6th Annual Lions of Illinois Walk for Sight
"We walk ... so they won't have to"

The 5th Annual Lions of Illinois Walk for Sight is an endeavor by the Lions of Illinois Foundation (LIF) to raise funds to better serve the over One Million visually & hearing impaired in Illinois.

What is the LIF Walk for Sight? Members of the 400+ Lions, Lioness and Leo Clubs throughout Chicago-land (Districts 1-A, 1-B, 1-F & 1-J), along with their families, friends and volunteers, will gather together for a 3-mile walk to raise funds to benefit visually impaired children and adults to help them live a better life, and to help stop preventable blindness.

Lions of Illinois Foundation is a 501 c3 organization. All contributions are tax deductible.
Checks should be made out to: Lions of Illinois Foundation.
Your cancel check is your receipt.

Click here to view:
Lions of Illinois Foundation Data Sheet for the event

INSTRUCTIONS TO Wheaton Lion members "WALK FOR SIGHT" CALLERS
Walk for Sight takes place on Sunday, June 6th at the Middle School in Geneva at 3:30 p.m. When you call the people on your list ask each person if they plan to be a walker. Explain the following items 1, 2 and 3. If the person says they plan to walk and members of their family, business, or organization are going to walk with them, go over the following items 1, 2, and 3 again. These three items apply to every walker. If a person on your list says they are not going to walk, but will make a donation, explain items 4, 5 & 6. They can choose the walker they wish to sponsor.

Every donation made by a Wheaton Lion will be credited to Wheaton Lions and 40% of the total donations will be returned to our club.
1. Everyone who walks must fill out a registration form, sign it and pay a registration fee of $20. (Wheaton Lions gets 40% of registration fee). (Registration forms can be picked up at Tuesday meetings or it can be emailed to walkers)
2. Walkers are expected to recruit sponsors. Each sponsor makes a donation to Lions of Illinois Foundation and gives it to the walker. The donation may be any amount.
3. Any walker who collects $100 or more in donations does not have to pay the registration fee.
4. Those who make a donation to sponsor a walker do not fill out a registration form. Checks are made out to Lions of Illinois Foundation and are given to: The walker being sponsored To any member of the Walk for Sight Committee
5. All donations must indicate they are to be credited to Wheaton Lions Club.
6. All donations are to be turned in prior to the Walk on June 6th. Donations and signed registration forms can be turned in the day of the Walk.

QUESTIONS? CALL OR EMAIL:
Chair: Dorothy Troyer dorothytroyer@sbcglobal.net 630-665-7562
Committee: Ern Kovacs ern.kovacs@fastsigns.com 630-221-1090
Committee: Dan Williams irishmandjw@yahoo.com 630-825-8202

In addition to the 3 member committee, there are 12 leaders who either have or are calling members to ask if they will walk or just make a donation. These group leaders are as follows:
Glenn Auble
Barry Cobb Georgie Cobb
Lou Deardorff
Jim Herrmann
Jeff Kincaid
Ken Knicker
Steve Maney
Dan Williams
Brad Pihl
John Vires
Allan Mossman

When: Sunday, June 6th, 2010
3:00 pm – Registration/Check-in and Path Assignment
3:30 – 4:20 PM – LIF Program Exhibits and Warm Up
4:20 PM – Opening Ceremony
4:30 PM – Walk Begins
6:45 PM – End of Walk Celebration

Where: Middle School in Geneva, Illinois
1413 Viking Drive (parking)
Geneva IL 60134
(630) 262-8244
Located west of Randall Rd. on the corner of Fabyan Parkway and Viking Drive. Park in the Geneva Middle Schools’ (North & South) Parking lots at 1413 Viking Drive. You will be able to see our staging area from the Parking lot.

Team Walking: Join forces & form a team to “Walk in the dark … so they won’t have to.”

Family Teams: Walkers (family or friends) representing the one family.

Non-Lions Club Teams: Walkers representing the same organization, for example; a High School, Junior High School, Church Group, or Scout Troop. What a great way to earn those “Community Service” points!

Lions Club Teams: walk as one unit.

Registration: Walkers can register on site June 7th. Each walker is encouraged to get at least $100 in sponsor donations.

Entry Fees: Adults: $20 per individual walker or individual entry fee is free with $100.00 or more in donations. Children under 18: Free.

Sponsor Pledge Sheet: Turn into form to Lion Dorothy Troyer with all sponsor donations paid in full. Checks should be made out to: Lions of Illinois Foundation. Your cancel check is your receipt. Lions of Illinois Foundation is a 501 c3 organization. All contributions are tax deductible.

Click here for your copy of the Sponsor Pledge Sheet.

