Wrentham Lions Club

Parking! - We have one weekend left of parking before summer can take full force. We need to have this one last push to take care of our comitments to these dog shows while ensuring our financial obligations are met. June 28th and 29th are the Hockamock and Wampanoag dog shows. They are important fund-raisers for the club. Let's remind them that we are the car parking Kings of the Wrentham Developmental Center's field events.

Summertime: The turning of the Lionistic year on June 30th brings a time for this Lions Club to rest and spend time with our families. We have a rule for the club that everyone agrees with: Family and work come before Lions. There is typically one meeting in July and another in August where the business of the club is cared for and the BOD meets immediately after. These two months are a time for each of us to take a break from Lions and recharge for the fall.

Incoming Leadership: One of the responsibilities of each Lions club is to ensure smooth transitions between incoming and outgoing Board of Directors every June 30th. We are proud to present our 2008-2009 Elected Officers:

President - Tom Rieger
1st VP - Kathy Chianca
2nd VP - Joe Cuddihy
3rd VP - Joe Cacciola
Secretary - Eric Podolsky
Treasurer - Roberta Hugus
Membership - Deborah Skinner
Tail Twister - Jeff Hall
Lion Tamer - Carl Evans
Leo Advisor - Karen Hunt
Ex-Officio - Paul Strittmatter

The Lions International logo has two lions faces; one facing left looking back at past accomplishments, but not dwelling on them and the other looking to future projects. Here is the Wrentham Lions Clubs' realization of that concept:

Wrentham Day on the common featured our famous Banana Split that served almost 500 little tykes and big tykes alike, great job Gary W.!
During Wrentham Day, we had our information booth on the common that provides leads to several new potential lions. Thank you Bill S, and Mike W and the many others that helped.
DUNK the DOC, located just across the street at 21 East Street, gave the community an opportunity to return the favor and DRILL the DOC, Thank Ross.
3 years of planning came to fruition with the new sign donated and installed at The William Rice Sports Complex, thank you Eric P, Ed L and Mike L.
Santa arrived to help bring in the holiday season at the Common. He provided the opportunity for pictures and candy canes to the children. Thank you Gary W. and Jeff H.
Senior Citizens holiday luncheon: The 28th year that our master chef Sammy P and Master of Ceremony, Richard R accompanied by DJ Jeff H provided an afternoon of fun and good food for our senior citizens.
Lion's Peace Poster Contest, in conjunction with The Wrentham Elementary School coordinated by Tom K acknowledged the winners at our 3/6 Business meeting.
The Speech Contest at KP and Bishop Feehan High Schools coordinated by Tom K. Our KP winner made it all the way to district as one of four finalist (She did great job in her speech and proudly represented Wrentham.
Guest/Spouse evening at Lucianos with Guest Speaker Susan Wornick, had a great turnout, was fun and an informative evening. Great job by Skippy and Keith B.
Woodchopper's Ball - Lions and friends had a pot luck dinner followed by square dancing and competitions that included a two-person saw. Everyone had a great time thanks to Debi S and Greg S.
Clark and Debi have been working hard to upgrade our website, check it out at http://www.wrentham-lions.org great Job!
15th Annual Fishing Derby was held with great success. 129 Kids came out to fish - everyone had a great time.
The club held it's 13th annual Golf Tournament - A great time was had by all. The weather was chilly and the rain held off.
The Duathalon was also a great success this year. A record number of participants raced in this event this year. The number goes up every year - we thank each and every on of them. Many Lions helped by being on the course throughout the event to ensure a safe and successful event. Jeff Hall, the event coordinator, deserves a big hand for all his efforts.
Ladies Dog Show (parking fund-raiser)
Men’s Dog show (parking fund-raiser)
Charter Night Thursday June 5th (induction of new club officers)
We held a Helen Keller Day on Sunday June 8, 2008 on the Wrentham Town Common from 10am to 2pm. There was a ceremony honoring Helen Keller, and we had the Lions Club Eye Mobile doing free screenings for vision, glaucoma, blood pressure and hearing.

We have had five fundraisers:
Cracker Barrel Fair (parking)
White Cane
Duathalon
The Hangover classic
Golf Tournament
Ladies Dog Show (parking)
Men’s Dog show (parking)

These events have exceeded our original budgeted/forecasted amounts by over ~20% with the biggest successes in the Duathalon and Hangover Classic, Great job by all the Chairs (Greg, Eric, Jeff, and Joe M.)

All committee's are well underway in their progress and planning phases. Please contact the Chairperson for more information,

Who have we helped to date?
Wrentham Food Pantry, Wrentham Youth Soccer, Wrentham Cub Scouts Packs 131 and 61, association of Blind Citizens (beep ball), Wrentham Baseball/Softball, Kennedy Donovan Center, HESCO, Perkins School for the Blind, KP Parent All Night Party Committee, Santa Project/Project Mittens (in conjunction with the Wrentham Elementary School), Campaign Sightfirst II to help prevent river blindness throughout the world, Dottie Larson scholarship for a graduating Wrentham Sr., Friends of Wrentham Developmental Center, Lazarus Organ donations program, Mass Lions Eye Research, local Wrentham students in need of eyeglasses.