Past Events 2020 - 2021

 

Officer Installation 2021-2022

On Tuesday evening June 15, 2021 the Middletown Lions Club held its Installation of Officers for 2021-2022. Region Chairperson (RC)/2nd Vice District Governor elect (VDG), Teri Schlosser from the Portland Lions Club conducted the ceremony.

 

 

The photo above is of Region Chairperson (RC)/2nd Vice District Governor (VDG) elect, Teri Schlosser conducting the Installation of Officers ceremony.

 

The photo above is of RC/VDG elect, Teri receiving a small bronze lion statuette from club President, Ellie Paules.

Congratulations to all of our new officers for next year. Have Fun!

 

Middletown Inducts Newest Member

On Tuesday evening April 20, 2021 the Middletown Lions Club finally met in person once again at the Athenian Diner in Middletown. This was to be a very special evening.

We had three special guests that evening: 2nd Vice District Governor 23B (VDG) , Dave Roberts and Jackie Martin from the Barkhamsted Lions Club, and Past District Governor (PDG), Mary Krogh of the East Hampton Lions Club.

PDG Mary had called Zone Chairperson, Howard Geltman who was also First Vice President of the Middletown Lions Club earlier in March, and told him an incredible story about a young woman, Catie Yarlott who had gone through a major injury and many surgeries (with probably more to come) who came back from almost dying from those injuries. PDG Mary told Howard that Catie lived in Middletown with her twelve year old daughter Alexis and mother Ellen.

Howard called Catie and they talked for quite a while. Catie told him that she was very interested in helping others and wanted to become a member of the Middletown Lions Club. Howard told Catie that he would be very honored to become her sponsor.

A phone call was made by Howard to club President, Elderrean Ellie Paules telling her about Catie and her enthusiasm for life and wanting to become a lion. He told Ellie about Catie's injuries and she too was excited about having Catie join our club.

Howard contacted each member and told them about Catie and all were very excited about having her join us.

Everything fell into place nicely. Catie's membership application was approved by the club in early March, and Howard had started her orientation prior to her induction. She had been placed on the roles of Lions Clubs International (LCI) just in case next year Catie wished to run for a club office. Catie's enthusiasm really made an impression on Howard. He also invited Catie's mother, sister, son, and daughter to be his guests for dinner that evening when she would be inducted as a lion.

At our dinner meeting at the Athenian, Catie brought her entire cheering section: her mother, Ellen, sister, Annie, son, Tyler, and daughter, Alexis to enjoy the evening having dinner with all of us and watching Catie being inducted as a lion by PDG Mary and having her sponsor, Howard standing proudly by her side.

During the Induction Ceremony many nice photos were taken by incoming club Tail Twister, Sandra Reynolds.

 

The photo in the center shows PDG Mary Krogh (left) inducting Catie, (Catie in the center listening intently to what PDG Mary was saying), and proud sponsor Howard (right) looking on.

 

 

The photo above is of Catie and her two children: son Tyler to the left and daughter Alexis to the right of her mother.

After Catie was inducted, she was formally introduced to our members and guests by PDG Mary.

Just to let you know, Catie and her family have been close friends with PDG Mary and her husband lion Ted Krogh (not present that evening) for many years. It was a real honor for PDG Mary to be the person to induct Catie that evening.

Congratulations, Catie! Welcome aboard.

 

Hoppin' Around Crystal Lake

Members of the Middletown Lions Club got together on Wednesday evening March 17 to package candy for the upcoming Easter Candy Drive-By around Crystal Lake.

A whos-who of Easter candy enthusiasts got together at club President, Ellie's place to bag candy. Members included: Ellie Paules, Marty Knight, Richard Pelletier, Tammy Heckstall and Catie Yarlott. They packaged 418 assorted bags of candy over a three-hour period. Now, I have it on good authority that some of these nice candy preparers were doing the “bunny-hop” while preparing the candy. My sources are still looking for photos of that.

On Saturday, March 20, the Middletown Department of Recreation sponsored an Easter Candy Drive-By around Crystal Lake in Middletown.

Members of the Middletown Lions Club dressed in costume for that fun filled day. Over 600 bags of pre-packaged candy were given out to children in all sorts of costumes waiting for that yummy candy.

Our members and friends assisted in giving out the tasty treats. They included: Audrey Klein and her friend Sue Bright, Richard Pelletier, Sandra Reynolds, Tammy Heckstall with her guide dog Olive and husband Lee, and Ellie Paules.

 

 

 

Everyone had a blast. Sandra decorated an Easter basket. The Easter Bunny hopped around making its rounds to visit each group. This was a fun filled event that everyone looked forward to.

Looking at the photos above I still can't figure out who was guarding the candy!

 

Halloween Drive-By

The Middletown Department of Recreation and Youth Services held a Halloween drive-by candy give-a-way at Crystal Lake this year due to COVID-19. The event is normally held on the Middletown Green.

