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The Wanchese Lions hosted the annual district governor visit to the area Lions Clubs on Tuesday, March 22. Representatives of the Columbia, Manteo, Wanchese, Nags Head and First Flight Lions Clubs attended. District Governor Randy Oxendine of the Henderson Lions Club was the speaker and District Governor-Elect Allen Swaim of the Wendell Lions Club, was also in attendance.

Prior to Oxendine’s speech, the Odyssey of the Mind team from Kitty Hawk Elementary School made a presentation. The team placed third in a regional competition and went on to compete in Cullowee, where they placed third in the state. They are now raising money to attend the worldwide competition in Iowa.

Students on the team are Wade Benton, Lily Casias, Joe LoCicero, Holden Hudspeth, Lars Lang, Kaitlyn Schwartzenberg and Quinn Wisecarver, all fifth graders at Kitty Hawk Elementary School. The team coaches are Elizabeth Hudspeth, Jennifer Casias, Cindy Benton and Felisha Lang.

Team members explained the concept of the Odyssey of the Mind competition, which involves solving problems presented to the team by a panel of judges. They are tested both as a team and as individuals and the responses are rated by the judges. The team demonstrated to the Lions by solving several problems given them by their coaches. The audience was quite impressed with the team’s ability to creatively solve the problems given them.

The Odyssey of the Mind team is in need of assistance with the expenses of the trip to Iowa. Anyone wishing to help with this could send a check to the KHES PTA, indicating that the donation is for the Odyssey of the Mind team.

Following the Odyssey of the Mind presentation, the Lions proceeded with the formal Lions meeting beginning with a dinner of fish and chicken prepared by the Wanchese Lions Club. Oxendine spoke about the various clubs in attendance and their performance during the year so far. He told of the need for more rank-and-file Lions to take an active part in district and state matters. He also presented Service Awards to Lions in the attending clubs.

Swaim also spoke about being proud to be a Lion. He reminded attendees that Lions Clubs International is the largest service club in the world with over 1.5 million members in over 218 countries and territories around the world. He encouraged the clubs to do more community service projects such as blood drives where the Lions would be identified as an organization that people would recognize and want to join, as the clubs are constantly looking for new members. Anyone who is interested in joining one of these area Lions Clubs can contact Lion Bob Walton, secretary of the Wanchese Lions Club, at 252-305-1529 for information about the clubs, when they meet and who to contact about membership in the individual clubs.

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