Meetings Archive

October 14, 2006

November 2006 dinner meeting

The next meeting of the Antrim-Bennington Lions Club will be Tuesday, November 14. It will most likely be at Alberto's Italian Restaurant in Bennington, New Hampshire. (If you click on the restaurant name you will get a map which will allow you to get directions. You can also call Alberto's directly at (603) 588-6512.)

More information...and confirmation of location...to follow...

Posted by webmaster.
Last Updated October 14, 2006

January 2, 2006

Record turnout!

We (the Antrim-Bennington Lions Club) are used to having between 10 and 20 people attend our monthly dinner meeting. The new year, along with two sought-after speakers, led instead to a record-breaking turn-out of 49 on Monday, January 2nd at Alberto's Italian Restaurant in Bennington, New Hampshire. Lions from 8 different clubs were present: Concord, Henniker, Hillsborough, Peterborough, Manchester, Nashua, Wilton, and, of course, us. :-)

Around the appetizing meal served by Alberto's, we first heard from Lion Ed Lecius, who is a candidate for an International Director position with Lions Clubs International. Mr. Lecius has been a Lion since 1971, was president of his Nashua club 3 times, and has been Nashua's "Lion of the Year" 5 times (along with many other awards both inside and outside of Lions).

The second speaker was Sue Brule, Director of the Laurent Clerc Academy (LCA). The Academy is one of only a few public charter schools in New Hampshire -- and the only school in the state that offers a bilingual education of American Sign Language (ASL) and Printed English. Lions have always had a special focus on sight and hearing, and, according to Ms. Brule, the young academy wouldn't have been able to continue this school year if it weren't for a grant from the New Hampshire Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation (one of the charities benefiting from Antrim-Bennington Lions Club fundraisers). LCA has 6 full time students, a number that increases to almost 20 every Friday when regional homeschoolers have an opportunity to join in on the instruction.

The evening wrapped up with a long question and answer session with Ms. Brule and LCA Board Member (and Lion) Sue Auerbach. Anyone with interest in knowing more about Laurent Clerc Academy can contact them at (603) 223-6770.

If you click on either picture you can see a larger version.

Posted by webmaster.
Last Updated January 10, 2006 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 20, 2005

Merry Christmas!!!

A large cadre of Lions showed up for our annual Antrim-Bennington Lions Club Christmas gathering this past Tuesday, December 20th. As you can see, one table was not enough :-)

Other than the odd-man-out vegetarian Webmaster, everyone enjoyed a great Christmas buffet provided by Malarkey's Restaurant. But, the Webmaster wasn't disappointed -- they made a special (and scrumptious) ravioli plate for him!

After our pride was thoroughly satisfied by the meal, we retired to a common room with a warm inviting fireplace. About a year after her husband was inducted, Michelle Fahrner (seen here being presented a new member packet by President Linda Ward) became a Lion. She has already been a regular attendee of meetings and is a welcome addition to our club. Of course, the writer of this article is a bit prejudiced (in that she's his wife) :-)

Food and business completed, it was time for the Yankee Swap! Pictured here is the person who pulled number 1, and got to choose the first gift -- Lion Bob Hardy. You can see him describing what he chose so that a vision impaired attendee would have a fair chance at purloining his present if she wanted.

Especially compared to last year, there wasn't much "bloodletting" during the swap, and it should be noted that the first person to appropriate someone else's gift was Lion (and State Senator) Bob Flanders. He was far from alone, and was unable to keep the item he pilfered thanks to someone else with a larger number :-)

Without even a threat of fisticuffs, a great time was had by all!

(If you click on any image you'll be able to see a larger version.)

Warm holiday wishes to you and yours from the Antrim-Bennington Lions Club!

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Last Updated February 6, 2006 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2005

Two more banners

Business meetings don't lend themselves to pictures...or necessarily a bunch of exciting news, but tonight's meeting was chock-full. A couple highlights:

We received a "Share the Success 2004-2005" banner
We received a Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership patch
We voted to apply the funds raised from this past Saturday's annual Hunters Breakfast to the purchase of a hearing machine for the Antrim Elementary School (additional info to come on that)
Lion Linda Tenney provided very delicious frosted brownies :-)
And much, much more...

The next gathering will be another business meeting on 12/6...but that will be the subject of another post...

Posted by webmaster.
Last Updated November 18, 2005 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 1, 2005

Another great dinner meeting at Malarkey's!

The Antrim-Bennington Lions Club was blessed with two speakers during this evening's dinner meeting at Malarkey's in Francestown, New Hampshire. Before dinner, Past District Governor/Past Council Chair Peter de Moya spoke about the international Lions organization, and why he would like to be an International Director. In the discussion that followed his talk, he shared even more information about what Lions all over the world are up to, and the activities of his home club in Keene.

After dinner President of Lions Youth Development of N.H., Ellis Ring, gave a great presentation about Lions Quest. Focusing mainly on it's activities in New Hampshire, we learned that hundreds of teachers have benefited from the program, learning to incorporate character-building lesson into day-to-day coursework.

Especially for our newer members (e.g. the Webmaster), it was a very interesting and informative night. Also, I (the Webmaster) can now vouch for how "yummy" the onion rings at Malarkey's are :-)

If you click on either image, you will get a larger version...

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Last Updated November 2, 2005 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 18, 2005

Meeting our Zone Chair

Zone Chair Dave Forrest We were honored to have a visit from our new Zone Chair, Dave Forest (from the Hopkinton Lions Club). Lion Dave's presentation was well received by everyone.

We also had a presentation by Jeffrey Monteleone, Head Golf Professional at Crotched Mountain Golf Club. He suggested that the Golf Club could work with us to put together a good fundraiser. There was definite interest on the part of our club, so it'll definitely be the subject of discussion in future meetings.

Posted by webmaster.
Last Updated November 2, 2005 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 4, 2005

Our District Governor visits

Leveraging the goals of the 2005-2006 International Program, our District Governor, Henry McKee presented our October 4th dinner meeting with five passions:

Passion to Serve
Passion to Grow
Passion to Lead
Passion to Promote
Passion to Perform

District Governor McKee spoke of his goals to have FUN and SHARE the Pride. He reminded us to use our members' best assets; to invite, inform and involve everyone we know with Lions Club; to realize our community's needs; and to continually evaluate hour we personally, and our club are doing.

During the same meeting at Alberto's in Bennington, New Hampshire Lion Robert Hardy received a Bronze Community Sponsorship.

(The Webmaster once again admits to plagarizing the Secretary's report...with edits...)

Posted by webmaster.
Last Updated October 22, 2005 | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 20, 2005

Community Agriculture

Lion Loyall Allen was responsible for today's speaker -- and he turned to Tim Wichland, who is the farmer/director of the Pitcher Mountain CSA, Stoddard's Mountaintop Organic Farm. Mr. Wichland gave a dynamic talk augmented with fantastic slides which highlighted what community agriculture can do.

If you click on the picture you'll get a larger version...

(The Webmaster pilfered this post almost word-for-word from the Secretary's minutes :-)...)