Sept 12th, 2009 Heritage Days Breakfast

Once again we as the Pleasant Grove Lions Club we had the privilege of serving breakfast to all those who wished to have breakfast at the Pleasant Grove Heritage Days celebration. We served over 350 people. We appreciate so much the services of Bob Lloyd and his equipment (grills and such). He made a very significant contribution. We also want to thank members of the Payson Lions Club, Alexa and other from the "Extension" program from District 28T and students from BYU (a group put together by Bryan Rust). Bryan is a Secretary of the Utah County Business Lions Club. It takes many hands to make a project such as this work. As we all help each other the efforts and projects of Lionism will make a difference, not only in providing glasses for the needy but glasses for third world countries and scholarships for worthy students furthering their education and leadership skill sets.

President Milton Taylor and the rest of the Pleasant Grove Lions Club want to thank you, the public in your contributions to our club so we can continue providing valuable service in the Pleasant Grove area.

Below are pictures taken at the Heritage Days Breakfast.







The picture to the left is our Lions Symbol on the pavilion that the Pleasant Grove Lions Club had built in years past.

We all had a good time. Come join us for this great event next year.
We are always looking for good people who want to serve their fellow man and help make life a better experience for all. Please give us a call and come join with us.

Pleasant Grove Heritage Days

The Pleasant Grove Lions Club will be serving a delicious hot breakfast again this year at Pleasant Grove Heritage Days. Volunteers are welcome to help us on this project so that we can provide glasses to those who cannot afford them and other worthwhile charitable project. Contact Jo at 801-580-3888 to sign up as a volunteer. Adults can eat for $5 and children under 12 for $3. Come join us and help our very own lions club make a difference in sight saving projects. We will have pictures to post after heritage days.

Summer Social Auguest 15th, 2009

Our club had it's annual summer social at the home of Lynn and Darline Seely. Thank you Lynn and Darline. The weather was very cooperative and pleasant. We had Katherine Willis who the Lions club helped support at Girl's State. She shared with us about her experience at Girl's State and the leadership skills she had the opportunity to learn. After her remarks she played several musical selections on her cello. She is very talented. She plays with the Temple Square Orchestra. That is way cool. Pictures will be forth coming.

Katherine Willis

August 1, 2009 Board Meeting and Scholarship Presentation

We are looking forward to serving breakfast at Pleasant Grove Heritage Days, September 12th. We are always looking for good volunteers. If you would like to help call Jo at 801-580-3888.



Bethany Bunting who will be attending Snow College this coming year received a scholarship from the Pleasant Grove Lions Club..

President Milt Taylor presenting Bethany with $500.00 scholarship check.

She would like to be a elementary school teacher one day. We were so impressed with her. We are always glad when we can make a difference in the education of a young person who really wants to make life better for others.

Bethany with her parents David and Elizabeth Bunting.

July 18, 2009 Pleasant Grove Lions Club Dinner Meeting

The lions club had the privilege of hearing from our Boys State and Girls State scholarship winners plus an educational scholarship winner to Snow College. Jonathan Browne as the Boys State winner (father Chip Browne), Krista Pease Girls State winner (mother Tracy) and Kaitlyn Waters educational scholarship (Diane). See pictures below.




Kaitland played a violin solo for us.


President Milt taylor giving Kaitland her scholarship check


The dinner was catered by Joel and Laurie Ellington. They have done this before and they do a wonderful job. Great cooks. Laurie is Jim and Anne Fisher's daughter.

We do these type of scholarships once a year to try and promote leadership among our nation's youth as one day they will be our future leaders.

Come join us in Lionism and help us made a real difference in our community. The community is only as good as the service that is rendered by concerned people and service organizations that care. It is not what your community can do for you but what you can do for your community. There are many wonderful opportunities not only in our community but the world as a whole. The more members we have the more we can give to our community. So if you have ever come across occasions where you have seen where a lions club has changed a community for the better contact us and see if Lionism can be a vehicle for you to not only add richness to your life but enrich others as well.

There more information about Lionism (Lions Clubs) go to http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/index.php or give us a call.

Strawberry Days, June 20, 2009

Yearly we as a Lions Club participate in the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days Parade. Below are pictures our our scholarship winners and members of the lions club helping out in the parade.

Lions club members and scholarship winners.

Here are our scholarship winners.

Lions Jo Taylor is our resident clown.

This is one way that the Pleasant Grove Lions Club supports Pleasant Grove City activities. We also used our club house for those preparing all the strawberries for the festival.

