Welcome to the Eugene Downtown Lions!

Chartered in 1924, the Eugene Downtown (EDT) Lions Club is 63 members strong, making it one of the largest Lions Clubs in Oregon. The EDT Lions meet on the first and third Wednesday at noon at the Graduate Eugene to hear the latest reports on Club activities and to learn from an interesting array of speakers or enjoy performances by local musicians.

Our Online Auction will begin on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at Noon.  But you don't need to wait to preview our amazing auction items!  You can go to https://edlc2021.ggo.bid to register or preview the items.  Come back to our website each day to check out the Featured Daily Auction Preview Item.  Be sure to invite your family and friends.  

If you make a donation on the auction site of $250 + you will be eligible to win a $250 Jerry's gift card + a $150 Bi-Mart gift card.  The winner will be selected on Sunday, April 25th at 12:30 PM.

HERE'S ANOTHER GREAT ITEM FROM THE AUCTION!

Golf for 4 with carts & practice facility included. Dress code is strictly enforced. The championship layout measures over 7,000 yards and features more than 60 bunkers and 6 large water features that will receive the ill-struck ball. The Poa Annua greens at Shadow Hills are comparable to the finest in the nation and can reach speeds of over 12 feet on the Stimp Meter. Professional Tour players in Eugene for the Oregon Classic, formerly held here at Shadow Hills Country Club, rated our greens among the best on the Nationwide Tour every year. Four separate tees for men and two for women offer many options for challenging all levels of golfer.

Look your best on and off the golf course in these Greg Norman Sunglasses with case. They are prescription adaptable.

FEATURED ITEM

Your tax-deductible donation helps us help others. We provide vision screenings for 4J elementary school students, glasses and hearing aids for those in need, Lane Community College scholarships, and grants to local non-profit agencies.

Click here to donate now.

Save the Date!

EDT Lions Just Zooming Along

After having held two outdoor meetings Mother Nature made that type of gathering out of the question. Just like most everyone else Zoom meetings have become the avenue to return to having meetings on the first and third Wednesdays of the month for the club. The Wednesday, February third meeting had twenty participants with everyone having a chance to join in the conversation.

What makes these meetings a bit closer to the in-person meetings is having a program guest speaker.  Corrine Patzer, Chief Strategy Officer from Lions VisionGift, gave a very interesting presentation explaining the inner workings of VisionGift and how it keeps improving and expanding services.  It is so much more than just an eye bank.

Quoting their website: “Lions VisionGift is proud of the many different functions we perform on the path to sight restoration in our communities. Through collaboration with our donation partners around the state, we are able to recover and screen donated tissues in a timely manner to provide grafts for individuals throughout Oregon and southwest Washington. Once these needs have been met, we routinely send additional tissues across the nation and around the world.”

The club members were very impressed with how organized and up-to-date the VisionGift operation functions and thanked Corrine for giving us such a detailed presentation.  As we have more of these Zoom meetings we are getting proficient at running a smooth meeting.  You can learn more about Lions VisionGift at http://www.visiongift.org/. 

5 February 2021

Tim Chuey

Publicity Chairman

Eugene Downtown

Lions Club

Twenty participants at this Zoom meeting.

Corrine Patzer, CSO Lions VisionGift

It Sounds Like Such a Simple Solution

With all of the distancing protocols in effect for the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us have had at least some difficulty understanding what people are saying through their protective masks. It gets even worse when you are in a store or medical office where the person you need to talk to is not only wearing a mask but also is behind a Plexiglas screen. Let’s take that one step ahead and assume that you are hearing impaired. Voices are muffled enough under a mask. When you add the Plexiglass shield understanding the person’s words can be difficult if not impossible even while wearing hearing aids.

