June 2020 President’s Message

Hello Lions,

To all the Father’s out there, “Happy Father’s Day!”.  I know that everyone, HK Lions as well as community, are disappointed that our Hawaii Kai Lions Father’s Day breakfast was cancelled.  And, although businesses are beginning to open and people start going to public areas, I think most people still feel it’s safer to stay at home and limit socializing until a vaccine is available.  Based on this, cancelling the breakfast was a prudent decision by the Breakfast committee to keep our Lions as well as the community safe besides, it would to determine how many people would actually purchase and come to the breakfast.

Members of the Board were assigned a list of club members to call. The purpose of the call was to contact members and see how they were doing.  I had an interesting call with Tom Jones, who as many of you know, owns the Gyotaku restaurants. They stayed open for takeout orders (which I had several times).  He mentioned the additional safety measures they will have when they start dine-in service.  He also mentioned that his wife, Jan has made over 300 masks. So, they both have been keeping busy. He hopes that we will have the pancake breakfast next year since missed the last two.

I wanted to recognize Carole Wee, and Merv, who made cloth masks using the gray/maroon club shirt material.  It’s a nice and well-made mask and she even has an opening so you can insert an additional filter if you wish.  I will be sending out a separate email on how you can pick up your mask. Thank you, Carole!!!

This will be my last bulletin since my term ends in June.  It seemed to have gone by pretty quickly, especially due to the COVID-19 lockdown.  I want to Thank the Board for helping me this year.  And, of course, all of you for helping with the projects and attending the member meetings.   I learned a lot, from running the meetings, to how to get things done for the club…good experience!

I still have some unfinished business, such as getting new Club shirts, updating our Club by-laws and constitution, creating activities documentation, and enhancing our club Website/social media.  Hopefully, we will be able to get together soon, at least in small groups.

These are uncommon times and it may be awhile for us to feel comfortable again, but we need to start thinking of services that we can do to address the “new normal”.  With people’s lifestyle changes of “work from home”, self-distancing, or even unemployment, what services can Lions provide?  And, re-assess the importance of projects, like rescue tube because it makes a difference in saving lives.  COVID-19 and drowning both could kill a person, shouldn’t we give them the same priority?

Thank you!

Ells.