Come join with the Lions Club as we continue to serve our community and make it a better place to live.

Pleasant Grove Straberry Days - June 20th

The Club will be involved in getting strawberry's ready for Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days. We will have an entry in the parade on Saturday, June 20th. If you would like to assist us in this effort please get in touch with us. After this event hopefully we will have some pictures to share.

May 23, 2009 - Humanitarian Project

We had a wonderful time painting cars for children who live in Afghanistan. When the cars are finished they will go with Roseann Gunther's humanitarian effort to Afghanistan later this summer. It was nice to help make a difference in the lives of children who have very little. After our efforts we had a Kentucky Fried Chicken Lunch. Below are some of the pictures taken while we were working on the cars.

April 18 Humanitarian Dinner

The entertainment for our evening was two piano duets by Nathan Brown and his daughter Sarah. Nathan is Anne Fisher's nephew. Sarah studied piano with her father as a beginner, but is now a student with another teacher. She recently was the featured and only pianist in a solo recital, with the exception of two duet numbers with her father. They live in Riverton.

The Pleasant Grove Lions Club was presented with 360 pairs of used eyeglasses collected by a young Lindon girl, Courtney Ricks, as a service project. Courtney and her parents, Glen and Valarie Ricks, brought several large boxes filled with the glasses. Courtney had prepared a poster showing her project as a candidate for Little Miss Lindon this year. Each candidate chooses a service project as part of the pageant. Courtney chose collecting eyeglasses because she herself needs eyeglasses, and she wanted to help others who need eyeglasses and cannot afford them. These 360 pairs will go to a Third World country where there is great need. Courtney knew that Lions Clubs devote great efforts to sight conservation all over the world.

Pleasant Grove Lions Club presented the Humanitarian of the Year Award for 2009 to Dr. Kenneth E. Hooton, optometrist, at their regular April meeting. He has been given this award in recognition of his generous and ongoing help to the efforts of the Pleasant Grove Lions Club in eyesight conservation and service to the communities. Dr. Hooton and members of his family have traveled several times in past years to Mexico where he did eye exams and distributed eyeglasses. Dr. Hooton's office is in American Fork. Accepting the award for him in his absence were his wife Angie Hooton and their daughter Jannie and their office manager Marie.

Several times a year, the Pleasant Grove Lions Club receives requests for help with acquiring eyeglasses for those in need of them. Often, the schools will determine that a student is having problems with eyesight and can't afford treatment, so they are referred to the Lions Club. Dr. Hooton has generously donated the eye exams, and as the need for eyeglasses is determined, the Lions Club pays for those.

Dr. Hooton and his staff have "read" hundreds of pairs of used eyeglasses donated to the Lions Club for humanitarian projects. The eyeglasses must be "read" to determine what the prescriptions reading is, then they can be matched to a recipient who needs that particular prescription. The eyeglasses go with various humanitarian service groups as they make these trips to Third World countries.

Pleasant Grove Lions Club was able to send a large number of eyeglasses with a humanitarian group who are preparing to go to India in May. The group is "Unite for Sight", a national organization. Jennie and Cody Forsyth, representing the group, presented their information to the Lions Club early in March.Cody is one of the students from UVU who will be volunteering with this project and they will be in India from May 10 through May 20, working mostly in remote villages. The volunteers and interns will be working with optometrists and ophthalmologists who will examine and treat those who need help with eyesight problems, even with needed surgery. The eyeglasses they will take with them are cleaned and packaged by Lions Club members and volunteers. Then after having been read by a qualified optometrist, they are labeled with the proper prescription reading, to be matched to the person receiving the glasses.

Pleasant Grove Lions Club is part of Lions Club International whose mission, in part, is sight conservation and service. Lions clubs "Recycle for Sight" projects help people all over the world. Pleasant Grove Lions Club would welcome any service minded person or family to become part of their group serving the communities. Please contact Milt, 801 913 2533 or Darlene, 801 785 2669 for information.

Eye Screening April 22-23 at the Lions Club building

April 22-23 will be our children's eye screening clinic. This will be held at our club building at 600 E Center, Pleasant Grove, UT. If you have questions you can call Darlene 801-785-2669. We are pleased to offer this service periodically to find children that need further eye care.

If anybody would like to help us expand our efforts as a Lions Club to made a difference in our community please contact President Milt 801-913-2533.

Upcome Events

April 4 at 8 AM the Pleasant Grove Lions Club will have elections for next year officers.