There is a solution to this problem and it is called a “Hearing Loop.” What is a hearing loop and how does it work? A hearing loop system has 4 parts: 1) A copper wire in the shape of a loop which serves as an electro-magnetic antenna and creates the loop’s field. 2) One or more microphones to pick up the desired sound. 3) An electronic “driver” to transmit the sound into the loop. 4) A tiny coiled wire, called a telecoil, (or t-coil), inside a listener’s hearing aid, cochlear implant, or special earphone receiver. [A hearing specialist must activate the telecoil program in a listener’s device to directly receive the sound from the hearing loop.

The reason for explaining this is because the Shedd Institute in Eugene has a program to help the hearing impaired hear even better under difficult circumstances. “The Mission of the Shedd Institute’s Lane County Committee is to understand, educate and advocate for the installation and usage of hearing loop/telecoil systems in appropriate public and private spaces.”  The Shedd has a loop system installed in their building, and so do some other venues and businesses, but most locations do not have it available.

To that end, the Shedd Institute is loaning out portable 8”x8” loop systems for hearing impaired people to try out to see if it will work for them before they purchase one. The Eugene Downtown Lions Club has donated the funds to purchase two of the portable loop kits that cost $250 each for the Shedd project. In addition, the money for two more kits has been provided by the Jane Eyre McDonald Fund.

Special thanks go to Ginerva Ralph Director of Education for the Shedd Institute and Sue Pritchard (who wears hearing aids) for giving a presentation about this project to the EDT Lions Zoom meeting.

Pictures: 1) PLA 90 Portable Loop. (img_Loop PA 90) 2) (img_Screenshot202101 Counter) 3)

(img_Screenshot202101 long conference table) 4)  (img_1958) 5)  (img_1953)

30 January 2021

Tim Chuey

Publicity Chairman

Eugene Downtown

Lions Club

Portable loop used in a business situation with Plexiglass at the cashier counter. 

Portable loop used in an office setting.

Ginerva Ralph, the Shedd Institute

Sue Prichard

A Picture (Book) is Worth a Thousand Words

Lions, particularly the Eugene Downtown Lions Club, helped make the Heartfelt House project a success. The house provides a place to stay for the loved ones of patients at Sacred Heart Peace Heath Medical Center in Springfield. Since families stay there for a period of time, their children, the younger ones mainly, need something to keep them occupied and entertained.

The Eugene Downtown Lions Club found an interesting solution. A local artist has published a book that is perfect for kids. Noelle Dass created a work of art in the form of a cute children’s book titled “Be Who You Are.” The book is about believing in yourself as told by what Dass calls “Artimals.” This is a board book with rounded corners and glossy rigid pages. Every book comes with two stickers and a 5x7 greeting card.

The Downtown Lions have raised the funds to provide 65 copies of the book to be given to the children/parents of the Heartfelt House Ronald McDonald facility. Lion Jim Origliosso delivered the first 30 copies of the book to the facility Manager Robin Yozzo on December  18, 2020.

Plans are to reach out to Lions Clubs in Bend and Portland to gauge interest in similar efforts at the Ronald McDonald Houses in those communities.

26 January 2021

Tim Chuey

Publicity Chairman

Eugene Downtown

Lions Club

Box of first 30 books. 

Lion Jim Origliosso presenting the books to Heartfelt House Manager Robin Yozzo.

Back cover of the book with Eugene Downtown Lions presentation sticker. 

COVID-19 Becomes the Mother of Invention for the

Eugene Downtown Lions

What do you do when your source of revenue to fund those in need that you serve evaporates into thin air? That surely happened to many charitable organizations including the Eugene Downtown Lions Club. The club’s biggest fundraising event, the annual raffle, had to be canceled. It was not possible to have a table outside of many stores with club members asking the customers and passersby face-to-face to buy a $5.00 raffle ticket to “Help Us Help Others.” COVID-19 restrictions took away the event that usually netted at least $10,000 that supports the many individuals and organizations that ask the club’s Community Services Committee for help. The committee screens the applications and gives out what aid is available to those in need.

