Summer 2023Past Issues Changing the World With YouDear Lions, I am truly honored and humbled to serve as your international president, and I am happy to share with you my message of Changing the World. For years, Lions and Leos have been changing the world, one community at a time. Now, collectively, we are setting bold ambitious goals to meet the needs of our neighbors, our communities and our world. Boldness and action are exactly what we can deliver as we tackle…more...Changing the WorldChange doesn’t happen all at once. It happens through many small choices. With every act of kindness, we change a life. With every Lions club and Leo club, we change a community. Bringing Out the Best in Others Lifting others up is what she does. Dr. Patti Hill is an accomplished teacher, administrator, psychologist and small-business owner. But it isn’t her impressive resume that she’ll mention when you ask what’s important to her. The purpose…more...Life DerailedHome is the place you want to run to, not from. But home may never feel the same for the people of East Palestine, Ohio, who found their quiet small-town life turned upside down in one night of disaster. AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar On the evening of Feb. 3, Stella and Daren Gamble watched from their front porch as a fire escalated rapidly less than a mile away. About 50 Norfolk Southern train cars had…more...The Service of ChampionsIn a half-century of competition, innumerable legacies and memories are built, but not all sporting events last 50 years. This October, the Alexandria Lions Meet of Champions will reach that milestone. And just as they’ve done every year since helping to launch the event, the Alexandria Lions Club will be there on its 50th anniversary helping every step of the way. Each year, nearly 2,000 runners ages six to 18 from as many as 28…more...Let the Children PlayBorn with a bilateral clubfoot, seven-year-old Craig Griffin hasn’t had the strength or mobility to swing by himself at a playground for most of his young life. And there wasn’t a playground in his community with the equipment he needed to climb into a swing and pump his legs, a slide he could skim down or a tower he could climb. That will all change for the first grader, who will be one of the…more...Pickleball PandemoniumIf anybody knows how to serve, it’s the Lions. They’ve been acing it for more than 100 years. But serving in pickleball, now that’s a relatively new thing, and Lions who try it are getting stuck on it like syrup on pancakes. Pickleballin’ in the Midwest “Lifelong friendships are made out of this,” Lion Curt Goke in Minnesota says of both Lions and pickleball. Goke, 77, a member of the Eden Prairie Lions Club since…more...Partnerships with Purpose“When you remove a cataract, people who have not seen their children in years, suddenly see them. It is amazing to witness,” Past District Governor Sedrace Rwekikiya shared, while standing under the thick shade of the tree canopy just outside St. Francis Nsambya Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. As she continued to speak about the incredible impact Lions have made in Uganda toward reducing preventable blindness, in the distance, the latest vision project was taking shape.…more...