April 22-23 the Lions Club will be holding a City wide eye screening at our club house at 600 E Center in Pleasant Grove. Contact Darlene at 801-785-2669 if you have questions. Not only will we be doing eye screening but could also use parent volunteers.

March 21, 2009 PIZZA Dinner

We had a wonderful time at our March Lions Club Pizza dinner at our club house at 600 E Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

We had the privilege of having Joel Ellington (son-in-law) of Anne Fisher who has serve in the military in Afghanistan. As you see in these pictures Joel is dressed in the apparel that you would expect to see Afghanistan people wearing. Along with the authentic apparel he brought some items he had with him while in Afghanistan including an Afghan rug. It was so interesting to learn of the people and their culture. We are so thankful for the great service our military personnel are doing. As members of the Pleasant Grove Lions Club we know what service is all about. Service is our motto.

Feburary 21st Dinner Meeting

As always we have a fine time at our dinner meetings. We had the pleasure of having Natalie and James Thompson speak to us.

Natalie received new glasses via of our Lions Club and she shared with us her special experience in getting the glasses and the difference it has and is making in her life. She was very impressed with the optometrist we use. The first picture is Natalie speaking to us about her getting her glasses and the real difference it has made for her. The second picture is Natalie sharing with us the family history she has done on the family line of her native American Husband James.

James is a full blooded Dakota Sue Indian. He shared with us stories of his wonderful heritage and some life changing stories. He had a chart of some of his family history plus artifacts that he shared with us and we were able to see and handle.

This was a great evening. We not only gained valuable insight of the heritage we have in America, we also were reminded of the difference the Pleasant Grove Lions Club makes in regards to our sight saving programs.

We are looking forward to a couple of humanitarian projects in the next couple of months.

Eye Screening Jan 20 - 28, 2009

Pleasant Lions Club conducted photo screening for children ages three to five at the Funshine Early Learning Center which is sponsored by Pleasant Grove City.

A total of 220 students were screened, 22 students were referred for further follow up by their personal optometrists or pediatricians.

Lions members donated 20 ½ hours to the photo screen project. Parent volunteers donated 28 volunteer hours for the project. Parents helped fill out forms and shuffled children between to the classroom and conference room. Some parents helped read to the children waiting to have their eye screening done. Parents and volunteers were very happy to have us come give this service. They couldn't believe such a simple technique could provide so much information to an optometrist. The director, plans on us returning next year to screen the children at the center.

The Lions Club express a special thanks to the local optometrists and their staff for helping with this valuable service to the community.

What is Photo Screening

A young child does not know that he has a vision problem. He can't tell how well he should be able to see. Most young children under the age of 5 are not capable of communicating effectively to solve the problem.

Lions Photo Screening is to identify children whose eyes may have some type of defect, which if left untreated may lead to a life-time of vision problems or blindness.. Photo Screening can detect improperly aligned eyes, cataracts, near sightedness, far sightedness drooping eyelid, astigmatism, and other amblyopic (dull vision) factors. Some far and near sightedness is normal in young children.

Photo screen is not a diagnostic tool, so we advise the parents to have the child seen by an eye doctor to get proper diagnosis and treatment as may be needed. Lions screen only children ages 1 through 5. The child sits on a chair, looks at a camera and two pictures are taken. There is no physical contact with the child. The pictures are taken to a local optometrist to read. If further diagnosis is needed, the parents are contacted.

If you are interested in scheduling a photo screening for your
pre-school in April, call Darlene 785-2669.

Scouting and Lionism - Jan 17, 2009

At our monthly dinner meeting we had the pleasure of having Brennen Darger as Eagle scout share with us his eagle project. He collected over a 150 pair of glasses, had them washed and prescription read. These glasses will be taken to needy recipients in India sometime in May. We as lions are so grateful for Brennen for the difference he has made in providing a service that will give the less fortunate a chance to see better. The first two pictures are with Preisdent Taylor and Brennen. President Taylor in the first picture is presenting Brennen with a Utah Lion pen. His last picture was taken March 8th, 2009 at his court of honor.


Joy Lloyd and Loretta Tymm provided a couple of wonderful musical numbers for us.

There are many opportunities as a lion to make a difference in your community. Service just makes you feel good.

Christmas Service - December 20th, 2009

About 7 of us lions had the opportunity of putting together and delivering 21 food baskets to needing families in the Pleasant Grove and Lindon area. We found this to be a very desirable activity and see the lives that were blessed. We chose to do this rather than our normal Christmas party. We decided it was better to feed needy families rather than feed ourselves. It is great to be a Lion!!!