So what kind of event can replace the raffle and still follow the COVID-19 guidelines? One of our newest members, Lion Sid Voorhees, suggested we try holding an online auction since other groups were having success using technology to replace other fundraising efforts. Sid is probably the most well known Professional Auctioneer in the area and he has recently worked with other groups holding online auctions.

The club formed a couple of committees in early summer 2020 to explore how to go forward with the project.  Since Sid and I have worked together over many years at charity auction dinners with me as the master of ceremonies it was a natural thing for us to combine our efforts for this special auction.

The committee responsible for obtaining items for the oral and silent auctions went to work finding donors. The club’s members were also asked to submit suggestions for possible donors of items for the auction.

The club partnered with Greater Giving which runs the platform for producing online virtual auctions and gives other technical advice to keep the event online. Dave Hall, of Zion Ideas Productions Inc., was the director, producer, and camera operator for the event at the BSA Headquarters which was the setting for the virtual oral auction.

The oral auction, lasting one hour, was broadcast online with many items up for bidding. Just some of the items offered were a 7-night suite accommodations for two adults or two adults and two children at one of 5 oceanfront properties in Mexico, a tandem skydiving event out of the Creswell Airport donated by Eugene Skydivers, a sightseeing flight for four in a Piper Saratoga airplane piloted by Jim Origliosso donated by Jim and his wife Debbie, and a painting titled “Morning fog on the Northwest Expressway” donated and painted by well-known local artist Robert Canaga.

There was also a silent auction that opened online days before the oral auction broadcast and contained many items of interest. The bidding officially closed two days after the live auction conclusion. The success of this first-time effort by the club turned out to be what was hoped for. The combination of the oral auction and the silent auction plus some generous donations netted about $6,000 all of which will go back to those in need locally.

Special thanks go to members of the Eugene Downtown Lions Club who dedicated so many hours to making this event a success and those helping make the live stream broadcast work. Of course our thanks to everyone who participated in the auction bidding on items or donating money to help out. There may be another auction in the future as this pandemic continues to make fundraising a very challenging endeavor.

Dave Hall of Zion Ideas at the controls. 

R to L: Lions- Auctioneer Sid Voorhees and MC Tim Chuey

Lion Past President Karen Norton thanks everyone for participating in the auction.

LIONS IMPROVING THE SUPPLY CHAIN

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a serious problem with keeping enough protective gear in the hands of the medical professionals.  It took one man with an idea and the determination to see it through to help alleviate the problem locally. The following is copied from The Lions Tale newsletter:

“A big thank you goes out to Past District Governor Lion Steve Moser who applied for and received a COVID-19 grant through Lions Club International Foundation. October 21^st, the following Lions met to deliver a donation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Lane County Public Health in Eugene: Steve Moser, PDG, Lynn Coon, First Vice District Governor, Dianne Rush, President and Henry Miller Past President of Springfield Lions, Carol Casciato, Tim Chuey, and Susan Pfanner of Eugene Downtown Lions, Pat Dotson, County Coordinator for distribution and stockpiling PPE for Lane County arranged for Heather Buch, Chair of County Commissioners to meet us for a “photo-op” during the hand-off. Several boxes of both gloves and gowns were given because they are two of the most needed items during this pandemic. Lane County commissioners also serve as the Board of Health and Commissioner Heather thanked Lions on behalf of Lane County for our generosity. When asked what else we could do to help, the answer was two-fold. As far as the crisis with COVID-19, the difficulty is with accurate reporting as well as acceptance of assistance (due to the stigma), particularly with younger adults. With regard to our neighbors affected by the wildfire: the need is for volunteers to deliver hot meals, to talk and walk people through steps to apply for Federal Emergency Management Assistance (FEMA), to lend an understanding ear and move them gradually to support to assist as lives are pieced together.”

