Cambridge Lions Remember our Veterans

Volunteers, led by Lion Bill Lilienthal, set out flags on the veterans graves at Northwood Cemetery including those marked G.A.R. Approximatley 1500 flags were placed to honor those who served. Todd Simmons gave a brief report on the history of the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic), a fraternal organization of those who had been members of the Union Army in the Civil War.

Cahoon Desribes Ohio State Convention

“Imagine how much fun it would be to perform Script Ohio. Now try to imagine doing that if you were blind,” said Lion Tom Cahoon to his fellow members of the Cambridge Lions Club. Cahoon is the deputy district governor of Ohio Lions District 13-G.

“My wife and I attended the Ohio Lions Convention and the Ohio School for the Blind band was the entertainment,” Cahoon said. “They played Scrip Ohio, but the space was too small for them to march. The sousaphone player did step out to dot the i.”

“You know they have to memorize all their music because they can’t see it. Can you imagine doing that? They have several public performances during the year including playing at one of The Ohio State University Skull Sessions before a football game.”

Lion Bill Wagner attended the Ohio School for the Blind. “I played trumpet in the band,” Wagner said. “The director used to beat his baton on his music stand. Sometimes he’d beat me on the head with it when I turned around to talk to the trombone players.”

“Sometimes the trombone player would rest his slide on my shoulder. That made it hard to concentrate on the music. We had a lot of fun in the band.”

The band has an ongoing campaign to finance their upcoming trip to the 2010 Rose Bowl Parade. Each band member will be accompanied by a sighted person. In a show of support the club, encouraged by Oscar Brown and others, raised five hundred dollars towards the band’s eighty-thousand dollar budget for the trip.

Al Brandel, Lions International president and his wife, Dr. Maureen Murphy, attended to Ohio Lions Convention. “He asked me how things were going with our Cambridge Lions Club,” Cahoon said. “I told him things were going great.”

“When a member of one of the other Lions clubs asked me how we were managing to get so many new members, I told him that we have a great tail twister, great officers, great members and we have lots of fun,” Cahoon said. The tail twister is a member of the club who offers some good-natured kidding of members at meetings. The current tail twister is Tim McKim.

“We only need three more to have one hundred members,” Cahoon said. “Lions is the fastest growing service club in the world. Ohio leads the nation in new members. Our district 13-G is the fastest growing district in Ohio, and Cambridge is the fastest growing club in the district.”

“Lions clubs are also being organized in China,” Cahoon said. “It’s the only non-governmental organization of its kind allowed to come into the country. When we were invited to give a presentation to the Chinese government our leaders said that we had fifteen million dollars that we wanted to use to open a hospital for eye surgery.”

“Through those efforts over a millions cornea transplants have helped prevent blindness in China. When the government asked what else they could do, the Lions response was that we’d like to open a couple more hospitals and provide training for doctors.”

“China now has the fastest growing membership in Lions clubs in the world,” Cahoon said. “India is not far behind. They are even trying to get the headquarters moved from Chicago to India.”

Cahoon distributed pins from Al Brandel to the new members of the club and to their sponsors.

Dettra updates Lions on School Funding

“School funding. It’s still a mess,” said Dennis Dettra, Superintendent of Cambridge City Schools. Dettra was speaking to the Cambridge Lions Club. “We have an over-reliance on the property tax. That’s part of why Ohio’s school funding was declared unconstitutional in the DeRolf case.”

“Governor Strickland tried a new approach to developing the education budget,” Dettra said. “He tried to set a price on what it actually costs to educate a child for one year. He tried a different approach instead of using the same way it’s always been done.”

“One thing they looked at was the educational level of the parents. Their children often come to school better prepared. It takes more funding to educate those who are not as well prepared.”

“The (Ohio) House and Senate are now working on next year’s budget,” Dettra said. “The House passed their version before finding out that state income tax revenues are down because of all the layoffs.”

“The House and Senate are at odds over funding. The House is controlled by the Democrats and the Senate is controlled by the Republicans. The conference committee that will have to resolve differences between the two will have three members of each party.”

