June 2024

IN THIS ISSUE....

• Upcoming meetings
• Charter Night
• Upcoming Events
• Recap of the month's activities
• Minutes of the month's Board meeting and General Membership meeting

***Please note: The "Reply To" mailbox address has been changed. To provide feedback concerning the content of this Newsletter, please Reply. The message will go to Carol Hunsicker.

To all of you who are fathers or have been father role models to any children, we hope you had

Wonderful

Father's Day!

July Meetings

PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGE: Due to the original date (July 3) being the eve of the Fourth of July celebrations, the July meeting of the Executive Board will take place on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. The meeting will be held in the Avalon Senior Center, starting at 5:00 pm. All members are welcome to attend the Executive Board meeting.

The July General Membership meeting will be held on Thursday, July 18, 2024, at the home of last year's president, Bruce Loversidge and his wife Marylou. This meeting will be a Cocktail Party. Members will be asked to bring a food item (appetizer, small plate, or dessert) to share. A token amount of $5 per person will be collected to cover the costs of paper goods and water for all. Guests are welcome to attend. More information is found in the article below.

2024-2025 (Fiscal Year) Meetings

Board meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month. Unless otherwise noted, the meetings start at 5:00 pm. Members are welcome to attend. Please watch for announcements about the dates and times of meetings.

General Membership meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month. Unless otherwise noted, social time starts at 6:00 and the meeting and dinner are generally started at 6:30 pm. Please watch for announcements of meetings.

REMINDER---

It's time to pay your 2024-2025 Avalon Lions Club Dues!

If you did not yet pay your Avalon Lions Club Dues for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, on June 30th you will be removed from the International Lions roster. This will be the last newsletter or internal communication you will receive. You can be reinstated if you pay your dues in the next thirty (30) days.

Upcoming Events ...

July, August, and September

4th of July Day

White Cane Collection

Saturday, July 6, 2024

Avalon and Stone Harbor:

10:00 am to 3:00 pm

The second White Cane Collection of the year which will take place on Saturday, July 6 (the weekend following Independence Day). There will be collection points in front of Avalon Liquor, Hoy's in Avalon, Hoy's in Stone Harbor and near the ACE Hardware in Stone Harbor.

The Collection will be divided in one hour slots, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm in Avalon and Stone Harbor at each of the collection points. If you work out the math, that means we need at least 20 members to cover Avalon and Stone Harbor. To volunteer an hour of your time, click the Memorial Day White Cane button below and select one of the hour slots. Members are encouraged to help out with an hour of their time to make the event a successful collection. Remember these White Cane Collections help add money to our Charity account.

July General Membership Meeting

July 18, 2024

Gathering time: 6:00 pm

Meeting: 6:30 pm

412 22nd Street, Avalon

As we have done the past couple of years, the July General Membership meeting will be an informal 'cocktail party'. The meeting will be held on Thursday, July 18th, starting at 6:00 pm at the home of past president Bruce Loversidge and his wife Marylou Schmidt at their home in Avalon - on the bay!!! The address is 412 22nd Street, Avalon.

This meeting will be an informal "Cocktail Party". Marylou and Bruce are providing beer and wine for the event. Members are asked to bring an appetizer, finger food or dessert to share. Or, if you prefer, paper plates, napkins and cups. Also, if you have a beverage, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, that you prefer, please bring it along.

Please contact Barb Stout by email (barbstout@hotmail.com) or phone/text (609-440-5542) to let her know you are coming and to let her know what you are bringing (appetizer, finger food, dessert, paper products). We need to coordinate this to make sure we don't just end up with paper plates!!!!

At this first meeting of the Avalon Lions fiscal year 2024-2025 we will induct more new members, review upcoming events and have plenty of time to enjoy each other's company.

Avalon Lions Pickleball Tournament

"Roar at the Shore"

Planning has begun for the 3^rd annual Avalon Lions Pickleball Tournament, “Roar at the Shore,” which will take place September 13 – 15, 2024 at the Grace O’Brien Park 8^th Street Pickleball Courts. This year we have use of 17 Pickleball courts, up from 10 in previous years, which enables us to accommodate more players across all skill levels. Anyone interested in joining the Pickleball Committee please contact Holly Rennie (holly@hollyrennie.com) or Gina Bates (batesgin@gmail.com) . The committee is comprised of 5 sub-groups: Sponsor & Donation Solicitation; Vendors securing vendors to support players and volunteers working the event; Day of Event to coordinate set-up and management of the site and all support activities; Volunteer Coordination responsible for securing and scheduling both Lions Club and community volunteers; and System Support responsible for managing the software used to track players results.  

The Sponsor & Donation Solicitation sub-committee plans to focus on Cape May Court House, Sea Isle City and Stone Harbor, in addition to Avalon. Our goal is to make in-person visits to explain the Avalon Lions Club mission to more local businesses and develop a pipeline of new supporters for both Pickleball, as well as the broader organization. This will provide long-term benefits to the whole organization and we could use some assistance to complete these visits during the prime summer months.

