At least once each year we get a visit from the District Governor. This evening we were visited by this club year (2024-2025) District Governor Jim Tobolski. Jim grew up in Chicago and worked as a teacher, then in the Railroad business selling box cars for many years until he retired. Now he lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
The tragedy and devastation from hurricane Helene in western North Carolina has consumed most of us so far this year but none more than those directly affected in District 31-L and 31-I. He shared some updates from the last meeting at Camp Dogwood a few weeks ago. But the response Lions across North Carolina and beyond has been commendable so far. For our district (31-S) initially we thought we would load a semi truck and take a load of supplies each month. But we quickly reaized that would need to be done every other week so the plans changed!
Camp Dogwood has been serving as a staging and storage area and they are coordinating 8 or 9 storage facilities for all of the supplies being generously donated from all of the country. Those locations are full and the staff at Camp Dogwood should be commended for all they are doing! Make sure to thank them if you get the opportunity!
However, the reality is that the donations do not always match the specific needs. So financial donations are requested if possible so that the specific needs can be met as they change. For example, many people are currently living in tents and it has gotten quite cold recently (especially up in the mountains) so there are needs for items such as generators and heaters. Our club has made some financial donations as well as supplies so DG Jim was aware of that and thanked us for our help and continued support. There was so much damage (entier towns and roads completely washed away) that this will likely take many years to recover from.
We also had some discussion about membership numbers and the challenges we all face as clubs and at the district level. DG Jim encouraged everyone to just ask people we know (friends, family, neighbors, etc.) because you just never know how things may have changed in someone’s life and they might be receptive now while they were not in the past.
Finally, he gave us an update on the Lions Cottage at the Boys & Girls Homes of NC. The renovation work has been completed now and it looks fantastic. It was desperately in need of repair before but is now in excellent shape again. We hope that this will continue to be a blessing for children for many years!
And we also had a guest all the way from Pakistan! Lion Zubaid Khan is the president of his club but he is in the United States visiting his children so he asked to visit with us and join in any service projects we have. It was very nice to meet Lion Zubaid and we look forward to his return in May. If all goes well he will be joining us at Peakfest where we will be providing free vision screenings to the public!
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