It’s Morning in Frankfort

Posted on 09/10/2010 by Grumpa Joe

The opportunity clock rang at 6:15 this morning for the second day in a row. Normally, I just sleep until nature wakes me. Yesterday and today were special. It was Lions Candy Day weekend. We Serve is the motto of the Lions club and I take that seriously. In spite of the fact that I was tired this morning, I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 6:30 and dressed. I left without breakfast. Peggy thought I was crazy, because I am never awake for more than ten minutes before I’m shoveling food into my mouth.

I met my fellow Lions at Starbucks. We got our candy, collection buckets, and assignments from Lion Sue and took off. I went to Burger King and had breakfast. As I ate, I watched the intersection that I would be manning and realized that Saturday morning is a loser. The morning before, I was a target from three directions. The number of cars, trucks and UFO’s coming at me was voluminous. This morning things were kind of sleepy, like me. I called Lion Sue and asked for a new corner. She assigned me to route 45 at Nebraska. Okay, anything would be better than 45 and Colorado. I stood at the intersection for an hour and collected about ten bucks. As I stood there I had the chance to see things that struck  a chord. It was Frankfort waking up. I saw people jogging and walking dogs along quiet village  streets and trails. The roar of trucks and heavy traffic was not there. In fact, the singing tires of a car speeding along on U.S. 45 was predominant. A garbage truck turned onto Nebraska and pulled into the Creamery parking lot to empty the dumpster. I hummed a tune to keep my mind active, and remembered President Reagan‘s essay It’s Morning In America. Normal people were going about their business oblivious to the effect of big government taking over their lives. They went about the affairs of life that they had control over.

Lion Sue bailed me out and sent me to the Jewel. I couldn’t believe the action there either, Jewel was slow. If Peggy and I were shopping on a Saturday, Jewel would be having grocery basket accidents in the aisles. Even so, collections were a tad better than at the last corner. I collected about twenty bucks  in a half hour.

My next assignment was at White and Nebraska. There was no one at the corner from the Lions. I took up the post and within ten minutes had collected more than I had in the previous two hours. There was a charity run in town, and the traffic it generated was crazy. It was non-stop cars for the next two hours. It was a  Candy Day Salesman’s dream. The money collected is a necessary commodity to keep our Camps open for kids with blindness. Selling candy is secondary to the notion that the end result serves a higher purpose.

People saw me standing there and approached cautiously with the window rolling down. A dollar bill emerged and dropped into my bucket. I handed the driver a roll of candy and got a smile and a thank you in return. I have to admit, people were giving generously and cheerfully.

I returned home at 12:30, ate a sandwich, and collapsed into a deep sleep on the couch. I dreamed about the next challenge coming in two weeks, the Strides Walk.

Filed under: Conservative, family, Government, Lions Club, Motivation, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Have Fun and Win $10,000.00 Too

Posted on 04/07/2009 by Grumpa Joe

Join us at the 28th Annual Frankfort Lions Charities Sweepstakes Dance on Thursday September 3, 2009. Purchase a sweepstakes ticket and get a chance to win $10,000.00, as well as entry to the dance for two people. Dance the night away to the music of Brother John.

2009 Sweeps Ticket

Tickets are $20.00 each. We limit ticket sales to 2000. Your odds of winning are very good. There are six other cash prizes as well.

Send a check made out to the Frankfort Lions Club for 20.00 and I will send you a ticket. Contact me via e-mail jsr@mortyangel.com

Frankfort Lions Club

 

Filed under: family, Lions Club, Music, Society, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

A Feel Good Day

Posted on 21/12/2008 by Grumpa Joe

Ice Angel

The temperature outside is minus six, the wind chill brings it to a cozy minus thirty three. I drove six miles through open farm country with a thirty five mile wind blowing powder snow across the road making  it slippery as heck. Why then was it such a feel good day?  I joined  twenty of my fellow  Frankfort  Lions  at Lion Al’s wilderness place south of Frankfort to pick up food baskets. We then delivered them to needy families. This is a primary project of the Frankfort Lions every year at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.  What made today special was the way it was done, and the brutal weather of course.  In the past, we met at a grocery store to pick up the baskets(actually bags.) The  grocer picked the food and packed the bags, The Lions paid the bill and then delivered. We’ve done it the same way for over twenty years. This year we changed the process. We eliminated the middle man, the grocer. Three of our members did the shopping then packed the bags. The rest of us delivered. 

 Why was it necessary to make this change?  We’re not going to waste time by analyzing what went wrong, it is water over the dam. All that is important is to know that by doing the work ourselves we tripled the amount of food we were able to give to families in need.

