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National Ugly Sweater Day

19 Thursday Dec 2019

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dachshund dog wearing a red sweater

Photo by Dominika Roseclay on Pexels.com

When you think about the holiday season, what comes to your mind? You might imagine twinkling lights, blankets of snow, lush evergreen trees, stacks of beautifully wrapped presents… or maybe obnoxious, ugly sweaters!

We can’t be the only ones who have noticed this unofficial holiday become part of the season. Friday, December 20, is National Ugly Sweater Day, but before you pull out that hideous sweater from the back of the closet, let’s find out where this obscure celebration got its start.

The original “ugly sweater” first made its appearance in the 1950s but was more fondly known as a “jingle bell sweater.” They were quite different from the sweaters we see nowadays; these pieces featured tasteful winter themes such as reindeer, snowflakes and other simple motifs. These sweaters were never intended to be ugly; rather they were creative and joyful. They remained modestly popular for the next three decades.

In the 1980s, Americans started seeing bold sweaters with outrageous patterns on TV. You may remember seeing examples of these sweaters on “The Cosby Show” and “Christmas Vacation.” This trend slowed down, but never completely disappeared. Many believe the sweaters’ turning point came when Colin Firth donned a tacky Rudolph sweater to a Christmas Party in his role as Mark Darcy in “Bridget Jones’ Diary” in 2001.

Then, one fateful night in Vancouver, Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch created the first Christmas Sweater Party. The idea caught on and spread across Canada, into the United States and eventually, around the world. Celebrities and politicians were being photographed out on the streets in their favorite Christmas sweaters. By 2010, designers started creating collections based on the ugly ones.

Today, it seems like everyone is hosting ugly sweater parties, which has encouraged retailers to sell sweaters of their own. Of course, with the increase in options comes an increase in competition at these parties. To win the title of the ugliest sweater, you need to get creative.

Will you be participating in Ugly Sweater Day tomorrow? If so, let us know where you found your creation in the comments below.

Whether you love or hate ugly Christmas sweaters, there’s no denying that they have made their mark on the holiday season. And it has certainly become another way to celebrate during the most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Holidays from Lions Pride!

The 2019 USA/Canada Leadership Forum

12 Thursday Sep 2019

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Leadership Forum 2019.pngForum week has arrived again! For the past 43 years, Lions Club Members from all over North America have been meeting for three days of motivation, education and leadership development. From September 19 to September 21, Lions and Lionesses will gather in one of America’s greatest riverfront cities, Spokane.

During their time in eastern Washington, Lions will take part is over 77 seminars spanning a wide variety of topics, including:

  • making change stick
  • using technology for more impactful marketing
  • creating synergy through action
  • enhancing mental health and well-being
  • how to captivate the attention of a younger audience
  • the ins and outs of cyber clubs

See the entire seminar schedule. Of course, there will be no way for one person to attend them all of the seminars. The biggest challenge you may faces is deciding which topics to focus on.! We’d suggest talking with fellow club members and divvying up the seminars. You can always follow-up, later on, to talk about the highlights.

Other special events will be taking place over the weekend. Lions will also have the opportunity to participate in the Strides Walk, observe a Lions University graduation and hear from incredible keynote speakers. If you enjoyed listening to Michelle Ray’s presentation at last year’s forum then you’re in luck. She’s back by popular demand! She’ll be challenging you to become a better leader by changing your personal attitude.

Lastly, we hope Lions will have the opportunity to explore Spokane. Attendees are encouraged to come early and stay let to allow the local experts to guide them through the Inland Northwest. The city is chock full of historic landmarks, breathtaking parks and lakes as well as unique attractions. Browse through all of the available tours, courtesy of Group Coordinators.

The USA/Canada Leadership Forum has something for everyone. Will you be attending the forum next weekend? If so, what are you most looking forward to seeing? Let us know in the comments below.

Here at Lions Pride, we’d like to wish all leadership forum attendees safe travels as they make their way to Washington. We look forward to hearing about your experiences when you return.

Bon voyage!

 

The Start of the Little League World Series

15 Thursday Aug 2019

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close up photography of four baseballs on green lawn grasses

Photo by Steshka Willems on Pexels.com

There’s no better time to grab some peanuts and Cracker Jack. All of you baseball fans out there know that are nearing the end of the season, but today, is the start of an extraordinary period, the Little League World Series.