The items delivered to Lane County Public Health included: 250 gowns, 16 boxes of small examination gloves, 33 boxes of medium examination gloves, 33 boxes of large examination gloves, 8 boxes of extra-large examination gloves, and many M-95 masks. The van was loaded with the supplies that were to be divided out to 6 area County Health Department offices.

Unloading the supplies.

Posing with the stack of supplies. A job well done.  

THE EUGENE DOWNTOWN LIONS CLUB MAKES A DONATION TO OREGON COMMISSION FOR THE BLIND:

Finding a need and then following through with the solution is exactly what happened recently and the explanation is quite simple. The following is a letter received by the Eugene Downtown Lions Club from OCB.

“The Eugene Office of the Oregon Commission for the Blind is extremely thankful for a very generous donation from our Eugene Downtown Lions Club.  Sixteen Ambutech folding white canes were donated to OCB for providing to blind and newly blind consumers (non-clients) who do not have the funds to purchase this critical aid.  A cane is the most important and valuable necessity for a blind person's mobility and independence.  Canes can break at the most inopportune times, and the Eugene OCB office has unexpected walk-ins (sometimes visiting from elsewhere) who cannot function if their cane is broken.  This generous donation allows the Eugene office of the Commission for the Blind to provide a replacement cane to blind persons or a “first” cane to a person who is newly blind whom may not have the funds to purchase one for themselves.  Lion Sharon Newton worked with OCB’s Michael Thomas to identify this need and order these much-needed canes.  Thank you Eugene Downtown Lions Club for this valuable donation and on-going relationship and support of the blind community members in Eugene!"  Mike Thomas, Certified Adaptive Technology Instructional Specialist

Lions Always Find a Way to Help

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the wildfires, many Oregonians have found themselves in extraordinarily difficult situations. The Holiday Farm wildfire displaced thousands of people who escaped with no more than the clothes on their backs.

Oregon Lions District R requested a $10,000 grant from Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) to help the firefighters and evacuees from the McKenzie Holiday Farm wildfire and the other wildfires in the District. The Eugene Downtown Lions Club requested a portion of those funds. In coordination with the Cascades Region, Oregon Wildfires In-Kind Donations Manager for the Red Cross the club was asked to donate snacks for the evacuees, firefighters, and volunteers.  The sweet and salty snacks provide individual servings of crackers, chips, pretzels, cookies, or granola bars to help sustain them and as a supplement, to the meals they were being served.

Approximately $2,000 worth of snacks were picked up at COSTCO, loaded onto the trailer, and taken to SnoTemp Cold Storage on Seneca Road where the crew offloaded it for storage. Until the snacks could be distributed to the folks evacuated from the Holiday Farm wildfire who were staying at The Graduate in downtown Eugene.

Six Lions worked on this project including Lion President Susan Pfanner, Lions Darlene Tomasec, Karen Norton, PID Ed Gear, James Koch, and Craig Ford.  Lion Susan’s husband John, the lone Rotarian from the Southtown Rotary Club drove the truck pulling the trailer with the direction of Red Cross volunteer Bruce Wesloski.

This just goes to show you what just a few Lions can accomplish.

Loaded COSTCO cart  Lion President Susan Pfanner with a COSTCO employee and Lion Susan’s Husband John – in Beaver Orange. 

Snacks are ready to be put on the pallet at Sno-Temp. 

 Lion Susan Pfanner and her husband John unloading the trailer at SnoTemp.

The work crew posing with the load ready to be kept safe at SnoTemp. L to R: Lions Darlene Tomasec, PID Ed Gear, Craig Ford, President Susan Pfanner, back row James Koch and Karen Norton.  

10 November 2020

Tim Chuey

Publicity Chairman

Eugene Downtown

Lions Club

Thank you to all our sponsors and auction bidders!  Your participation in our online auction will Help Us Help Others.

It's not too late to help.  You can make a donation to the Eugene Downtown Lions here.  Your tax-deductible donation helps us help others. We provide vision screenings for 4J elementary school students, glasses and hearing aids for those in need, Lane Community College scholarships, and grants to local non-profit agencies.

