Weekly in-person Monday noon meetings for the Brookings Lions Club have been on hiatus since the middle of March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but service to the community hasn’t stopped.
At a recent board meeting at Hillcrest Park, it was reported that in the 2019-20 club year ending June 30, more than $10,000 was donated to further the goals of Lions Club International in the areas of vision, diabetes, youth, environment and hunger.
In the Brookings area, 11 people were provided financial assistance totaling $2,623.00 for eye exams and glasses. Two $1,000 scholarships were given to Brookings High School students. Donations supporting youth were given to the Boys and Girls Club, Brookings County Youth Mentoring, DARE, GAP, East Central CASA, and others.
Brookings Lions Club collects used eyeglasses with drop-off locations in Brookings at First Bank & Trust (downtown main lobby), Sixth Street Optical, 20/20 Family Vision, Brookings Vision Center, Yorkshire Eye Clinic, The Optical Shop, 3M, Vision Care Brookings, Lewis Drug, Eidsness Funeral Home, Rude’s Funeral Home, and the Brookings County Welfare Office. An estimated 120 million people are visually impaired because of uncorrected refractive errors (far and near-sightedness).
Vision assistance has been a focus of Lions worldwide since Helen Keller challenged Lions in 1925: “Will you not help me hasten the day when there shall be no preventable blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided? I appeal to you Lion, you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves knights of the blind in this crusade against darkness?”
Brookings Lions also provide eye screenings through the KidSight program to pre-school and kindergarten age children. According to educational experts, 80% of learning is visual. So if a child can’t see well, he can’t learn well. Unless vision problems are detected early and corrected, they risk becoming permanent by age 7.
Nationally, about 7-15% of kids screened will be referred for a follow-up exam by an eye-care professional. Approximately 5% of all children in this age group will have amblyopia, a treatable disorder that can result in permanently reduced vision when not addressed by an early age. The screening devices detect risk factors for amblyopia, such as strabismus (eyes that cross or wander out), refractive errors and unequal vision between the two eyes.
A specialized camera is used in the screening and the child only needs to look at the camera. Nothing touches the child’s eyes and the screener maintains appropriate social distancing, practices that existed even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lions Clubs International is the largest service organization in the world with more than 1.4 million members in 47,000 clubs in over 200 countries. All public donations to Lions clubs are used for charitable causes – none go for administrative expenses. The motto of Lions everywhere is “We Serve.”