About the Lions of Illinois Foundation: The LIF is a nonprofit charitable organization that provides 13 programs & services that annually reach over 18,000 Illinois children and adults with vision and hearing handicaps. But, there are almost 1,000,000 men, women and children in the state of Illinois that have vision and hearing impairments. Our goal is to raise funds to deliver an increasing number of services to help these people live a better life and to hopefully someday help stop preventable blindness.

LIF Walk for Sight Contact Information: The Wheaton Lions Club has established a Walk for Sight Committee to organize our members, encourage participation and collect pledges. Members are Tony Ladd, Jim Mathieson,Dan Williams and Dorothy Troyer, Chairman. Lion Tony Ladd Phone: 630-665-7562.

For a look at year 2009 event in pictures, click here.

CHRISTMAS LUNCH-AUCTION

Candy Days

LION John Sheahin and we LIONS will be out dodging traffic at intersections and at selected stores within Wheaton, Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10.

Making Candy Day Fund Raiser A Great Success

October 9 & 11, 2009

LION John Sheahin and we LIONS were out dodging traffic at intersections and at selected stores within Wheaton, Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10.

This year's Annual Candy Days Fund-raiser was chaired by LION John Sheahin. This once-a-year fund raising activity consisted of soliciting contributions "on-the-street", in select stores and "underwriting" funds, funds donated by organizations to offset the cost of the candy we use in the fund-raiser.

Some interesting stories developed from the activity. For instance, Lion Croucus was able to collect over $450 at his President & Harrison post. Lion Jim Mathieson’s collections profited from a traffic bottleneck on Jewel Road.

Our Wheaton LIONS Charities organization contributes (from our annual Candy Day's collections and other fund-raisers) to The Deicke Visual Rehabilitation Center in the form of equipment and financial funding. Contributions also go to causes within the community such as the LIONS’ own Eye Care Program. The Club works with local eye physicians, as well as local schools, for the purpose of screening financially impaired individual's (especially children's) visual health and assisting them in securing glasses, magnification devices, and the like. A college scholarship program was introduced two years ago.

Lions Ern Kovacs and Dr. Terri Lightbody at North Main Jewel

Lions Dr. Terri Lightbody and Ern Kovacs at North Main Jewel

Lauren Lightbody helping the Wheaton Lions.

Candy Day History

Candy Day is the premiere fundraiser for the services & programs provided to the hearing & visually impaired in Illinois. This event alone raises over 50% of the total operating funds for the LIF. Through these donations our LIF& your local club are able to serve in excess of 18,000 men, women, & children each year.

History
Candy Day began in 1952 as the result of Past district Governor Marvin Tench who wanted to change the attitude toward blind people. In that time the blind were often objects of ridicule, portrayed as "pencil sellers" and with low regard. Lion Tench and friends wanted the public to recognize them with all the rights to dignity, education, and meaningful employment enjoyed by their fellow Americans.

As a result of Lion Tench's work the Lions of Illinois adopted a resolution to hold a statewide drive to raise funds for services and awareness of the plight of the blind. Prior to 1952 the Lions were dedicated to helping the visually impaired, but funding for projects and services were only raised on either local or District levels. This move to act as a united front statewide, would change the face of Lionism forever.

The Early Years
The first campaign actually did not use the famous candy roll which is so familiar today, but a lapel pin of a white cane. The first year $11,000 were raised and 60% of the donations were granted to the Hadley School for the Blind in Chicago, Illinois and Leader Dogs for the Blind, with local clubs retaining the balance for community efforts. Despite the generosity of the action, the City of Chicago was displeased because city regulations only allowed for charities to hold five "tag days" within city limits in one year. The Lions effort to use a white cane lapel pin was rejected as it was deemed to be a tag.

The second campaign switched to providing Cracker jacks, the popular snack as the fund raising material. While the public enjoyed this change, the media did not. They were hesitant to give publicity to a commercial product, even in this worthy cause.

In 1956 Lions replaced Cracker Jacks with the now famous candy roll with clear Lions markings on the wrapper. It was a success! The media began to increasingly advertise the event and public donations rose dramatically.

Candy Day from the 1960's to Today
In 1960 Candy Day raised $100, 000, $597, 000 in 1970, to over $1,000,000 in the 1990s. Today over 50% of the funds required to operate the 14 programs and services to the hearing & visually impaired directed by our LIF are funded through this single campaign.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Illinois Lions must certainly be blushing. Currently more than 15 states and Australia also conduct Candy Day fund raisers.