“I don’t expect a budget to be done until late summer or early fall,” Dettra said. It leaves us not knowing where we will be. It makes planning difficult.”

“Cambridge is in good shape. We took a hit five years ago and had to cut programs. Susan Tucker did an excellent job. Our new treasurer believes that we will be in the black for the next five years, but we do have to watch every penny.”

“We won’t need a renewal levy until 2012,” Dettra said. “A few years ago we had several administrators at the central office. We are now down to just the treasurer and me. Our first responsibility when we can rehire people is to get more teachers to help the kids.”

“One of the governor’s proposals was to have all-day kindergarten for all kids. We already have that, but some districts still have half-day classes. He also proposed that kindergarten and first grade have a student to teacher ratio of fifteen to one. He later reduced that to nineteen to one, but our classrooms were designed for a ration of twenty-five to one.”

“We would need more classroom space. Our buildings were designed to follow state standards when they were built. Part of the levy also included a mandatory amount be set aside for maintenance. Our buildings are in good shape.”

“We also expect that we will have to make up calamity days. The governor wanted to extend the school year, but this would require that employees be paid for the extra days. Most of the rest of the world has a two hundred day school year. We have one hundred eighty days.”

“Economic stimulus money will be earmarked for title one reading and special education services,” Dettra said. “We can’t use it to rehire teachers or for programs that were cut. That money is only for two years. Then we will have to find additional money.”
“We would also like to use some federal grant money to have a resource officer from the sheriff’s department on site at the high school. We would like the deputy to be able to establish rapport with the students.”

Welcome New Member Roe

We are please to announce the induction of Nelson Roe. Nelson was sponsored by Lion Bill Lilienthal. Pictured: left Lion Bill Lilienthal with new member Nelson Roe. Membership Chair Lew Prine continues to press for 100 members.

Cahoon and Harmon named Lions Club International Honor Roll

Cambridge Lions Club is pleased to announce that two member have been named to the Lions Club Internation Foundation Honor Roll. Lions Ben Cahoon and John Harmon received this recognition based on their contributions to the club on behalf of LCIF.

Randolf White discusses MLK Scholarships

“The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. scholarships are for anyone who has a dream,” said Randolf White to the Cambridge Lions Club. “They’re not just for blacks. We don’t give a large amount to one or two students. We decided to give a little to all.”
Pictured left: Lion Randolf White with program chair Ben Cahoon.

“We believe that you can take what you have and do something purposeful with it,” said White. “We want to encourage anyone who has a dream to pursue that dream.”

“In 1968 I was sitting in the Golden Buddha (a local bar) and saw on TV that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated.” White said. “I didn’t know much about him, but I started following the news stories about his funeral and about what he had done.”

“We didn’t have the same kind of problems here that they had in the south. We may have had the pinstripe suit type of racism, but we didn’t have the white sheet kind. I listened to King’s words about injustice anywhere being a threat to justice everywhere. It made sense to me to use nonviolent resistance to injustice.”

“In 1972 people decided to observe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January each year,” White said. “We started with services on Friday. On Sunday we had a march to the church. On Monday we had a breakfast.”

“Later we had a luncheon and decided to offer a scholarship. The scholarship was originally offered to those majoring in sociology or theology. We then decided that we should open it up to any college degree. We decided that we should support whatever the students were interested in. We wanted students to follow their own dreams.”

“My father taught me that whatever you wanted to be, you should be a good one,” White said. “My mother taught me that I had the right to dream.”

“I had a dream to be an announcer on the radio. Bill Coffey hired me at the radio station. He had been advised not to hire me. Fred Andrews said to give him a chance. I became one of the best announcers on WILE. I thank them for supporting my dream.”

“A person once asked a man who knew more words in the English language than anyone else to give him a hundred dollar word,” White said. “The man gave him that word. It was the word thanks.”

“Every time I get the chance I say thanks. Thanks to the Daily Jeffersonian for the publicity about Martin Luther King Day and the scholarships. Thanks to Cambridge City Schools for their support. Thanks to the Presbyterian and the Methodist churches for their support. Thanks to all who have helped.”