Farnsworth School guest speaker requests a $2,500 tactile printer, a new member is approved, sensory path repairs are needed, and a club newspaper committee is formed.
River Grove Lions meeting
May 20, 2026
Location community center
called the order 7:01 PM
Attendance: Joe P, Tracy, Lisa, Marcelo, Dave K, Kurt, Brent, Rob, Ron, Jim, Debbie, and Margie
Special guests: Lizzy Coster and Magdolin Habash
Recording secretary: The minutes were previously circulated for the May 19, 2026 meeting
Motion to approve by Ron, second by Marcelo; all in favor
Club Secretary: per Lisa:
The Memorial Day Ceremony will be held on May 25, 2025 at 11 AM at Veterans Park on Grand Avenue all are welcome to attend
Shred day is on June 13 and volunteers are needed
Treasurer: no report
Membership: Per Lisa: many members have paid their dues, but there are still several that are outstanding and they need to get their dues in. We do have an application from Kristie Carlson who is Kurt’s sister and has attended bingo fundraisers and other events and has been very helpful to the club. Motion by Lisa, Second by Ron to approve her membership; All in favor
We also have as another guest tonight Magdolin Habash, Magdolin introduced herself as a resident of the United States for the last 30 years, currently living in Elmwood Park, and originally from Jordan where her sister is an high ranking officer in the Lions Club of Jordan. Magdolin is interested in giving back to the community and would like to join our club. She also attended with her neighbor, who is originally from Albania and also lives in Elmwood Park and may also be interested in joining our club.
Information technology: Shred day flyers are on the site and Steak and lobster flyers will go on the site in June
Humanitarian: We have a guest speaker this evening, Lizzy Coster from Farnsworth School, which we will address later in the meeting
School liaison: per Joe: We had a great night at our scholarship event. Per Kurt: The club gave a great presentation; Ron always gives some history about our club and we were very well represented at the scholarship event at Leyden.
Running clubs: Per Kurt, both The color run at River Grove school, and the girls running club at Rhodes went great as usual.
Marketing: Per Kurt he recommends that we look into doing a local paper similar to the one that River Grove school puts out. Kurt helped organize the paper for River Grove school when he was on the board and suggests that we could put it out annually and sell ads all, while being able to promote our club throughout the town. Motion by Kurt, second by Ron to put a committee together to look into this further. All in favor
Old business:
Farnsworth school: Sharon invited Lizzy Coster from the school to give us an update on their needs. As everyone knows Farnsworth provides services to the Vision impaired. Lizzy works with third through eighth graders, and Paula Sprecher, who has been out to visit with our club in the past, works with the younger children.
Lizzy explained that the kids learn braille as well as how to use other digital technologies. The students learn tactile skills and some are also learning English as a second language in addition to Braille.
Lizzy brought examples of the textile materials that are made for the students from different media as part of their learning program. They use an “embosser” that makes multiple pages for the students, but the embosser is very noisy (which interferes with the teaching atmosphere) and isn't able to produce items as quickly as other types of technology.
What they would really like to have is an on-site "tact Plus printer" because they are much quieter and they put out the best quality materials for the students. Unfortunately there is only one vendor and it is not on the “approved” CPS vendor list. Lizzy estimates the cost for the printer is approximately $2500 and it is compatible with various software programs and would really assist with their teaching program.
Ron suggests that we give the school the tact plus printer as soon as possible, but ask them to come back to a humanitarian dinner when it is held in the fall. Discussion that the club would have to buy the printer directly because the vendor is not on the CPS approve vendor list. All agreed that we will get more information re cost, delivery and other details but all present confirmed they are in favor of making the donation and we will hopefully have the necessary detail details at the next meeting to vote on it. Lion Jim V will look into this further with Marcelo.
Sensory path: per Brent the path has been cleaned up and mulched, but we need to replace the “continuous rope” guide because the rope that we did have was made with a poly fiber and it has splintered and isn't safe to use. They will be looking for a one and a half inch Marine grade rope and the cost of replacement is approximately $1200
Brent also reports that the elf house needs to be refurbished because all of the bark fell off the tree and we need to decide if we're going to sand and varnish the existing stump or do something else. Jim suggested that we could have an artist Paint the stump and or it could be wrapped with whatever scenery we wanted to have included.
Presidents report: Our upcoming events include the June installation dinner and shred day. The July dinner meeting is still to be determined; as is routine, we won't have a dinner meeting in August because of the steak and lobster fest.
Motion Adjourn at 8:06 PM by Ron, second by Lisa. All in Favor.
A short steak and lobster committee meeting took place after the regular board meeting with Brent essentially confirming that committee heads are all committed for the upcoming event.