Eugene Downtown Lions would like to invite you to participate in our "Still Helping Us Help Others" Private Silent Auction, from Wednesday, Oct. 21st at noon to Thursday, Oct. 22nd at noon.

Our 1st Online Auction that ended on Oct. 16th was a learning experience. There were a few technical glitches in the process. The result of these glitches was that bidding for the Live Auction items closed earlier than it should have, not giving anyone a chance to be competitive at the end. 

In the sense of fairness & after talking to every winner of our Live Auction, it was decided that we would hold a Special Private Silent Auction for 24 hours, to give all bidders a fair chance to bid until the auction ends at noon on Thursday, Oct. 22nd. 

Please note-If you were a winning bidder we did charge your credit card, as agreed, for your package. If at the end of bidding at noon on Oct. 22nd you are outbid by someone else, we will then refund the amount charged to your credit card. Also, all packages that were won in the Live Auction have a minimum bid that is $10 over the previous winning bid.

As with the Live Auction, we are still taking donations. For each $100 or $250 donation your name will be entered in a drawing for a $100 Bi-Mart card. The drawing will be held once bidding is closed. These names will be added to the others that have already donated. Thank you so much for your continued support!

An email will be sent out on Tuesday, Oct. 20th with further instructions. Your user name & password that you received with our 1st auction, should still work. Please take another look at the packages & have fun.

If you have questions please email us at eugenedowntownlions@gmail.com or call 541-819-0574.

You can view the items and register by clicking here.

 

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Thank you for watching our LiveStream auction last night and congratulations to our high bidders. Our Silent Auction will remain open until Friday, October 16th at noon. You can also donate at our bidding site. All $250 donors will be entered in a drawing for one of 3 $100 Bi-Mart gift cards. All $100 donors will be entered in a drawing for one of 2 $100 Bi-Mart gift cards. You can bid or donate here.

 

Let's Get Started!

Our virtual live auction begins tonight, October 14th, at 6:30.  Be ready to bid and have some fun with Lions Sid Vorhees and Tim Chuey.  You could be the winner of a Hot Air Balloon Ride, Tandem Skydiving, Mexico Vacation, and more.

It's easy to get started.  Just register to bid, then tune in to our Livestream event tonight at 6:30.  Once you have registered, you can preview tonight's Live Auction items.

Our Silent Auction will remain open until Friday, October 16th at noon.  

Help Us Help Others

Our online auction is now open! 

Support us by becoming a bidder and looking at what we have available. Click on this link: Start Online Bidding and go to the Start Bidding button in the upper right corner. Enter your email and follow the instructions to complete your registration. 

Now you can bid on packages anywhere, from your home to your office and even on the go! It is incredibly simple and designed to help you easily manage your bids. Follow the steps below and get started now!

1. After registering, access the Online Bidding page by entering your username and password.

2. Select the package you wish to bid on.

3. Select Bid More, and choose your bid increment. 

Congratulations! You have already begun to support our cause. Other options include setting your own maximum bid on packages, favoriting packages you are interested in, and Buy Now to immediately purchase the package. Finally, you can use the Bids area from the Menu button to see what packages you have bid on. You will receive a notification whenever you are outbid, ensuring that you always know what the status of your bids are. 

Wondering what will be available? Register now and find out or take a look below to see some of the packages we have! 

•  Skydiving for 2 donated by Eugene Skydivers (Live Auction)

•  2 stunning framed oil paintings, painted & donated by local artist Robert Canaga (Live Auction)

•  Pampered Pet Gift Basket courtesy of K-9 Pet Salon & Day Care (Silent Auction)

 Now that the auction is open, please help us spread the word and tell others about our auction via this link: Start Online Bidding  

We hope you enjoy browsing and bidding on items! As always, thank you for the continued support!

Proceeds will support Eugene Downtown Lion's projects in our community. 

