Lion - May 2019

Global Service

2019-04-23 14:54:50

NORWAY

All Aboard the Løvebussen

About 30 years ago, Lions Club Sørfold in northern Norway built a “play-bus” for the local kindergarten. As the weather in the region can be harsh, the bus began to look worn. The Sorfold Lions decided it was time to build a new bus for the children.

Ten members of the 19-member club spent more than 60 hours building the bus by hand from Norwegian spruce. Says Lion Bjørn Helge Hansen, “The bus is very popular, and the kids are as much on the roof as inside.”

The bus’s Norwegian name "Løvebussen" means "Lionbus" in English, but it sure does spread some love.

GERMANY

Bookstall Makes Bank

For the 17th year, the St. Wendel Lions Club set up shop at the St. Wendel Easter market. Similar to previous years, they had approximately 7,000 books to sell. These ranged from nonfiction, to cookbooks, to literature for children, to travel books, and included specialist publications on themes like medicine, esoterism, philosophy, and global and local history.

The St. Wendel club uses the proceeds from the book sales to construct schools and medical centers in India, mainly in the south Indian town of Jogiped in the state of Telangana.

The club, together with the Caritas association of the Schaumberg-Blies region, has also been assisting children in need and their families in the county of St. Wendel for a few years now.

The 30 members of the Lions club have been able to raise more than 60,000 euros (US$67,993) in their years of selling books at the Easter market, which is popular well beyond the region, and the funds have all been used to give back to their community or abroad.

USA

LION Day Helps Beet Diabetes

In Dover, New York, the elementary school children have taste-tested everything from healthy mangoes to golden beets during their lunch time. At home their parents are being educated about combatting diabetes.

It all started when The Town of Dover Lions Katie Pallmer-House and Patti Zangle were inspired by the Lion mantra “Think Global, Act Local” at the 40th annual Lions Day with the United Nations in March 2018. Pallmer-House and Zangle wanted to learn about the global cause of diabetes, and even more about how to act local and fight it at home.

They started by meeting medical professionals at their local hospital to learn about the health needs in their community. Then, enlightened to the growing problem of prediabetes in children, they spoke with the principal and food service manager at Wingdale Elementary, and they met with parents on a curriculum night.

With the help of an education enrichment grant, the Lions club launched a monthly new fruit and vegetable tasting program in the school. It’s called “Let’s Improve Our Nutrition (LION): A Lunch ’n Learn Series about Healthy Eating.”

The grant funds from the school district help them purchase fruits and vegetables, and each month on LION day the students view a short video about healthy eating. Lions, school employees, and dietetic staff from the hospital then distribute a new food for the students to taste at lunch.

Their first foods—mangoes, clementines, fruit smoothies, and cucumbers—were well received but are also most familiar to the students. The later foods, including golden beets, were new and unfamiliar. But because students already had a good rapport with the Lions, many were willing to give them a try.

Each week the students receive a “new food” information worksheet to take home for their parents, along with literature about diabetes awareness and education.

Pallmer-House says The Town of Dover Lions will continue the program next fall and expand it to include children in the local Head Start program. Lions also plan to purchase a vertical garden to grow next year’s lettuces, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers at the school so the children can see how their food grows.

USA

Paying Off Lunch Debt Pays Off Big for Kids

For some students their school lunch is the only meal they will get all day.

In Minnesota’s Minnetonka School District the Excelsior Lions are looking out for those children, seeing to it that everyone gets the food they need, and no child has to feel singled out for being different.

The Lions donated money to Excelsior Elementary School to pay off student hot lunch debts and are also providing funding for a program that allows students to take an extra sandwich or piece of fruit in case they need it later in the day.

According to USDA policy, children in the hot lunch program can buy three lunches after the money has run out of their lunch account, but after that they no longer get to have the same meal as their classmates. They get an alternative lunch such as a sandwich, fruit, and milk, says Jane Bender, the school supervisor of nutrition services.

Excelsior Lions donated US$2,000 from their summer golf tournament to the school of about 750 to pay off all student lunch accounts that were negative. One of the benefits is that no child is singled out. No one knows which children are receiving extra benefits because they’re getting a different lunch. Everybody is equal.

Lion Josh Bright spearheaded the idea, noting the need for donations like this is great in many communities. “I think every student should have the ability to come to school, feel safe, and have something good to eat. To learn the way they’re supposed to,” says Bright.

Well-fed children come to school not thinking about their hunger. They are better able to concentrate and visit the nurse’s office less often, says Bender.

The donation also eases stress, says school Principal Stacy DeCorsey. Students as well as their parents know when there is no money left in their lunch account. “This is wonderful for them,” she says. “This is one thing they don’t have to worry about.”

Published by International Association of Lions Clubs . View All Articles.

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