Hear Them Roar
Last month I spoke at my local Lions Club and after my presentation they made me an honorary member of their club. I’m honored to be a very first “Friend of the Lions” since these individuals do such good for our communities both here at home and abroad.
The Lions Club is the largest service organization in the world, with more than 46,000 clubs and 1.35 million members in over 200 countries. The members, many of whom are from the medical field, provide voluntary healthcare to impoverished communities.
Eyes for You
The Lions are most known for their sight programs, including vision screenings, eye banks, and eyeglass recycling. This nearly 100-year-old organization has made incredible strides in tackling vision maladies across the globe:
- Saving the sight of 15 million children
- Establishing pediatric eye care centers to help 120 million children
- Halting the spread of trachoma for 10 million Ethiopians
- Preventing vision loss for 30 million people worldwide
- Training 650,000 eye care professionals
- Building 315 eye hospitals
- Distributing 147 million treatments for river blindness
- Providing 8 million cataract surgeries
- Vaccinating 41 million children in Africa against measles – a leading cause of childhood blindness
The Lions work hand-on-hand with several foundations to provide many of these services, including the Gates Foundation. They also raise money directly from individual donors through their SightFirst campaigns, raising more than US$415 million through local fundraising efforts.
Local Lion Activities
The week I visited the Naples Chapter held an eye screening in the neighborhood of Immokalee, an under-resourced area here in southwest Florida. While I wanted to volunteer at a clinic and see the Lions in action, unfortunately car-sharing issues stopped me from attending. Next time I’m helping out for sure!
Want to help improve the eye sight of children? You too can get involved by:
I have only one thing to say about the Lions and their good works: Roar!
Tags: Lions Clubs, Naples Lions Club
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2014 and is filed under Hot Orgs.