Here is Sam presenting his winning speech, “Drug Abuse – Paradise Lost”, which he presented successfully at the Club, District, and State level competitions, earning scholarships totaling $4000.  And since he was only a junior, he gets to try again this year, hopefully to add to his scholarship winnings.

The club helped with volunteers at the ride, and we all had a good time. When I found out that they had enough volunteers, I just paid the entry fee and did the 5-mile ride (ok, I’m a wimp, but next year, I’ll go for the 10-mile ride). I did manage to finish fairly early, because I wanted to get back before it started raining. Lion Karen snapped this photo of me just after I got to the finish line. I took some pictures of her, but she didn’t send them to me (claimed they didn’t turn out or some other lame excuse — she’s just camera-shy). The weather held out for us, even long enough for me to run some errands for the ride organizers afterwards.

Lion Karen Marks is the member that got the club interested in helping with the Fun Ride.

Christy is the vision coordinator for Region 10 Education Service Center. Students involved in all programs are Visually Impaired (VI). The 11^th Annual Sports Extravaganza will be October 23-24, 2009. Some of the planned events are:

• 25, 50, and 100 Meter dashes
• 200 and 400 Meter run
• Long jump
• Shot put
• Softball and tennis ball throw
• Archery and beep baseball

Plano Early Lions Club 1^st Vice President, Gordon Settle, has participated in many of the Sports Extravaganzas and described events such as the 50-yard dash. He stressed how these visually impaired students are eager to compete in various events and thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to compete.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Region 10 activities is educating VI students in things sighted students take for granted. Some of these things are independent living, recreation skills, and career education. Students learn that VI individuals are employed in various careers, even jobs in science and engineering. Students are made aware of the possibilities they have for employment. The Space Camp for Interested Visually Impaired Students (SCI-VIS) is a good example of exposing VI students to job opportunities. This program stresses math and science. It also exposes students to space science, aviation, and related scientific subjects.

Ms Householter listed several upcoming events for VI students from Region 10. Included in the list is a field trip to Dallas Museum of Art, Goalball Tournament, and Discovery Day in Dallas Heritage Village. Lions clubs are being asked to help make these events possible by providing volunteers and or funds. Two local Lions Club Districts have been involved with these programs for several years.

As part of her visit, Governor Conway reviewed some of the causes Lions support. These included their help at Special Olympics, Leader Dog for the Blind which supplies guide dogs for the blind, Lions Sight and Tissue Foundation which provides eyeglasses for needy students, and the International Lions Club’s efforts to eliminate River Blindness which costs $6.00 a person to prevent. In summary, she pointed out Lions strive to give back to their community in many ways.

The Plano Early Lions Club gives back to Plano in ways such as scholarships for high school students and providing funds for: Habitat for Humanity, Plano Children’s Medical Clinic, Meals on Wheels, The Samaritan Inn, and several other organizations. Since 2001, contributions from Plano Early Lions Club to local organizations have exceeded $100,000.

At their Saturday meeting, the Plano Early LIONS Club welcomed Lyn Baker, co-author of “Generous Kids”. Ms Baker talked about how parents and grandparents can change the children in their lives from being of the “mine” set to the generous set. Her book outlines simple ways to teach children how to be giving, and it’s as easy as teaching them to brush their teeth.

Ms. Baker talked about the need to reverse the decline in giving. For example, she mentioned the decline in “Social Capital” that manifests itself in decreasing membership of organizations such as LIONS, Red Cross, and PTA. In 1964 there were about 12 million members in PTA, while today there are about 5.5 million members. Schools are attempting to reverse this trend with programs designed to get schoolchildren involved in volunteer activities… even at the elementary school level. Students who do get involved in volunteer work tend to continue volunteering when adults.

Part of the problem, according to Ms. Baker, is the time children spend in front of screens… both PC and TV. She calls these children “Screeners”. She pointed to research that shows children spend about 2.9 hours/day in front of a PC and another 2.9 hours/day in front of a TV. This produces a generation of “watchers” and not a generation of “doers”. The children then start feeling alone and not connected to people. One example she stated was text messages that teens send to one another. These text messages often contain things they would not say in a face-to-face situation because sending text messages appears very impersonal.

Her parting challenge to the LIONS was to get involved with their children and grandchildren in order to show them how to be “Generous Kids”. One way of accomplishing this task is involving the children in any volunteer work the LIONS are involved with. Projects such as “Penny Harvest” and collecting underwear for the homeless are examples of projects run by students that helped those less fortunate. For more information about “Generous Kids”, visit www.generouskids.com where you can order copies of her book.

For more information about LIONS, visit www.planolions.org or call 972-985-8260.