Plano Early Lions Roar!

Marek, Nancy Claire Geiger McConnell

Passed away on February 20th in Plano, TX. Born January 2nd, 1938 in Fort Wayne, IN to Rev. Leroy and Violet Rush Geiger. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband’s parents, her sister Gladys Geiger Price, and her former husband Jerry McConnell. She is survived by her husband, Lion Bill Marek, her stepson, Lion Steve Marek, her son Scott McConnell and his wife, two grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

After graduating from North Central College, Naperville, IL, in 1959, Nancy Marek taught elementary school in Park Ridge, IL. She then taught in US Department of Defense schools on Okinawa for three years and in Wurzburg, Germany for two years. She taught Kindergarten through Fourth grade in a variety of places. Nancy earned her MA degree from Texas Woman’s University in December 1991, and married Lion Bill Marek on January 15th, 1994. She was honored with a lifetime membership in the State of Texas PTA while teaching at Wells Elementary in Plano. She was a member of the Plano Retired Teachers Association and traveled for the United Church of Christ national office as a consultant for churches in Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 13th at 2:00 pm at St. Paul’s Evangelical and Reformed Church, UCC, 6464 East Lovers Lane, Dallas, TX 75214, with reception in Fellowship Hall to follow. Memorials may be sent in her name to the Memorial Fund at St. Paul’s.

Posted by Lion Howard Harkness, Immediate Past President, Plano Early Lions.

I’m live-blogging this morning from Grand Prairie, where the Grand Prairie Host Lions are hosting the District 2X-1 Midwinter Conference. I am joined here by Lions Ken, Cyndie, Mike, Dee, and Don. Unfortunately, Lion Andrew wasn’t able to make it.

The conference started with a very moving presentation on the Snowball Express. I regret that I wasn’t able to be there, but Lion Ken and Lion Cyndie were, and they got their pictures prominently displayed in the presentation. I’m just going to have to arrange to take the time off to do this next December.

Next on the agenda was a presentation by International Director Beverly Stebbins (2E-2), also on the Snowball Express.

After the announcements, and distribution of awards by PDG Alic Conway, we had the student speakers contest. I won’t know the results until after lunch, but I felt like Sam Scott was a powerful contender. I’ll follow up on this entry this afternoon, after I learn who the winners are, and I will also add some photos of the participants.

UPDATE: Sam took first place again this year. Here are some photos of the event.

	Sam studying his speech before the contest.
	The Panel of Judges.
	Photo-op of the Student Speakers Contest Chairman and the 6 contestants at the end of the presentations. Photos were not permitted during the contest.
	After the awards presentation, Sam was invited to give his 1st-place-winning speech to the entire conference.

Snowball Express was a unique experience that I and a number of other lions from Plano Early Lions and other Lions clubs had the pleasure of participating in. Snowball Express is a group that brings together the children of service members who have lost their lives in the service of our county. The children are shown a good time, provided the opportunity to talk and interact with other children who have had similar experiences, and get chance to see how much we appreciate them for the sacrifice their parnet made.

This year the 5 day experience was held in Dallas. That first day there were people from all different lions clubs, various other service organizations, and local military personnel all there for one purpose to make their trip a easy and painless as possible. We works to get the families settled into their hotels, to ensure that family’s had their luggage and any other belongings. The family’s were placed on buses that took them to three down-town hotels and the buses were escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders who are a group of motorcyclist enthusiasts who ride for any number of military events.

On Saturday after the Plano Parade, I worked with a number of other lions serving lunch to the families at the the new Cowboy’s Stadium. Here the kids got to interact and get autographs from a number of NFL players. The also got to play a number of games including throwing the football with former and current NFL players, various bounce houses, and just having a great deal of fun. There was also entertainment from a number of country singers as well as the Lt. Dan band which was formed by Gary Sinise who played Lt. Dan in the movie Forrest Gump and worked through the USO to put on shows for our troops.

But the thing that stuck with me the most was talking to a family who came in shirts with a picture of the father they lost in Iraq. The son told me how glad he was to attend Snowball Express because he got to meet people who understood his loss and find men who were willing to play catch with him. This really brought home to me the reason for Snowball Express and cemented my desire to assist again when Snowball Express is hosted in Ft. Worth next year.

Click here to see pictures

Here are some photos of the Christmas Parade.

I’ll add more when I get them!

Lion PDG Carolyn Dorman spoke at the September 5th meeting about the upcoming Snowball Express IV to be held in Dallas December 9th-13th.  Snowball Express is a service project for the emotional support of children who have lost a parent in military service since 9/11. There are 9 hotels involved in this project, all in downtown Dallas. We expect at least 2000 participants in this year’s activities.

If you wish to volunteer, see the PELC Roar! newsletter for details.

Our Club unanimously endorses Lion Ken Gleason as a candidate for Lions 2X1 2nd Vice District Governor.  For his brochure, we took this picture, with Lion Ken saying “I Want You…to Vote for me”.

We had really good attendance at our club meeting on August 15th, probably from many members wanting to see and hear from State Student Speaker Contest Winner Sam Scott.

Here is Sam presenting his winning speech, “Drug Abuse – Paradise Lost”, which he presented successfully at the Club, District, and State level competitions, earning scholarships totaling $4000.  And since he was only a junior, he gets to try again this year, hopefully to add to his scholarship winnings.

Past District Governor Kathy Fletcher inducted our newest member, Lion George Hamilton, at our meeting on August 15th.

I had the privilege of riding in the August 1st (First Annual) Plano Fun Ride. This was a fund-raiser for the Relief Nursery of Collin County. Right now, the RNCC is having some problems with their website, but I’ll post a link when it comes back online.

The club helped with volunteers at the ride, and we all had a good time. When I found out that they had enough volunteers, I just paid the entry fee and did the 5-mile ride (ok, I’m a wimp, but next year, I’ll go for the 10-mile ride). I did manage to finish fairly early, because I wanted to get back before it started raining. Lion Karen snapped this photo of me just after I got to the finish line. I took some pictures of her, but she didn’t send them to me (claimed they didn’t turn out or some other lame excuse — she’s just camera-shy). The weather held out for us, even long enough for me to run some errands for the ride organizers afterwards.

Lion Karen Marks is the member that got the club interested in helping with the Fun Ride.

Posted by Lion Howard Harkness

Now that I’m no longer president of the club, I should have a little more time for other things — including being more active in some projects that I had to delegate to others last year.

One item I really look forward to is passing along the button that says “Everything’s my fault this year!” to Lion Gordon Settle when I see him on Friday. I’ve already reassigned the president@planolions.org email address to him. Lion Gordon is a real go-getter, and I will be working to make his presidential year better than mine was.

The next big thing coming up is the Independence Day Parade, which is hosted by the PELC each year. This will be the 3rd year since we took it on. Unfortunately, the economy has hit us hard, too — so the parade will be somewhat smaller this year.

Which may not be entirely a bad thing. Saturday is likely to be really warm, and it will be good to be done before the heat of the day gets really out of hand. If you are planning to come out to watch it, be sure to cover up with sunscreen, bring plenty of water, and wear a brimmed hat!

UPDATE: The parade was a great success! Here are some photos of the parade winners –

Best Musical Entry, Narrow Trail Cowboy Church

Best Use Of Theme, Democratic Party of Collin County

Best Float -- Conner Harrington Republican Women

Grand Marshal -- VFW Post 4380