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The Lions
International Convention, Minneapolis, July 6-10,
2009
JoAnn and I returned late Saturday from a
very busy and productive eight days at the Lions
International Convention. There were some 15,000 Lions in
attendance from throughout the world. It was a great
convention with a marvelous keynote address by Colin Powell
and a marvelous concert by the Beach Boys - a good fit with
the "baby boomer" demographic of the Lions.
I wanted to share with you a bit of
great good luck that should be of value in giving the
PET Project greater exposure. JoAnn and I were coordinating
a booth for PET at the LIC. We had three PET mobility carts
with us and passed out a lot of literature and DVDs to the
Lions that visited us. We had a map of the world with flags
showing the 76 countries where PETs have been distributed
and the locations of the PET shops. Our guests were asked to
pin a flag on their country or state and have their photo
taken on a PET in front of the map. That photo was included
in a standard news release about PET that was emailed back
to them for use with their club and district. We had about
120 visitors during the five days. JoAnn deserves credit for
the idea of the map and the "cookie cutter" news release.
Our booth team included Jim and Kay LaBau, Larry Williams,
Michelle Cassano, Von Driggs, the director of operations for
PET and his wife, Linda. Von and I also made two 45 minute
platform presentations on the PET Project in the exhibit
area.
As a result of the booth, we made
contacts who want to help with maritime freight and the
delivery of PETs in Zambia, Nigeria, Nepal, India,
Bangladesh and several other countries. We also found a
number of individuals who are interested in becoming "parts
builders" to assist our shops. And, several Lions clubs and
districts want to deliver PETs in the humanitarian projects
and medical missions that they have in place in Mexico,
Haiti, Belize, Swaziland and the Dominican Republic.
NOW THE GREAT GOOD LUCK. On Monday
evening JoAnn insisted that her older "geezer" husband take
a two mile walk from downtown to the Mississippi River and
back. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea but went along to
take photos of the urban skyline that I wanted to share with
my oldest granddaughter who will be senior in architecture
at Washington State U. next fall. The entire year will be on
urban design and I thought she might like to see some
examples from MN. We bumped into a FOX news van with the
Anchor, Tim Blotz, and his engineer just parked at the
sidewalk. I asked them about one building I had photographed
and the conversation went from there. Bottom Line: Tim saw
my Lions badge, asked about the convention and got my cell
number. The next morning he called me and asked to do an
interview at the parade.
The PET Project wound up as the human
interest feature on the Lions Parade on the 5PM newscast on
July 7th. The video clip is attached
below.
At the convention, it was announced that
Lions has over subscribed their $200 million goal for sight
conservation worldwide (SightFirstII). One touching moment
for me was to see Lions receive their Melvin Jones Awards
from Mahendra Amarasuriya (Sri Lanka), the Chr. of the Lions
Clubs International Foundation. He presented a crystal lion
to a man from China who hadmade a personal gift of $100,000
(US) to SightFirst II (it was noted that this gift would
restoresight to 16,000 people!) The man bowed and made a
simple five word response. "Thank You. I will do more".
OUR
PET PROJECT VIDEO CLIP ON FOX NEWS WITH WALT HAYES
(find a new, more powerful computer if
you have trouble viewing the video)
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