Lillian Diuble recognized with international award
Lillian Diuble, International Leo of the Year, wearing the engraved medallion she was awarded, standing with District Governor Roger Spriggs at his farewell celebration the last weekend in September. Photo courtesy of the Diuble Family.
We reported in June that Manchester’s Lillian Diuble was recognized as Michigan’s Leo of the Year. Adding to her honors, she has recently gone on to be named International Leo of the Year.
Leo stands for Leadership, Experience and Opportunity. Leos are the youth branch of the Lions Club.
Lilly’s mother, Angela Diuble, herself a Lions Club member, explained the process. Every year Leos Clubs nominate a member for Leo of the year and one is chosen for each district. There are 11 districts in Michigan. Lilly was chosen by Roger Spriggs, who was the District Governor, to represent our district, 11-b1. She was then chosen by all the Michigan District Governors to represent the State of Michigan. Lilly was then chosen as the International Leo of the Year at the International Convention in Milan, Italy.
Angela stated, “The US makes up a small portion of Lions clubs and members in the whole scheme of things. So, she was chosen over all the other nominees in the whole world to be International Leo of the Year.”
Manchester has only recently had a Leo Club, and this is thanks to Lilly and her sister Abby. Lilly was a charter member of the WISD Leos, which was started 6 years ago. Abby joined officially when she reached the minimum age of 11. The WISD Leos club are a fully inclusive youth organization with over half of the charter members blind or visually impaired. Lilly herself, has been diagnosed with Usher syndrome, a rare degenerative disorder that causes both hearing and vision loss. The Leos met at the Neutral Zone in downtown Ann Arbor. Last fall, Lilly and Abby were the only two active members left in the club; the others had moved or graduated. Angela stated, “Instead of letting the group fizzle out, the girls proposed a change of venue to MHS. We contacted principal, Mr. McCalla, who agreed with the plan, filled out the necessary paperwork and then began recruiting members. The change enabled the club to recruit 11 new members who were inducted last January at the club’s fifth anniversary celebration.”
Although since moving to Manchester, the Leos Club has established a close relationship with the Manchester Lions Club, because they were originally sponsored by the Ann Arbor Host Lions Club, that organization provides their official advisor, Amy Shepherd. Shepherd, who nominated Lilly, also currently serves as president of the Ann Arbor Host Lions Club.
Angela listed the recognitions, “Lilly was recognized as district winner at the district convention this spring. She was recognized in May at the Lions State convention for the state award. She officially received the International Award at District Governor, Roger Spriggs’s farewell celebration the last weekend in September. She received an engraved medallion. It’s pretty cool looking.”
Lilly has a lot of “favorite parts” of Leos club, but says she really likes volunteering and helping the community.
Currently, Lilly is the Leo Club president and her sister Abby is vice-president, Luke Blumenauer is treasurer and Amy Beck is secretary. The club is recruiting new members. Any 7th-12th grader interested in participating in this fun, social, and service group can sign up at Manchester High School, contact Lilly or Abby, or just show up to one of the meetings on the third Thursday after school in the student activities room.
In addition to their involvement with the Leo’s, both girls are active Diuble Family Vision and in fundraising for the Foundation for Fighting Blindness.
Angela talked about these pursuits, “Diuble Family Vision (DFV) is a labor of love for the Diuble family and our board of directors. All of our board members work full time jobs and volunteer with DFV in our spare time. Lilly and Abby are youth chairs on our board of directors. Family Vision’s mission statement is to support research for treatments and cures, provide public awareness and to promote the well being of persons with disabilities or the underprivileged.
“As you know, we are absolutely passionate about finding a cure for blinding eye diseases by funding research, but you may not know that since that first Lilly’s Friends team (made up of mostly kids from the class of 2020) joined VisionWalk in 2010, we have raised over $200,000 for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and we hope to donate at least $20,000 each year.”
DFV was formed at the urging of Abby, who was ten years old when a tornado struck and severely damaged the Diuble’s home in 2015. Abby realized that people who are deaf or hard of hearing are vulnerable in emergencies and she was adamant that her family do something to help. Her mother said, “This was a little frustrating to me at the time as we had not yet found a place to live and our home was in shambles!” The DFV officially became a 501c3 in 2016 and began raising money to purchase bed shaking severe weather/smoke/carbon monoxide alarms for deaf and hard of hearing children. To date, Abby and DFV have raised over $50,000 for the WHIP project (Warning Hearing Impaired People) and have distributed over 45 alarms at no cost to families with hearing impaired children. Their goal is get a device in the home of every child that needs one.
Last year the DFV instituted the Diuble Family Vision “Do Gooder Award” scholarship which goes to a MHS senior who has been active in community service. Angela stated, “It was an exciting honor to be able to give this $1,000 scholarship to our first “Do Gooder,” Elizabeth O’Hotzke!”
Their biggest fundraising event of the year is soon approaching. On Saturday, November 16 they will hold their Annual Benefit Dinner Event at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds at 5055 Saline Ann Arbor Road. The event includes a fabulous buffet dinner, drinks, music, dancing and photo booth by Throw Yo’ Hands Up Entertainment. They have activities for children and adults and will hold a live and silent auction as well as raffles. Tickets are $25/person or $65/family and can be purchased at diublefamilyvision.org or on their facebook page. They are still looking for donation of items and services for their auction. If you would like to make a donation, please email angela.diuble@diublefamilyvision.org and they can arrange a pick up. If you can’t attend the event on November 16, but still want to help out, you can make a monetary donation on their website.
Angela concluded by saying, “We are so grateful for all of the constant support of Diuble Family Vision and our mission over so many years. Lilly will graduate this spring–2020. The irony of her graduation year being 2020 is not lost on us. We would love to make this our biggest fundraising year yet and really make 2020 count!
“The VisionWalk, FFB’s signature fundraiser will be held on May 16, 2020 at Kensington MetroPark. We invite all of our previous VisionWalk team members to join us on that day to make our Diuble Family Vision~Lilly’s Friends team our biggest yet!”
More information on the upcoming events can be found at diublefamilyvision.org.
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