Service From The Heart!

The Sunday breakfast was a meeting of the Florida Lions Foundation for the Blind. They have been in existence longer than LCIF, and have an endowment fund of over $10M. They fund eye care with the investment proceeds, and approved over $100,000 in grants that day. Amazing! Breakfast was also very good, a buffet consisting of fruit, scrambled eggs, biscuits & gravy, sausage, bacon, and fried potatoes. Debra sat at the head table, while I sat with the spouses of the officers of the foundation, all of whom were accomplished Lions in their own right. They presented several “Grand Lion” awards (equivalent to a Melvin Jones), including one to Lion Char, who had been a Lion for a little over a year, and a second to DG Estelle. They ended by presenting Debra an Honorary Grand Lion Award.

We went up to finish packing after the breakfast, and Estelle & Ed came with the luggage cart at about 11:00. We loaded the cart, went down to the lobby where PDG Ed & Pat were waiting to take us back to the airport, and said our last goodbyes to a lot of wonderful Lions in District 35!

On Saturday morning, we both attended the Council of Governors’ General Session. We heard reports from several of the “entities” as they call their official 501(c)3 projects, as well as from the MERL committee and a few others. They were trying to cut down on the number of oral reports from past meetings, and we both felt the results were very good. The meeting flowed right along, and we finished early!

“Lunch with the International Director” was pork loin & scalloped potatoes, with cheesecake for dessert. After lunch, they gave Debra the mike in the center of the room for a Q&A session. She did a great job answering their questions and telling the story of how she became a Lion and got to where she is now. I think everyone was very touched by what she had to say.

After lunch, Debra went to the “Developing Future Leaders” workshop and the “PDGs – Tarnished Brass” meeting. I opted for the MERL/GMT workshop. That was very well run, and they seem to have some very good people in place, and a good plan for retaining & increasing membership, and extending new clubs. I especially liked Lion Trish’s idea of passing out “red dots” to every Lion to remind them to ask someone to a club meeting. That really puts the responsibility right where it needs to be.

The Saturday Governors’ banquet was a formal affair. Most of the men had white dinner jackets, while the lady Governors and PDGs wore their sparklies. Word had gotten out that I was in need of cufflinks, and PCC Mark had graciously gifted me with a beautiful gold & onyx pair with the Lions’ logo in the center, exactly what I had been looking for for many years. Dinner was Prime Rib or Mahi Mahi. I had the rib, while Debra had the fish. We traded broccoli for asparagus.

Debra’s speech went very well, we had added back a few elements from her last year’s speech, but maintained a good flow. It seemed to work, but the Ginkgo part is still a little abstract. We think we’ll try alternating characteristics of the Ginkgo with characteristics of the District. That should make the analogies a little more concrete. After the speech and response, Debra & Estelle presented a new PR award to their newsletter editor, Lion Mike, who had been the one to come up with the idea of using LCI PR grants to purchase advertising space on billboards. They also presented a Certificate of Appreciation (the second recipient couldn’t be there), and Debra presented her bags to Lion Doc & Dotty, Lion Mark & Sandy, and to “our favorite pest”, CC Rocky, who had done just a great job of corralling us when necessary all weekend. We also exchanged gifts with DG Estelle & Lion Ed. Estelle had been eating blue cheese dressing all weekend, so we were pretty sure she’d like the blue cheese. They made a donation to CSFII in Debra’s name, and gave me an etched crystal Lion that was very nice.

We hung around a while after the dinner while people came up to talk to Debra, then made it back to the room around 10:30.

On Friday morning, Debra went to the Council of Governor’s Executive Session, while I went to the “Meet the Director’s Spouse” activity. There were about a dozen people there, all Lions, and we had a very good discussion about membership ideas, service, our personal stories, our clubs, and all manner of Lions topics.

Lunch included a presentation by the Conklin Center/Camp. They are especially dedicated to serving youth who are blind or visually impaired along with another disability. It sounded like they have a great thing going there, and that the Lions of Florida support them very generously. Their director is an energetic young woman from Minnesota! Lunch was a plated meal of warm chicken crepes and asparagus, and was just delicious.

After lunch, DG Estelle introduced me to PDG Bob, my golfing partner. We went to a public course nearby, and had a great time. The weather was a little breezy, but very comfortable. I hadn’t swung a club since early August, and it showed. I did manage one birdie and one par for the round, but aside from that I was pretty wild, and had to scramble to make bogey or even double bogie on some holes. It was a great afternoon though, and we had a great time.

Friday’s social included hamburgers & hot dogs, potato salad, coleslaw, watermelon, and apple cobbler for dessert. That was very fun as well as delicious. The entertainment for the night was Karaoke, and even though most couldn’t sing any better than me (which isn’t too good), everyone had a great time.

When we got up this morning, I had a bad case of arthritis in my right ankle. We had planned on going over to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls in preparation for my scheduled golf outing on Friday, but that changed those plans. We hung around the house catching up on some computer work and getting everything packed until about 1:30 when PDG Ed & Lion Pat picked us up for the trip to Ocala.

It was a little over two hours to Ocala from Cocoa Beach. When we got to the Holiday Inn, we were greeted by DG Estelle and her Ed, and got checked into our room. The room was a very nice suite, and they really went overboard on the welcoming gifts. We has a fruit basket, a snack basket, some chocolates and citrus candy, a refrigerator full of Coke, and a beautifully painted horse that was a replica of one that had been displayed in town as part of the town festival.

