Throughout my entire life, Lions International has been an important part of our family. My father joined the Cologne Lions Club in 1993, a few years before I was born, so I was brought up experiencing pancake breakfasts, park cleanups, working the town festivals, doing fundraisers to raise money for the various community projects Cologne Lions were involved with and the list goes on. Then when I was around 8 my mother joined the Lions. With both of my parents involved I came to be very close with many Lions members as well as what Lions International stands for. In 2012, my mother decided that the Cologne Lions should sponsor a Leo club.
A Leo club is the youth branch off of Lions. In the United States a Leo is any student ages 12-18. Once the club was approved, I was one of its very first Charter members. Now our club has give or take 25 members, which is very good since we are a community based club, not a school based club. Since I am so involved in the Leo club, and am the chair person for many committees and projects, such as the literacy campaign, and now I am the current club Vice- President.
With Lions, last February I was given the opportunity to attend the Lions 5M2 winter convention, where I met many new Lions from my area and had a blast. Since I had so much fun at this convention, my parents allowed me and another Leo, who coincidentally is my cousin Megan, to go with them to the USA/ Canada Lions Forum in Overland Park, Kansas over the weekend of September 19th through 22nd. There were Lions members from all across the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico. While there I attended many seminars. Some of which were on leadership skills, public speaking, reaching for your dreams, vision and Leo Clubs success. It was a very eye opening experience for me. It was amazing seeing so many adults being passionate enough to take off work to attend seminars on how to give of themselves to their communities more completely. Myself and a fellow Leo, Megan, were by far the youngest people in attendance at the forum. Our presence there was remarked upon by many of the Lions. They all agreed that it was wonderful that we cared enough to go to the forum. Our presence also made people feel proud and excited because seeing youth engaged in helping their communities and their world is something that many people do not see a lot of these days.
At the forum I also had the great honor to meet International President of Lions International, Barry Palmer. I also met Wayne Madden, immediate past International President. Me meeting these two men in particular was highly significant for me. As a International president, they choose a set of goals in which they would like to achieve as well as a slogan for their year. Past President, Wayne Madden had a goal of ending illiteracy throughout the world and because of this and the need for it, Lions International has made it a 10 year campaign it is called the "Reading Action Program" (RAP). RAP has partnered with Scholastic Books and various other organizations to help give the gift of books and opportunities to teach others to read. It is through my contact with the RAP program I was able to send 1200 books to start a library in Lesotho, Africa. President Barry Palmer has the slogan of "Follow Your Dream". If you did not notice, my platform for my pageant is on helping end illiteracy and this is a dream of mine. This dream and idea of mine were heavily influenced by both of these men, so when I met them it was like meeting a highly famous, influential movie star in my eyes.
This forum was a fantastic experience for me and filled me with new ideas, knowledge and a respect for Lionism.
I have been asked to be a speaker at the Saturday Luncheon at the 5M2 Winter Convention this February. I will be speaking on the effects of illiteracy and offer ideas on what they can do as a club to help end this terrible issue. I will explain the steps taken to do a book drive and report on the success of the one the Cologne Leos held. 20,000 books in a 2 day time frame is A LOT of books. I will also share with them about the Reading in the Park Program I along with my fellow Leos implemented in Cologne during the summer months. It was held once a week and we did a craft, had snack and then read a book. Our average turnout was approximately 20- 30 kids. I will end my speech with updates as to what we did with the 20,000 books we raised. 5000 went to Bernie's Book Bank in the suburbs of Chicago and they were distributed to low income families in the Chicago area. 1200 were sent to Lesotho, Africa through the African Library Project. We have sent 5000 books through Operation Paperback to military families and soldiers currently serving. We have run out of funding so we have approximately 3500 books left to distribute. We have run into a snag find places to accept the books locally. Many shelters etc. do not have the space for them. We will be getting creative and see if we can help any of the local Indian Reservations find a home or we have a contact in Zimbabwe who would like us to get the books to his capital city. Never fear they will go where there is a need. Since these books were gently used we had some that had to be recycled. This does not mean the dumpster! We have taken them to appropriate paper/cardboard recycling facilities.
