Dear Lion Bill,

Despite suffering damage to their own homes and communities, Lions in the states devastated by Hurricane Katrina are reaching out to those most in need. Lions are responding to the tragedy with an untold number of service hours and with great concern and compassion.  

I also am pleased to tell you that donations for Hurricane Katrina relief are eligible for Melvin Jones Fellowship (MJF) recognition. LCIF's normal policy is that MJF recognition is not allowed for designated donations. To encourage donations for Katrina victims, the LCIF Board of Trustees amended this policy. Donations sent to LCIF for Hurricane Katrina relief from Aug. 29 to Nov. 30, 2005 (postmarked by Nov. 30), are eligible for MJF recognition. To count toward an MJF, the donation must be a single US$1,000 payment from a donor. The Melvin Jones Fellow does not have to be named when the donation is made. For more information, e-mail LCIF or call LCIF at 630-571-5466, ext. 574 or 581.  

Reports are coming in almost hourly to LCIF on the relief efforts of Lions. Following is the latest summary of how Lions and LCIF are helping hurricane victims:

Lions/LCIF Aid Katrina Victims

Lions in Louisiana , Mississippi , Alabama and Florida are staffing shelters and collecting funds, food and supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims, and LCIF is mobilizing support and providing funding for Lions on the ground in the affected areas. Lions from around the United States and as far away as Germany and Thailand are donating money to LCIF.  

LCIF awarded a US$200,000 Major Catastrophe Grant within days of the disaster. LCIF is focusing its short-term relief in three areas: 1.) providing shelters with unmet substantial needs such as food, clothing, personal hygiene items and bedding, 2.) offering health services such as eyeglass distribution, and 3.) meeting needs of Lions camps and facilities housing victims of the disaster.  

LCIF also has awarded seven US$10,000 Emergency Grants for Lions in the affected areas to issue vouchers for food, water and clothing to hurricane victims.  

LCIF Chairperson Clement Kusiak has appointed a steering committee of four leading Lions from the four states most affected by the tragedy to serve as liaisons between LCIF, Lions in the disaster areas and Lions who want to help.  

LCIF will soon set up a special Web site (www.lions-katrina.org) on Lions' hurricane relief effort. The site will include a Web-based Help Link to connect Lions who want to volunteer time or donate goods with Lions in the affected areas who are staffing shelters or otherwise helping victims.  

Lions in heavily damaged Districts 8-S and 8-N in Louisiana evacuated their homes as did the general population. Louisiana Lions in 8-L, several hours north of New Orleans and generally not directly touched by the disaster, are helping to take care of thousands of displaced people who left New Orleans and other places before the hurricane hit.  

I've never seen anything like this in my life and I never want to see it again, said District Governor Ann Sanders of 8-L.  People came here with only the clothes on their back. We have babies who need diapers and food.  

Lions in her district have quickly collected at least several thousand dollars so far to assist the refugees, said Sanders. Lions from Connecticut , Massachusetts and Maine have called her to offer help. The Lion from Maine who called is coordinating a shipment of two 18-wheelers of supplies. A Lion from Lafayette , La. , is driving over with a car full of meat.  

Lions are assisting at improvised non-Red Cross shelters that have sprung up. Lions also are helping out at larger venues such as the gym at Louisiana State University in Shreveport , which is holding some 2,000 displaced people.  

Some Lions have opened shelters in their capacity as a state or government employee. Vice District Governor Dinah Landry of 8-O is housing 500 displaced people in Cameron Parish, where she is head of the Council for Aging.  

The Louisiana Lions Children's Camp in Leesville is housing and feeding 114 people who fled north from New Orleans before Katrina hit. Half of them are Lions themselves. Just because they are displaced does not mean they are forgetting about their identity as Lions. They've kept busy. They've cleaned the campgrounds, said Ray Cecil, camp director. They're refugees who've lost their homes and livelihood but they've been busy the whole time they've been here.  

Lions are filling the unmet needs they come across. The Opelousas Club and Carencro Club in Louisiana are helping people get drug prescriptions filled. The Grandlake-Sweetlake Club has helped churches put together packages of necessities for people at shelters.  