After unpacking and getting settled, Estelle & Ed came to escort us down to the bar where we shared a libation with CC Rocky and a couple other DGs and partners. The Thursday social included a nice buffet dinner with salad, meatloaf, chicken, potatoes, rice, vegetables, etc. We both went for the salad, meatloaf and rice. The evening’s entertainment was provided by Lion Richard Cary, who was quite an accomplished magician. He had a great act that included audience participation, and of course, Debra became part of the act. Everything was done by about 9:00, and we called it an early night along with everyone else.

Today was a real fun day. We slept in again, and then saw Neil & Donna off to work. Drank coffee, caught up on email, and hung around with Neil Jr until about 10:00, then took Donna’s car to IHOP for brunch. We split a strawberry cream cheese crepe with eggs, bacon, sausage, & hash browns. Then it was off for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center.

The space center was great! We started with an Imax movie about the “Magnificent Desolation” of the Apollo missions to the moon. That was pretty good, and featured bits from people who worked at KSC as well as some of the astronauts who went on the missions. Then we started on the bus tour that dropped us off at three separate sites before returning to the main visitors area.

The first site was the Area 39 observation gantry. There we saw the crawler close up, and climbed stairs to see the 39A launch pad where they had the shuttle getting ready for Monday’s launch, and the 39B pad where the first Aries test rocket had been launched last week. We were still about 3 miles from the pad, but they had telescopes that gave you a good close-up view. We could see the top of the fuel tank, and just the very tip of the shuttle above the structure built up around the shuttle. I got a couple of pictures that I think will turn out OK even though they need a lot of cropping to zero in on the shuttle.

The next stop on the bus tour was the Apollo/Saturn V center. They showed a couple of movies about the Apollo program that were very interesting. The first one detailed the early Apollo launches including Apollo 4 where the fire killed three astronauts. The second was about the first Lunar orbit mission. We then went out to the exhibit area where they had one of the Saturn V rockets. We knew the Saturn V was a big rocket, but you have no idea how huge they are until you’re right up next to one. Each of the five engine outlets must be near 20 feet in diameter; very impressive. We also got to actually touch a moon rock that they had on display, also very cool.

The last stop on the bus tour was at the Space Station production center. We got to walk through mock-ups of some of the rooms on the station, and then went over to view the ‘clean room’. There wasn’t anything going on there, though, as it was after 4:30 (and Veterans’ Day).

When the bus dropped us off at the main visitor area, we went over to the Explorer Shuttle. That was probably the highlight of the visit. They had ramps leading up to areas that were cut away with observation platforms right inside the shuttle. The first level allowed viewing a storage area under the flight deck and the main shuttle bay. They had a satellite sitting in there as when preparing for deployment. The second deck gave a good look into the actual flight deck as well as a higher up view of the shuttle bay.

From there we went to the “Rocket Garden” where they had Redstone, Atlas, and other rockets standing up. They also had Mercury and Gemini capsules that you could climb into. Of course we had to have someone take our picture in the Gemini capsule – it actually turned out pretty good! We also saw a whole bunch of middle school kids who were on some kind of scavenger hunt for the answers to a sheet of questions their teacher had given them. They were having a great time!

It was almost 6:30 before we got back to Neil & Donna’s. Neil grilled steaks on the grill, and Donna sautéed mushrooms, onions & green peppers, and made garlic Texas toast. The delicious meal was topped off by apple pie and ice cream.

Neil & Donna are off to Anchorage at 5:00 tomorrow morning, so we all called it an early night.

Today began with a 6:00 wakeup for our 10:10 flight to Orlando. We are heading to Florida for their Council of Governors meetings. We’re going a few days early so we can spend some time with ID Neil & PDG Donna in Cocoa Beach. We’re really looking forward to that. They won’t be at the meetings because they leave on Thursday for an engagement in Anchorage, so going early is the only way we’ll get to see them.

We left the house about 8:45, and got to the airport at 9:45. We checked luggage this time, as we’re staying longer, and I brought the golf clubs. DG Estelle has a tee time set up for me on Friday with some Lions from the district.

We had no problems with luggage or security, and stopped to pick up breakfast at the McDonalds (two yoghurt parfaits, two coffees, one cinnamon roll). The plane was full, so it took quite a bit of time to get everyone on board, and we were about 20 minutes late taking off. When we got to Orlando, Neil was waiting for us just outside security. We grabbed the bags, and headed for their house.

We had time for a wee bit of scotch before Donna got home from work a little after 5:30. We sat around catching up on things for a while, and then went out for dinner at the Pier restaurant. We shared a mixed seafood appetizer that was very good. Debra had the parmesan encrusted Tilapia, and I had the shrimp Toulouse. Wow! What a meal! It was a delicious dish of shrimp, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts over linguini. I could only eat about 1/3 of it, and I’m sure the 2/3 we took home will be enough for both of us tomorrow.

We walked out on the pier after dinner to watch and hear the waves crashing to shore. Cocoa Beach is on a barrier island, and they were coming in pretty good. Neil pointed out the Kennedy Space Center and other landmarks across the bay. We took the scenic route home, driving through the port (it’s the second largest cruise ship port on the east coast), and by the KSC before heading back to their place for more good conversation before we headed for bed a little after 11:00.