THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 12, 1994 TAG: 9408110157
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
MENTION THE WORDS Lions Club to most anybody and one of two thoughts come to mind: either a neighbor standing at the door with light bulbs in one hand and a bunch of brooms in the other or a group of red-vested Lions offering eye donor information and free vision checks in a mobile van at a health fair.
Now there's nothing wrong with either of those two pictures except that they fall a bit short of telling the whole story about the scope of the work which Lions Clubs International and the Lions Clubs International Foundation do worldwide.
Long known for their good works in the areas of sight and hearing at the local level, as well as providing assistance with other types of medical needs, the group has a well-deserved reputation for blindness prevention throughout the world.
So much so that when the World Health Organization needed major funding to combat blindness, the agency turned to Lions International for help.
Major help. About $130 million worth, to be exact.
``There are more than 43,000,000 blind people in the world,'' Lion Edward ``Moon'' Kosjer, a member of the Lions Clubs International board, said, ``and 80 percent of those are blind needlessly.''
It's that unnecessary blindness for which the World Health Organization asked assistance from the Lions. Lions, true to fashion, responded in a very big way.
Especially here in their District 24D which includes Hampton Roads and parts of the Peninsula and Northern Neck as well as the Eastern Shore.
Lions worldwide were asked to raise $146 per person to meet the $130 million goal needed to fight such things as vitamin A deficiency, river blindness (caused by a type of black fly which attacks people who live along the rivers in certain parts of the world), trichoma and cataracts. All can cause the types of blindness which fall into the preventable category.
District 24D did more than that for the campaign which was dubbed Sight First. ``We raised over $685,000. That's more than any other district in the U.S. or Canada,'' Bill Salmon, the district's campaign chair, said.
``And we had more model clubs than any other district,'' Dudley Godwin, who served as District Governor during the campaign, added. ``Out of 31 model clubs in the U.S. and Canada, 20 were in 24D.''
Model clubs were those in which total donations exceeded three times the $146 per member goal, plus one additional dollar.
``Most people reached into their pockets to do that,'' Kosjer explained. The remainder was obtained through fund-raisers.
``There was some concern that raising that much money for international aid would reduce the amount needed locally,'' Salmon said.
In 24D, that was not the case. While keeping up with their usual projects and supporting the Sight First campaign, area Lions also helped underwrite the cost of very complex surgery for a Portsmouth child born with serious birth defects.
In addition to funding, Lions also contributed expertise to the World Health Organization's war on blindness. ``Before we started we held a world symposium in Singapore,'' Kosjer said. ``They talked about building hospitals and clinics. We asked why didn't they just go ahead and do the job.''
Out of those talks came what may have been the world's first assembly line attack on cataracts. ``People walked in, were processed, then had their surgery assembly line style,'' he explained. ``Lions operated and funded the camps where the surgery was performed.''
Not all of the funds will be spent far from home. Among grants made to programs in the United States are one to educate people on glaucoma and diabetic eye disease, two leading causes of blindness in this country, and another to develop a nationally coordinated program to collect, process and distribute used eyeglasses. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
Bill Salmon, left, was District 24D's campaign chair for ``Sight
First;'' Edward ``Moon'' Kosjer a member of the Lions Clubs
International board; and Dudley Godwin served as District Governor
during the World Health Organization's campaign against blindness.
by CNB