I just received a surprise invitation. I have been asked by Immediate Past International Director Brian Sheehan to be a speaker at the next USA/Canada Forum in September held in San Juan, Puerto Rico!!!!! I am soooo excited. What an amazing opportunity.
A Leo club is the youth branch off of Lions. In the United States a Leo is any student ages 12-18. Once the club was approved, I was one of its very first Charter members. Now our club has give or take 25 members, which is very good since we are a community based club, not a school based club. Since I am so involved in the Leo club, and am the chair person for many committees and projects, such as the literacy campaign, and now I am the current club Vice- President.
With Lions, last February I was given the opportunity to attend the Lions 5M2 winter convention, where I met many new Lions from my area and had a blast. Since I had so much fun at this convention, my parents allowed me and another Leo, who coincidentally is my cousin Megan, to go with them to the USA/ Canada Lions Forum in Overland Park, Kansas over the weekend of September 19th through 22nd. There were Lions members from all across the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico. While there I attended many seminars. Some of which were on leadership skills, public speaking, reaching for your dreams, vision and Leo Clubs success. It was a very eye opening experience for me. It was amazing seeing so many adults being passionate enough to take off work to attend seminars on how to give of themselves to their communities more completely. Myself and a fellow Leo, Megan, were by far the youngest people in attendance at the forum. Our presence there was remarked upon by many of the Lions. They all agreed that it was wonderful that we cared enough to go to the forum. Our presence also made people feel proud and excited because seeing youth engaged in helping their communities and their world is something that many people do not see a lot of these days.
At the forum I also had the great honor to meet International President of Lions International, Barry Palmer. I also met Wayne Madden, immediate past International President. Me meeting these two men in particular was highly significant for me. As a International president, they choose a set of goals in which they would like to achieve as well as a slogan for their year. Past President, Wayne Madden had a goal of ending illiteracy throughout the world and because of this and the need for it, Lions International has made it a 10 year campaign it is called the "Reading Action Program" (RAP). RAP has partnered with Scholastic Books and various other organizations to help give the gift of books and opportunities to teach others to read. It is through my contact with the RAP program I was able to send 1200 books to start a library in Lesotho, Africa. President Barry Palmer has the slogan of "Follow Your Dream". If you did not notice, my platform for my pageant is on helping end illiteracy and this is a dream of mine. This dream and idea of mine were heavily influenced by both of these men, so when I met them it was like meeting a highly famous, influential movie star in my eyes.
This forum was a fantastic experience for me and filled me with new ideas, knowledge and a respect for Lionism.
I have been asked to be a speaker at the Saturday Luncheon at the 5M2 Winter Convention this February. I will be speaking on the effects of illiteracy and offer ideas on what they can do as a club to help end this terrible issue. I will explain the steps taken to do a book drive and report on the success of the one the Cologne Leos held. 20,000 books in a 2 day time frame is A LOT of books. I will also share with them about the Reading in the Park Program I along with my fellow Leos implemented in Cologne during the summer months. It was held once a week and we did a craft, had snack and then read a book. Our average turnout was approximately 20- 30 kids. I will end my speech with updates as to what we did with the 20,000 books we raised. 5000 went to Bernie's Book Bank in the suburbs of Chicago and they were distributed to low income families in the Chicago area. 1200 were sent to Lesotho, Africa through the African Library Project. We have sent 5000 books through Operation Paperback to military families and soldiers currently serving. We have run out of funding so we have approximately 3500 books left to distribute. We have run into a snag find places to accept the books locally. Many shelters etc. do not have the space for them. We will be getting creative and see if we can help any of the local Indian Reservations find a home or we have a contact in Zimbabwe who would like us to get the books to his capital city. Never fear they will go where there is a need. Since these books were gently used we had some that had to be recycled. This does not mean the dumpster! We have taken them to appropriate paper/cardboard recycling facilities.
I just received a surprise invitation. I have been asked by Immediate Past International Director Brian Sheehan to be a speaker at the next USA/Canada Forum in September held in San Juan, Puerto Rico!!!!! I am soooo excited. What an amazing opportunity.