Vice District Governor Nancey Farr of 8-N in Louisiana toured several shelters to assess the need. She discovered that the Judson Baptist Church in Watson had been converted into an instant maternity ward with 12 babies after agreeing to lend a hand to Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge . Another church operating a shelter built makeshift wooden showers outside the church and still another church shelter with 700 people was being visited by a doctor who was treating patients with embedded roofing nails.  

At Faith Family Church in Watson, Farr discovered that 80 people were forced to sleep on pews that were unceremoniously pulled together. Farr arranged for food for the shelter residents and called a judge-friend to recruit young people to unload the trailers.  

I could just go on and on about the things I saw and the people that I spoke to, wrote Farr in an e-mail. Their faces, their stories  make you thank God even more often than we normally do.  

The ability of Lions in the devastated areas of Mississippi to offer aid to others has been partly limited because of damage to their own homes. Most of us have to clear debris around our own homes, clean out freezers of spoiled food and take care of other household duties that could not be addressed during the power outages, Ray mond Roberts of Brookhaven, Cabinet Secretary of District 30-I, wrote in an e-mail to LCIF. Gas shortages and loss of communication services also has made it difficult to launch a coordinated relief effort, he added.  

Still, the Brookhaven Lions purchased $250 worth of paper plates, cups, napkins and toilet paper for two local shelters and gave children at four shelters oversized coloring books it had been selling as a fund-raiser. The Wesson Lions Club has been staffing a shelter at a community college set up for emergency electrical power workers.  

Gregory Crapo of Gulfport , Cabinet Secretary for District 30-N, reported to LCIF that basically [there is] nothing left to this area. Very few homes and businesses survived. The majority of our schools and churches have been destroyed. Many parents are already relocating to get their children into school before it is too late. There are no prospects for jobs because there are no businesses left.  

Yet Crapo said he and others remain undaunted. Each day is a little better as power comes back to those buildings that are still standing, he told LCIF. I know the Lions are coming. We are getting contacts via various means from Lions and clubs all over the U.S. wanting to help. The local Lions are helping individually through the Red Cross and personal volunteering at the hospitals and distribution points.  

The Mississippi Lions state office asked clubs to purchase chain saws. We figure one person can clear his home and then pass the chain saw on to the next person, David Barham, council secretary, wrote in an e-mail to LCIF.  

Lions in Alabama are focusing their efforts on the coastline area where 3,000 homes were destroyed. Everyone keeps hearing about New Orleans and Mississippi and it's like nothing happened in Alabama . But it did, said Council Chairperson Rick Berry of Enterprise , Ala.  

The Alabama Lions dispatched one of their eye vans to the coast to do screenings and eyeglass recycling for hurricane victims. A second eye van will serve the needs of displaced people who are in shelters in the middle of the state.  

The Dothan , Ala. , area has 4,000 refugees, most of them from Mississippi , said Berry . At one shelter, Lions are helping to feed 80 to 100 people each night. Lions in 34-I sent a truckload of water and supplies to Mississippi . Anticipating the donation of goods, Lions in Alabama have secured in advance a large storage space at a Wal-Mart building in Mobile . Lions here are at work. We're doing everything we can, said Berry .  

Lions in the affected states are using the LCIF Emergency Grants to issue vouchers to victims to purchase food, water and medicine. Government and civil resources are stretched to the limit in rural areas especially, and Lions are filling in gaps.  

Supported by LCIF, the Texas Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center will distribute eyeglasses and offer eye care services to evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston and other nearby shelters. Fourteen Lions will work with the Houston Ophthalmological Society on the project.  

I cannot express my appreciation enough to the Lions who are supporting us in recovering from this disaster, District Governor Robert Andrepont of 8-O wrote in an e-mail to LCIF. LCIF was very helpful and timely with processing my grant application.  I have received e-mails with promises of support and prayer from around the world.  I cannot tell you how much we treasure our fellow Lions' thoughts and prayers