From now until August 25, young athletes from all over the globe will compete to earn the coveted World Series Trophy. The tournament includes eight US teams and eight international teams. The series kicks off today with four games, featuring the following regions: Australia, Caribbean, New England, Southeast, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Midwest and Great Lakes. The remaining regions, Mid-Atlantic, Northwest, Southwest, West, Canada, Europe-Africa, Japan and Mexico will get their start tomorrow. See the complete schedule.

If you’re not overly familiar with little league baseball, you may be interested to learn about its rich history. The league was first formed back in 1938 by Carl Stotz in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Eight years later, the league had not gained a lot of traction as there were only 12 active leagues. Many believe World War II deterred its growth because many fathers had enlisted in the military. The following year, the board of directors decided to organize a tournament for all known programs and named it the National Little League Tournament. It was changed to the Little League Baseball World Series later on.

Over 2500 visitors came to Williamsport to watch young stars play in the first championship game. Its publicity spread throughout the county, and Little League Programs began forming in every US start. Today’s LLBWS includes seven tournaments played in various divisions.

Many modern-day Major Leaguers got their start in Little League Baseball; some names you may even recognize. Charlie Hayes, Jonathan Schoop and Gary Sheffield were all Little Leaguers who went on to play in the MLB with brief period as Milwaukee Brewers.

Hawaii took home the trophy in the 2018 LLBWS, so it will be interesting to see if they can do it again! Will you plan on watching the 2019 Little League World Series? Let us know in the comments below.

On behalf of Lions Pride, we’d like to wish the best of luck to all of the athletes participating in this year’s LLBWS. Let’s play ball!

The 2018 USA/Canada Leadership Forum

20 Thursday Sep 2018

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Forum week is officially here! Each year, Lions Club Members from all over North America come together for three days of fellowship to train, connect and get inspired. Later on today and into tomorrow, Wisconsin Lions and Lionesses will be in their company as they head down to the Buggy Capital of the World, Columbus, to attend the 2018 USA/Canada Leadership Forum.

For the next 72 hours, Lions will take part is over 80 seminars to touch on topics such as:

  • promoting service through social media
  • adding diabetes to the LCI Service Framework
  • overcoming the fear of public speaking
  • the power of storytelling
  • the ins and outs of chairing projects

See the entire seminar schedule here. The biggest challenge will be deciding which seminars to attend. Consider splitting the duties with other club members and regrouping later.

In addition to education-rich seminars, other special events will be taking place over the weekend. Lions will also have the opportunity to participate in the Strides Walk, observe a Lions University graduation and hear from incredible keynote speakers. We’re especially excited to hear from John Pinero who will be playing the role of legendary coach, Vince Lombardi. He will aim to inspire us as Lombardi inspired the Green Bay Packers. (Don’t be afraid to flaunt your hometown team spirit with green and gold apparel!)

Finally, Lions will have to make sure they take some time to explore Columbus. As the largest city in Ohio, Columbus is not without plenty of entertainment and restaurant options. A few of the most popular attractions include the Pearl Market, the Brewery District and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

There’s a reason why Lions look forward to forum weekend, year after year. The event has something for everyone – education, networking, site seeing and more.

From all of us at Lions Pride, we’d like to wish all leadership forum attendees safe travels as they make their way south. We can’t wait to hear about your experience when you get home!

 

A Holiday Wish from Lions Pride

22 Thursday Dec 2016

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winter-sceneThe spirit of Christmas is all around us. With the big holiday only days away, we continue to see it in store windows, on light posts and underneath the tree.

Although we are all excited to celebrate America’s “favorite” holiday, it’s important for us all to remember that Christmas is not the only holiday taking place this time of year. Here at Lions Pride, we thought there was no better time for us to look at several other celebrations happening throughout the month of December:

  • The Feast of Our Lady Guadalupe took place on Monday, December 12. Each year, the festivity honors the belief that Jesus’s mother Mary appeared to a man in Mexico City on two different occasions in 1531.
  • St Lucia’s Day (or St. Lucy’s Day) is one of the biggest Swedish holidays and recognizes the bravery of St. Lucia who was one of the earliest martyrs who was killed because of her religious beliefs in the year 304. The celebration takes place each year on December 13.
  • Hanukkah is the festival of lights that commemorates the Jewish people’s successful rebellion against the Greeks in the Maccabean War. This year, Hanukkah falls on the same day as Christmas. The last time the two holidays occurred on the same date was in 1978.
  • Kwanzaa is the African American weeklong holiday that honors family, community and culture. The celebration honors African heritage with a feast and gift giving, and is observed from December 26 to January 1.
  • Boxing Day also takes place on December 26 and is a holiday celebrated in a few countries connected to England (Canada, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. During the Middle Ages, one day out of the year was designated to open church collection boxes and distributed to the poor. Today, some churches still open these boxes.

