The Boothbay Lions kicked off our 2013-2014 year with a full house of returning faces, plus a few visitors and our first new member of the year, Elizabeth McKim.

Welcome to the club, Elizabeth!

Incoming president Mike Giles already has us heavily organized for a busy year of serving the community. We have several fundraisers coming up soon, all of which will support our charitable activities here on the peninsula.

Coming up first: our annual fish chowder booth at the Fall Foliage Festival (October 12-13). We often sell out of our world-famous chowder the first day, but we're going to try a few new things this year so we should be there both days. We look forward to seeing you then.

Also on deck for this year: another Christmas party with Santa following last year's successful event; several raffles (look for Tommy's Turkeys, coming soon); our annual pancake breakfast; and lots more that we can't announce quite yet.

We had a lot to talk about at this meeting, but one of the things that grabbed our attention was the recent selfless act by BRHS graduate Lynn Pawlowski, who donated her 50/50 winnings at the Wannawaf waffle-eating contest to the Scott family to support their medical bills. Lynn, we applaud your kind action.

Also at this week's meeting, King Lion Mike presented Lion Tom Nickerson with the Lions Membership Key award for recruiting two new members to the club. We gained several new members last year, so more of these awards will be presented at upcoming meetings.

The club also made its first donation of the year, to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation.

We had a number of fines this week, thanks to our returning "tail twister," Lion Tom. The Giles family was fined for having their picture in the paper. Lion Stephan Branch paid a buck for wearing the ugliest shirt of the night. Lion Paul Greenleaf didn't cry over spilt milk, but he did pay a dollar. And Lion Phil Webster once again was fined for parking right in front of the clubhouse steps, for which he was unrepentant.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 25, when our guest speaker will be Sue Burge, the driving force behind Set for Success. The doors open at 5:30 for a social hour and we sit down for our meal and meeting at 6:30. We'd love to have you join us.

For more information on the Boothbay Region Lions Club, please contact club president Mike Giles or any other Lion, find us on Facebook, or visit us online www.e-clubhouse.org/sites/boothbay/index.php/.