The Middletown Lions Club participated in this event as it has on the Middletown Green. The candy drive-by was from 11am until 3pm or until candy ran out.

Middletown lions Richard Pelletier, Marty Knight and Tammy Heckstall put 135 bags of candy together earlier in the week. Club President Ellie Paules put together 75 bags of candy as well.

The day of the event Middletown lions Tammy Heckstall accompanied by her guide dog, Olive and her husband Lee Heckstall, Audrey Klein and her friend Sue Bright (a prospective lion), Sandra Reynolds and Debra Royce all participated in giving candy out to the children.

Additional candy had to be purchased during the event. About 300 bags of candy were given out to many happy trick or treaters.

 

The photo above is of (from left to right) Debra Royce dressed up as a bottle of ketchup, Tammy Heckstall and her guide dog, Olive dressed up as butterflys, and Jeanna Pellino.

 

District Governor Visitation / Member Induction

On Tuesday evening October 20, 2020 the Middletown Lions Club was honored by a visitation from District 23C Governor, Frank Rowe, his wife Past District Governor (PDG), Laura Rowe, Region Chair, Maryjane Malavasi and Zone Chair, Howard Geltman.

We had a full house for this visitation because DG Frank would also be inducting our two newest members Jacque Contreras and Lee Heckstall prior to him speaking to our club.

 

 

 

After District Governor, Frank finished with the induction of our two new members he then talked to the club and guests.

 

 

We thank District Governor, Frank for such an inspiring talk and we congratulate our two newest members Jacque and Lee.

 

Eyeglass Extravaganza 2020

District 23C's 9th Annual Eyeglass Extravaganza was held on Saturday, October 3, 2020 outside the Lebanon Senior Center, 37R West Town Street, Lebanon, CT. This event was supposed to be help last spring but because of the COVID-19 outbreak it was postponed until now.

Second Vice District Governor, Sue Fisher was the coordinator for this event along with Global Membership Team Coordinator, Ken Tucker. with many lions assisting including Terri and Howard Geltman from the Middletown Lions Club. They were the official eyeglasses counters.

In fact, Second Vice District Governor (VDG), Sue called them the ?�Count and Countess of eyeglasses". Both Terri and Howard have done this for the past three years and is one of their favorite events to participate in.

Many clubs had eyeglasses sorted and packaged but Terri and Howard sorted and counted about 5,000 pairs of eyeglasses at the event this year.

 

The photo above is of Terri and Howard Geltman sorting and counting eyeglases. The eyeglasses were sorted into readers, sunglasses, and prescription eyeglasses.

 

The photo above is of Terri and Howard with all of the tally sheets of all eyeglasses counted.

This year over 25,000 pairs of eyeglasses were sorted, counted, and packaged. Over 190,000 pairs of eyeglasses have been collected, sorted, and packaged for recycling over the past nine years.

We thank all of the various lions clubs of eastern CT (Tolland, Middlesex, Windham, and New London counties) for collecting eyeglasses that will be cleaned, repaired and recycled throughout the world to people in need.

 

Induction of Members / Installation of Officers

On Tuesday, June 30, 2020 the Middletown Lions Club held its last meeting of the lions year (July 1st thru June 30th).

Our guests for the evening were District 23C Governor, Diana Grise and husband lion Donald (who was our photographer for the evening), Zone Chair, Maryjane Malavasi, Sarah Moore, Director of Philanthropy at Middlesex Hospital, and Kit McKenna RN, Diabetes Coordinator for the hospital.

 

The photo above is of Kit McKenna RN, Diabetes Coordinator at Middlesex Hospital (left), Sarah Moore, Director of Philanthropy at middlesex Hospital (center) receiving a check for $12,425 from District Governor, Diana Grise (right).

 

District Governor, Diana that evening would be performing her last two induction and installation ceremonies for her term.

District Governor, Diana performed the induction of Jeanna Pellino and Ada Spillane. They had become members in March but because of COVID-19, were not able to meet to formally induct them as lions into our club.

 

 

Howard spoke to the club for a few minutes about his two years as club President and what it meant to him. He thanked all of the members for working so hard as a team for the past two years. He told the club of all its service activity achievements during this past year.

DG, Diana then installed all of the officers for 2020-2021. Because of the needed social distancing, no photos of each member being installed were taken.

After the installation ceremony, Immediate Past President, Howard transferred the bell and gavel to President, Ellie Paules and wished her much success for the next year.

 

 

President Ellie said she did not know if she could fill Howard's big shoes and then presented him with a gift from the club.

 

 

Howard presented District Governor, Diana with a cross pen as a gift from the club for being a great District Governor for the past year and for conducting our induction of new members, as well as, the installation of officers.

 

 

 

After waiting since March to finally have a club meeting in person which included an Induction of our two newest members Jeanna and Ada, and an Installation of Officers - the wait was worth it!

Congratulations to our newest members and to our new officers for the next year.

 

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