Rather than simply spreading Christmas cheer this month, remember to consider all of the other holidays taking place. There are many reasons why they call it the most wonderful time of the year, and we’d like to think diversity is one of the best.

Happy Holidays from Lions Pride!

The 2016 USA/Canada Leadership Forum

15 Thursday Sep 2016

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It’s that time again; time for the USA/Canada Leadership Forum. lions-100th-anniversaryLast fall, we were fortunate to attend the 2015 Forum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and, we are attending again this year, in Omaha, Nebraska.

For the past 39 years, Lions from all over North America come together to participate in the largest and greatest Lions Club Leadership Training Event. Over the course of the next three days, Lions will have the opportunity to take part in dozens of leadership seminars, browse the expansive exhibitor hall, listen to inspiring speakers and (re)connect with friends.

The 2016 Forum will be slightly different than the past conferences because there will be a primary focus on preparing for the Lions Club 100th Anniversary. If you recall, to celebrate our milestone anniversary, we, as Lions, have been challenged in accomplishing 100 million acts of service. In addition to participating in several of the 60+ seminars, Forum Participants are invited to partake in three service projects representing four service campaigns:

Engaging Our Youth

Sharing the Vision

Relieving the Hunger

Protecting the Environment

We can’t wait to participate in another weekend of learning and fun with the arguably the greatest company – thousands of Lions!

On behalf of Lions Pride, we’d like to wish all of our traveling friends, safe travels, and we’re looking forward to seeing you at the forum.

The Groundhog’s Spring Prediction

04 Thursday Feb 2016

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Can you believe that Groundhog’s Day has already come and gone? Is it just us or did we not see as much media coverage on the famous furry meteorologist as we usually do? We guess it was because most of us were all buried in snow!

If you missed the outcome – Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, so we are on track for an early spring. Don’t believe ole Phil? You might be surprised to learn that the findings were independently verified by Canada’s very own groundhog, Shubenacadie Sam, who also did not a shadow.

Whether or not you believe the shadow reader’s weather report, it may be comforting to learn that the first official day of spring is only 44 days away. That doesn’t seem to long away, right? We don’t think so because Christmas Eve was only 42 days ago and that feels like only yesterday!

While we are as excited about spring and summer (the first day of Wisconsin Lions Camp is 128 days away to continue with our countdown theme), we don’t want to wish our days away. The truth of the matter is there are plenty of things to like about this time of year, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a winter lover. Think about it, in the wintertime, we get to see the sunrise, bundle up with a warm cup of soup and see the world in a different perspective. What is your favorite part about winter?

Remember, without winter, we wouldn’t appreciate the other three seasons that Wisconsin has to offer. From all of us at Lions Pride, don’t forget to enjoy the last 44 days of winter!

Highlights of the 2014 International Convention

10 Thursday Jul 2014

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Wisconsin

The summer months have been busy not only here at Lions Pride, but also for Lions and Lionesses all over the state, country and around the world.

This past week, ten newly elected 2014-2015 District Governors from Wisconsin were installed at the 97th Annual International Lions Convention held in the South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Center (MTCC) in Toronto, Canada.

Our state also received special recognition at the convention, as the first Wisconsin woman was elected to serve on the Lions Clubs International Board. Lion Karla Harris is from South Milwaukee and has been a Lion since 2002. She is a retired executive director of a non-profit organization. In addition to being active in Lions Club, she is also involved in many other organizations including the American Red Cross and Blind Outdoor Leisure Development (BOLD). She will serve a two-year term as International Director. Congratulations to PCC Karla!

There were plenty of other activities to keep everyone busy. Participants of the 2014 Convention attended the annual parade, educational seminars and the international show featuring American songwriter and performer, Neil Sedaka.  Check out the Convention Facebook page for pictures, highlights and videos.

Do you want to be part of the fun next year? Registration for the 2015 Convention has already begun. It will be held from June 26 – 30 in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.