Welcome to the 2010-2011 Lions Year.  Thank you for serving this year.   It was a true honor and privilege for me to have been elected and get sworn in as District Governor of District 23C at the 93^nd Lions International Convention in Sydney, Australia on July 2, 2010. International President Sid Scruggs from North Carolina, has a motto of “Beacon of Hope” this year, and the focus will be on service. It is his belief and mine that if we rededicate to service we can meet the needs of our community and meet the needs of our lions at the same time.

I want to thank Immediate Past District Governor, Keith Lemire and his wife Heather for their dedication and service to our district. PDG Keith has set the bar high for me and I intend to continue where he left off, just with no “yippee.” Last year, the lions of District 23C raised over $269,000, volunteered over 14,843 hours, and served an estimated 93,465 people in our communities. We served and we served big. This year we are going to serve bigger.

Congratulations to PDG Art Davies on his election for 23C candidate for ID.  Both Art Davies and Julie Shilosky should be commended on their campaigns.  They were held with professionalism, dignity and in the true spirit of Lionism.   It is very important to continue to support this process at the Multiple District Convention coming up on November where Art will run against the candidates from District A, Rose Marie Spatafore and District B, Caroline Messier.

I have some very lofty goals for the coming year. Based on the turnout at the special convention for our International Director Candidates I know we can meet those goals.  We had 164 of a possible 188 delegates register and participation by 51 clubs.  International President Scruggs has asked all of us to recommit to service in October.  I don’t want you to wait until October.  I would like all of the lions of 23C to recommit to service starting right now.  He would like every club to form at least one new service project in one of four areas: Youth, Vision Impairment, Hunger and the Environment.  For those of you that have the support and the resources I challenge you to do one in all four.  There are new district awards for forming these projects but the most important reward is the satisfaction of serving our communities and seeing a smile on the face of someone we have helped.  Please get all of your lions involved.  If there are some you haven’t seen for awhile reach out and ask them for help.  Remind them of their commitment to lionism.     

We will continue to support our district and state projects which include CLERF, LCIF, CRIS, Diabetes, Fidelco, Hearing and Speech, LEHP, and Camp Rising Sun. Our district projects, the Lions Low Vision Center of Eastern Connecticut and CLERF, have become very successful. We must continue to support these projects which directly help those in our communities. We will continue to encourage and support our Leos. Leo clubs are stronger than ever and continue to provide to our communities with us, side by side.

July has been a busy month meeting and planning with Region and Zone chairpersons, cabinet chairpersons, and the MERL team. Our Leadership team should be commended for their hard work in putting on great seminars which provided the resources our district needs to help our clubs thrive this year. Thank you Lions’ Frank Rowe, Eric Jacobson and Priscilla Lewis. We will hold our first cabinet meeting on August 2, 2010. Thank you Putnam Lions for hosting our meeting!  Congratulations to both 1^st Vice District Governor Ken Tucker and 2^nd Vice District Governor Jan Miller, I look forward to serving with both you.