In an effort to expand the participation of local businesses, we are putting together themed baskets (Pub and Winery Crawl, Cape May County Shopping and Dining Experience, Private Shopping Experience and/or individual store baskets, Home Décor and To Your Health sports related basket) for a silent auction that we need to fill. As you frequent your favorite businesses, this is an opportunity to ASK for their support. You support them and they support the community through a donation to the Avalon Lions Club in the form of gift cards or merchandise. Each basket can have its own team to solicit these donations, so we need many hands to collect these items. Click the button below to access the Sponsor letter which lists the opportunities available if your favorite vendor is interested in making a financial donation.

The Sign-Up volunteer contains the support functions we need from Lions members during the tournament. There are some slight increases in personnel requested to accommodate the additional counts. Additionally, we have opportunities for members familiar with Pickleball to work with our community Pickleball volunteers to monitor the games. Please contact Blair Worrall (worrall.blair@gmail.com) for more information.  

We are excited to expand the tournament this year and look forward to working with everyone.

Sincerely,

Holly & Gina   

Calendar Year 2024

The calendar for 2024 has been updated! The calendar can be reviewed by clicking on the link below. Please note, there are still dates for items listed as TBD (To Be Determined) and there are openings for new chairpersons.

If you have an interest in helping with or have any questions about a specific event, please contact the event Chairperson or anyone on the Executive Board.

June Recap

June Meetings

The June Executive Board meeting was held at the Avalon Senior Center in Avalon and started at 5:00 pm. There were eleven (11) Board members in attendance in person and one (1) Board member in attendance by phone. Reports were reviewed and approved by the Board.

The minutes of the June Executive Board meeting are available by clicking on the button.

REMEMBER: Members are invited to attend the scheduled Board meetings at any time.

The June General meeting of the Avalon Lions Club was also Charter Night, where the we celerate being Lions, induct the new Officers and Board members, and award the honors for the year. This year's meeting was held at the Avalon Links and started at 6:00 pm with cocktails, followed by the meeting. There were twenty-eight (28) members, four (4) inductees, and three (3) guests in attendance. The minutes for the meeting can be reviewed by clicking on the button to the left. If you see any errors or missing items, please send them to Carol Hunsicker (avaloncarol@outlook.com).

Spring

Dance

Party

Chaired by Eileen Donovan, Ramona Sanabria, with assistance from Marylou Schmidt

The first annual Spring Dance Party with DJ Joel took place on Saturday, June 1st, at the Community Center in Avalon. About two hundred fifty (250) people attended, listened and dance to the oldies music! The doors opened at 6:00 pm and the partying went on until 10:00.

Thanks to the efforts of Eileen Donovan, Ramona Sanabria, and Marylou Schmidt, the party was a success. In the final accounting, the Avalon Lions netted $3,700.38 for the Charity account!

Thank you Eileen, Ramona, and Marylou!

Pancake Breakfast

Chaired by Barbara Mackintosh and Becky Reynolds

Another great Pancake Breakfast is in the books! Many Avalon Lions volunteered to cook the bacon and sausage, make the pancake batter, greet the customers, keep the supplies of batter, juices and coffee constantly refilled, flip the pancakes, serve the customers, clean up! Phew! That's a lot of work! But, work done well by everyone! And it was well worth it. Another good fundraiser that netted $2,531.09 for our Charity Account.

Our first customers came in as the clock hit 8:00 am. Throughout the morning, the flow was pretty consistent and there were new customers as late as 10:30 am! It kept us all pretty busy.

First, a THANK YOU to Barb and Becky for all the work to get the event organized and occurring. Second a THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered to help. We had a number of new members experiencing their first Pancake Breakfast. And, finally, a THANK YOU to Avalon Recreation Department for hosting us at the Community Center and all the work they do to help us.

Becky and Barbara would personally like to thank all the volunteers for their flexibility and energy and for making our job easier.

Here are some pictures of the fun!

Community Connections

On Saturday, June 22, 2024, the AHLOA organization held their annual Community Connections event at the Avalon Community Center. The event started at 8:30 am and ran until about 11:00 am. The speaker for the event was Dr. Leonore Tedesco from the Wetlands Institute.

Many organizations (non-profit, charitable, and govenment) set up tables to provide information to those who attended the event. The Avalon Lions were represented by Robin Mackintosh and Nancy Wolgemuth! Great job for getting up early on a Saturday morning to represent us all!

Summer Solstice

On June 22, from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm, the Avalon Public Library sponsored ad "Summer Solstice" event to celebrate the longest day of the year - June 20th. There was food, drinks and music available for those who attended.

As part of the event, a number of organizations throughout Avalon were represented at tables with information about their organization. Nancy Wolgemuth (again) and Barb Stout volunteered their time to be at the tables to answer any questions about what the Lions do and help anyone who might want to join. Good news - while they were sitting there, some donations were collected!!!