The June meeting of the Perry Lions Club showed the club’s liberality and love of its hometown when Lion Jack Shelker moved and Lion Rich Saemisch seconded that the Perry Lions should donate $500 to help fund the Perry Sesquicentennial Celebrations scheduled for July 5-7.
The motion carried unanimously among the 11 members present, who were replete with the soup, salad and sandwiches served by the staff of the Hotel Pattee, with a slice of banana cheesecake for dessert.
In related business, the membership agreed to set out American flags downtown, along the Willis Avenue boulevard and in Caboose Park on July 5-6 in order to further the 150th anniversary festivities. Lions Club President Harley McGuire also encouraged members to support the Chamber of Commerce’s fundraising efforts for the event with the purchase of t-shirts for $20 each and commemorative coins for $10 each.
On personal notes, the club wished for the speedy recovery of Lion Rich Jones and the safe travels of Lion Lou Hoger. Lion Don Strassburg held up a tea towel and two tea spoons that were left at the picnic at Sportsman Park in May. The items were not claimed.
In other business, Lion Dave Wright presented a report on the Flags Over Perry project. On Memorial Day, 250 flags were set out, with the Optimist Club raising 105 and the Perry Lions raising 145. Wright said every Lion needs to make an effort to get his neighbors to participate in the Flags Over Perry program. A suggestion was made and discussed of going door to door and making solicitations to Perry residents and selling them a subscription to the project.
Wright also provided the evening’s program. As the local Medicap pharmacist, Wright spoke with authority about the opioid drug epidemic that is rampant in the US and passed out a very informative brochure about the problem. He said we tend to think of opioid abuse as something that is taking place somewhere else, but the opioid problem is here in Perry.
He said measures are being taken by the government to reclassify some drugs and impose restrictions on the number of pills that can be specified in a prescription and the number of prescription refills allowed for certain medications.
Wright said one of the major hurdles is addicts’ ability to “doctor shop” for the pain pills. A computerized cross-referencing system will soon be in place soon to deal with this issue and hopefully will be in operation by 2021.