Click here to Register.  The link will take you to the Greater Giving Bidding Page.  Click on Start Bidding in the upper right-hand corner and create an account. 

A Lions Club Meeting that looks Very Different

 

For many years the Eugene Downtown Lions Club has held meetings at the Eugene Hilton Hotel downtown, then it became the Graduate. The meetings were held in various meeting and banquet rooms. That was until COVID-19 changed everything. The Club’s last meeting before the pandemic rules took effect was held on March 4, 2020. 

 

The old saying “Necessity is the Mother of invention” has proven itself very true and appropriate in this case. Newly-elected club President Susan Pfanner scheduled the first Coronavirus precautions meeting for Wednesday, August 12th at a unique location. A pavilion at Hendricks Park was the perfect spot on a beautiful August day with temperatures in the comfortable 70s. I must admit it was a very surrealistic scene with Lions wearing face coverings slowly gathering and saying long-delayed greetings. Gone were the handshakes, hugs, and friendly smiles of old that were replaced by self-distancing and mask covered faces that allowed only eye contact and the sounds of muffled voices.

We totaled 17 Lions altogether and everyone brought their own lunch. The only time masks were removed was while members were eating. The meeting started off just like any other meeting with the singing of “America” (My Country Tis Of Thee), the Pledge of Allegiance, and an invocation. Lion Dr. Craig Ford introduced a new member to the club Dr. Frank Ross who is an audiologist who moved here from Florida to join Audiology Professionals. 

Lion President Susan introduced our special guest speaker Lion District R Governor Linda Stent (mask and all) who provided an overview of her biography and history with Lions. Her motto is “Forward! Upward! Onward!” as a vision for District R. With social distancing rules she explained that the Lions Virtual Leadership Experience is offered to all Lions for a three-day period (two-hour sessions) from September 25-27. The annual District R 2021 Convention is planned to be held in early February at the Florence Convention Center. Lion DG Linda said she looks forward to welcoming the Eugene Downtown Lions there provided we are able to meet in person.

 

Taking care of old business Lion Past President Mary Fechtel Voorhees presented the “Lion of the Year” award to Lion President Susan Pfanner. She presented the Ed Gear award to Lion Jim Origliosso and a “Vision and Fellowship” award was presented to Lion Wes Reynolds.

The next Downtown Lions Club meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, September 23 at the Hendricks Park pavilion for another outdoor safe gathering. Here’s to the day when meetings can go back to what we lovingly called “normal.”

 

Pictures: 1) (img_0490) 2) Lion President Susan Pfanner opens the meeting. (img_0480) 3) (img_0485) 4)  (img_0496) 5) (img_0495) 6) (img_0494)

 

5 September 2020

Tim Chuey

Publicity Chairman

Eugene Downtown Lions Club

Hendricks Park Pavilion meeting place. 

 

 

Lion District R Governor Linda Stent addresses the meeting. 

Lion PP Mary Fechtel Vorhees presents “Lion of the Year” award to

Lion President Susan Pfanner

Lion Jim Origliosso receives the “Ed Gear” award. 

A “Vision and Fellowship” award is given to Lion Wes Reynolds.

​Heartfelt House

The Heartfelt House, the patient family guest house on the PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend campus, provides a tranquil, no-cost "home away from home" for out-of-town families while their loved ones are being cared for at Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend or University District.

The Eugene Downtown Lions donated towards the building of the Heartfelt House and continue to support the guests with monthly donations to the pantry, library, or other specific needs.  We also have members that volunteer regularly.

President-elect Lion Susan Pfanner delivers bags of food for the pantry and other requested items.

Lion Marie Badagnani Volunteers weekly.

The Eugene Downtown Lions hope you are all doing well. Remember to practice social distancing, stay home if possible, and know that better times are ahead.

 Lion Ed Gear presents the plaque to Robert Foster

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Lions Clubs International is the world's largest service club organization with more than 1.4 million members in approximately 46,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world.