely on the fact that most people read the display name and never look closer. Here is what to check:
- Look at the actual sending address, not just the name. Click or tap on the sender’s name to expand the full address.
- Check the domain carefully. Official District 37 communications come from addresses ending in @montanalions.org or @d37.online or a member’s verified club or personal address that you already have on file. An address that looks almost right, like d37-0nline.com (using a zero instead of the letter O), is a red flag.
- Be suspicious of urgency. Scam messages almost always create artificial pressure: “I’m in a meeting, can you just handle this quickly?” Legitimate leaders can wait.
- When in doubt, call. Use a phone number you already have, not one provided in the suspicious email. A 30-second call will confirm whether the request is real.
What to do if you receive one of these emails
Do not respond to the suspicious email. Do not forward it, click any links in it, or follow any of its instructions. Contact the officer whose name was used (by phone or a known-good email address) to let them know their name is being impersonated. You can also report the message as phishing through your email provider.
If you already purchased gift cards in response to one of these requests, report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and contact your local law enforcement. It is also worth calling the gift card issuer directly, as there is occasionally a narrow window to stop redemption.
Stay sharp out there
Montana Lions do real work in real communities. Scammers know that, and they count on the goodwill of service-minded people to make these schemes work. The best defense is a habit of checking twice before acting, especially when email involves money.
If you have questions about whether a communication from District 37 is legitimate, reach out through the official district website at d37.online or contact your Zone Chair directly.
By Lion Steve DogiakosHow to Assign Your Club Convention Delegates
TO ALL CLUBS WITH VOTING DELEGATES GOING TO THE DISTRICT CONVENTION
Every club with voting delegates attending the convention needs to go to the Lion Portal and enter those delegates. Your club secretary, administrator or president can log into the portal and complete this process. If you have ANY questions, please feel free to contact Lion Peggy Tobin at 406-461-4206 or [email protected].
In the portal, go to “My Club”. Click on “Members” Select the blue button across the top that says “Manage Delegates”. Select “District 37 Convention”.
Note on the next page in the upper righthand corner, the number of allowed delegates for the club will be listed. This may be different than 10% of total members if the club has “households” or other types of members.
Example – A Lions club has 44 members so one would assume 4 delegates, but the club has multiple households and the club can only have 2 delegates! This is very important to know when clubs are assigning folks to be delegates!
The page will look like this:
District 37 Convention – 2025-2026
April 17, 2026 – April 18, 2026
Cedar Creek Lodge VIP Delegates: 0
Allowed Delegates: 2
Assigned Delegates: 0
Available Delegates: 0
To assign a delegate simply check the circle “Assign a Delegate”. It will bring up your roster and you can select the club member. When you complete this, the delegate will appear on the table. Continue assigning delegates, but note that the system will not allow more than the “allowed delegates”. If someone ends up not being able to serve, you can remove that delegate and assign another.
Delegates
1 of 1 item
Search this list…
Navigation Mode
| Delegate Name | Confirmation Number | Is VIP? |
*What do you like to do?
Θ Assign a Delegate Θ Remove a Delegate
NOTE: All of your delegates should have current membership cards which can be printed under “My Club”/Members – click on the blue button “Membership Cards”.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Peggy Tobin, 406-461-4206, [email protected].
Sunburst Lions Host Fifth Annual Prom Dinner
On April 11th, Sunburst Lions hosted twenty-five North Toole County High School students at their 5th annual Prom Dinner. PDG Mike Tobin (complete with a tux & tails) and Lion Missy Nau (in an elegant dress and silver jewelry) greeted and signed in each student and escorted them to their tables where Lion Dan Nau served sparking apple juice and entertained them with fabulous jokes.
The meal was prepared and served by a dedicated group of lions who put in over 80 hours to provide a beautiful setting at the Sunburst Methodist Church complete with china and crystal on the tables and decorations for the theme of this year’s prom. Homemade artisan bread was in baskets at each table. The students were served salads followed by BBQ Steaks (Courtesy of Chef Lyle Benjamin) or baked Pork Chops, cheesy mashed potatoes, and roasted green beans. The meal was topped off with chocolate pudding cake w/vanilla ice cream and delicious lemon fluff desserts. The Sunburst Methodist Church pastor, his wife and one of the student’s grandmothers joined the 20 Lions to make this a very memorable experience.
By Sunburst Lions ClubLions Easter Seeley Lake Style
Easter is a great time of year and this year was no disappointment. Our Easter Egg Hunt Committee pulled off another great event over two days.
First, we had the stuffing of all the eggs on Friday April 3rd. We had 17 members and 3 Leos there to help stuff them with candy, chocolate eggs and special prizes. Many hands make light and fast work, so in two hours we had them all done. Everyone was treated with pizza and refreshments.
On Saturday April 4th, we all gathered to spread the 3,100 eggs we prepared the night before. Again, we had 18 members on hand and another 3 Leos to help. All the kids gathered around 12:30 and at the start at 1:00pm, the mad dash started. Smiles were to be found everywhere and parents were very appreciative of the Lions hosting this annual event. Lions – “We Serve”
April 2026 Newsletter
The publication of the district newsletter is at the beginning of the month, but articles are posted all during the month. A second email notification mid-way through the month will be sent if there are additional posts to share.
You can reply to this email to give us feedback.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!
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