The Lions International Convention

Today was a busy and intense day of Lions activities. Our two most important performances - the Lions International Parade and the performance for the Pennsylvania delegation were both today, making it a BUSY day. The day started off with the parade. As you can imagine, it is HOT and SUNNY in Las Vegas (although with little humidity, thankfully!), so we were very concerned that students stay hydrated. To that end, the band provided students with hydration packs that they wore during the parade. There were some small kinks in the hydration pack system, resulting in a number of water covered breakfast tables as we worked to fix various leaking issues, but we got it all worked out and all stayed well hydrated!

As always, the Parade was an awesome demonstration of the breadth of the Lions organization - delegations marched in the parade from across the globe, from India, to Paraguay, to Norway. As always, the crowd was an international one as well, with peoples from many different cultures cheering us on as played the Pennsylvania Polka. The parade is also a great place for people watching, as delegations and spectators are dressed in distinctive garb  to represent their clubs. We were marching behind Paraguay; the women there had very cool dresses which many people wanted pictures of. (Personally, I wanted to know where to by one!)

Following the parade, we had a chance to return to our hotel, shower, and change - a welcome chance, given that we had just spent an hour marching in the hundred degree heat! We enjoyed box lunches from the Earl of Sandwich, and had enough time that many students hit the hotel pool for a dip. After a bit of a break, we headed back out to the Stratosphere, the tallest freestanding tower in America. Going to the top took us even higher than the High Roller from the other day. The views were awesome, and some of us enjoyed the great view with a cold beverage. There were also rides for the daring and brave among us, who were able to jump off the tower and ride a rollercoaster hundreds of feet above the Las Vegas streets! (This was too daring for me, Dr. McCutcheon and I had glasses of water and read a book while enjoying the view.) After students had their fill of excitement, we headed back down to the ground to enjoy the buffet at the Stratosphere for dinner.  There was a great array of options, from sushi to spare ribs to a beef carving station and a make your own taco bar. It seemed that everyone found something to eat!

This evening we were back at the MGM Grand for the Pennsylvania delegation's reception. We enjoyed playing for delegation, who much appreciated our contribution to the evening. Many thanks to Lion Jamie Cope for guest conducting the band. We were able to go live on Facebook this morning and again this evening during the delegation performance. We are gratified that so many of you watched, shared, and commented on the videos - if you haven't seen them, check them out on our Facebook page! It was, as the delegation performance always is, a late night - we were all glad to climb into our beds upon our return to the hotel.