Through the hard labor and dedication of Lions in Illinois the LIF now serve not only the visually impaired, but the hearing impaired, and provides Camp Lions, a summer residential camp, especially designed for children with sight and hearing loss, and Camp Helen Keller for Adults with vision and hearing loss. As needs and expenses increase the future of Candy Day becomes even more important to the quality of services & programs we can conduct as we take on the challenge presented to Lions by Helen Keller to be "Knights of the Blind in the Crusade Against Blindness".

FUND RAISING ACTIVITIES

Wheaton Lions Charities Golf Outing & Steak-Fry
The Wheaton Lions Charities has been serving the Wheaton Community for over 80 years by providing services and equipment for the visually and hearing impaired. Funding for these services is provided by such activities as our annual August Golf Outing and our October Candy Day. Your support for these fund raising activities is vital to our continued commitment to the visually and hearing impaired. We thank you for your support by attending our Golf Outing this year.

Golf Outing Forms Download
Here are the forms in Adobe PDF, ready for download. Simply click on the form you desire and print the document.

Special thanks to the Tee Sponsors, Underwriters and Raffle Prize Donors From 2009's Outing

Special thanks to: Lion Tim FitzSimmons for complimentary Culligan Water, Gary Schamberger of Schamberger Bros., Inc. for complimentary beer on course and at dinner and Mike Nass and the Cantigny staff.

Our annual golf outing this year raised over $14,000 for the club. This event has become even more important as one of our major fund raisers. Thanks to Jim Borsch, Bob Haeger and Brad Pihl Co-Chairmen, and committee members Gary Dewel, Jim Ellingson, Pat McEvoy, Mike Nass, Bud Roeser and Dr. Conrad Stoll Our 2009 Golf Outing Team: Linda and Lion Tony Ladd; Lions Dr. Terri Lightbody, Jim Borsch, Jim McEvoy, Bob Haeger and Jennifer Atten registering the guests.
Lions Jim Mathieson, Mike Nass ,winner of member Low Gross score, Pat McEvoy and Bob Haeger	Non-member Low Gross with Lions Mike Nass and Bob Haeger
	Lion Mike Nass with Joe Brennan
Lion Mike Nass with non-member winner	Lions Russ Adkins, Jim Mathieson and Bob Haeger
Lions Richard Drury and Ken Knicker	Lions Bob Haeger, Jim Mathieson, Jim Ellingson and Pat McEvoy
Moyski, winner of Women's Scramble with lion Jim Mathieson	Lion John Orr received the Melvin Jones Fellow Humanitarian Award from Lion Keith Carlson. Daughter MargeryAnn, looks on.

ANNUAL NIGHT WALK

2009 5th Annual Night Walk, June 7, 2009

We completed our 5th Annual LIONS Night Walk Charity event organized by LIONS of Illinois Foundation. It involved sponsored walkers touring the beautiful trails within the Danada Equestrian Center grounds. The theme is “We Walk In The Dark. . . So They Won’t Have To." The walk began at 4:00 PM on Sunday, June 7, 2009 at the Danada Equestrian Center, 3 S. 501 Naperville Road (Between Warrenville and Butterfield Roads), Wheaton, IL. Last year our club supported 31 walkers and 10 extra sponsors with 107 registered to walk for the Wheaton Lions.

This year we had 54 walkers, 13 additional sponsored other Lions even though they were unable to walk. Last year $7,783 was collected with our club retaining 40% or $3,113. This year we collected $4,037 of which our club will retain $1614.80. This year we saw visually impaired people walking with their seeing-eye dogs, white canes and guides.

Thanks to the Committee: Tony Ladd, Chair; Dorothy Troyer; Joel Riley; Glen Auble; Jennifer Atten; Joe Morrissey; and John Stock.

Lion Jim Mathieson and his wife Gail hosted a pre-walk BBQ party at their house. A great family get-to-gather that got everyone’s energy up for the walk.

For additional photos of the 2009 Walk, click here.

Download Pledge Form for 2009

Wheaton Lions Charities Benevolence Distributions for 2010

American Diabetes Association ....................................$1,000
Camp Lions - 2 campers ................................................2,000
Scholarships .................................................................3,000
Spectrios Institute ........................................................15,000
Contingency ..................................................................1,000
Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Hearing Bus ....................1,000
DONKA .........................................................................5,000
Glasses/Hearing Program ...............................................5,000
Hadley School for the Blind .............................................1,000
Humanitarian Service Project ...........................................1,000
Lions Candy Day — Fair Share ........................................3,800
Recordings for the Blind ..................................................1,000
Rock Center for Deaf & Blind ...........................................2,000
Sight First II ...................................................................1,200
BrainPort 1,000 TOTAL ................................................$44,000

Fund Raising Activities

> Christmas Auction

> Candy Day

> Golf/Steak Fry Outing

> Walk for Sight

>Benevolence Distribution for 2010