For what ever reason, the times have changed, and we were running along complacently accepting the norm. Eventually, we began asking questions about the quantity and quality of food being delivered. An inventory of the basket contents and a pricing revealed that we could probably do better on our  own. We did.  This striking improvement has made me re-aware of the necessity to challenge a process even when it is deemed not broken.

In spite of the bone chilling minus thirty three, there was camaraderie, and a spirit of service this morning that warmed our souls.  After ranting during the election for so many days, and speaking against the evil of the government redistributing our wealth, I witnessed a redistribution of wealth performed by the Lions as they have been doing all around the world for many years. Truly an inspiring and warm feeling in spite of the cold.

Filed under: Election, family, Funk, Government, Lions Club, Manufacturing, Memories, Motivation, Uncategorized, Warm and Fuzzy, Writer | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Need is Great

Posted on 30/06/2008 by Grumpa Joe

My chest is bursting with pride. I just completed and posted a new website for my Lions Club. I had one linked to my Lions page, but it led to a funky page that was hard to find, hard to use, and limited in what I could do on it. This new one starts with our own domain name, frankfortlionsclub.com.
My goal was to have the website up and running as part of the Frankfort Lions Club 27th Annual Charities Sweepstakes. Tickets went on sale this week. The Sweepstakes Dance is the unofficial kick-off for the Frankfort Fall Festival. First prize is $10,000 in cash. We charge twenty dollars per ticket. It is a chance in the raffle, and entry for two adults into the beer tent for the dance.  We limit ticket sales to 2000. Since I joined this club we’ve never sold all the tickets. That means the odds to win are really good . In addition to the $10,000 first prize there are six additional prizes ranging in value from $1000 to $200.
The Sweepstakes Dance is a lively affair with the famous “Brother John Band” providing the music. Sandwiches, pizza, and drinks are available for sale. It turns into a neat social gathering. The crowd starts out with the seniors and evolves into the “Thirty Something” group closing it down.
The dance is on Thursday evening August 28, 2008. Action begins at 6:30 p.m. The music plays from 7:30 p.m. till 11:30 p.m.
The charities supported by the affair are: Scholarships to deserving Lincolnway East H.S. grads, food baskets to needy families at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, the “Sights and Sounds” fund of the Lions of Illinois Foundation, free eye exams and eyeglasses for poor children, and a host of additional community needs. The list is endless, the need is great, the resources in short supply.
Help me out by going to our new website, and calling a Frankfort Lion from the list for a ticket now.
http://www.frankfortlionsclub.com 

Filed under: family, Garden, grief, Memories, Motivation, Writer | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Lions “Strides Walk For Diabetes Awareness”

Posted on 13/04/2008 by Grumpa Joe

Finally, I am coming down from an adrenaline high. The high is the result of helping to organize an event with my local Lions Club. It’s been years since I participated in an event that involved getting the public to come and have fun. Talk about baby steps and motivation. I committed by suggesting the event. Never suggest something unless you are willing to “walk the talk.” When I talk, I am ready to follow up with action too. This walk was no different from the many scouting events that I organized and participated in.

The weather was crappy, although none us who worked noticed. We were too busy having fun to care. The baby steps planned in advance were unfolding and moving forward by many people.  We had a good turn out of Lion members, local Boy Scouts, and the area hospital. We marked walking trails of three lengths, put up sponsor signs, erected a tent, set up tables for registration, had 200 goodie bags prepared, and ready to go. In the week prior to the event today, four area newspapers, and the local TV channel gave us publicity. All planning and organization was  done by  a three man team. Our objective was threefold:

 1. Make people aware of Diabetes and its complications,

 2. Promote walking as a healthful tool to manage diabetes, and

3. Raise money for the American Diabetes Association.

In spite of the weather we accomplished all three of our goals. A beautiful side benefit is that our Lions Club is considering the walk as an annual event. 

Our day was a drizzle, forty degrees, and windy. Amazingly, we registered 23 walkers. On a nice day, the same trail would have seen several hundred walkers from the town. We think the 23 should be honored as heroes for coming out to support us in such hypothermic conditions.

I can’t begin to count the baby steps that we took to get this event off the ground. It took constant communication, and brainstorming to identify the steps. After logging the steps, it took energy to take action to make the steps happen. With regular meetings, e-mail, and the phone, the planning made it come to fruition.

We started on March 4 with the idea, and excuted it on April 12th. We visioned a successfull turnout of two hundred walkers. When someone warned us about poor weather, we saw the day as being warm and sunny. 

The vison was realized!

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