President Brock Nolin presenting a gift of appreciation to Elliott

Local club promotes "vision for all"

Contributed

Barry Elliott, Executive Director of Alabama Lions Sight, visited the Tallassee Lions Club Jan. 28 and said the 2020 Lion Sight slogan is “2020, Vision for All.” He went on to say that in the first half of our Lion year 2019-2020, the Lions of Alabama have conducted vision screenings where we have seen 951 adults and 11,083 children for a total of 12,034 screenings with 1,950 referrals. The Tallassee Lions Club participated in this program, holding vision screenings at the Elementary School and Southside Middle School. This was the fifth?? year of participation.

The Lions have renewed our efforts in seeking funding to enter every public school system in Alabama to conduct vision screenings for those upper grades.

The outstanding service provided by the Lions through the Mobile Eye Clinic (MEC) is saving the eyesight of several patients and occasionally diagnosing medical conditions that may save their lives. The MEC saw its first patients February 12, 2016. Since that time, the MEC has made 716 clinical site visits and seen 5,713 patients. One of the MEC stops is in Eclectic.

The Lions also sponsor an Eye Clinic where 2,096 patients have been seen year-to-date including 297 in the month of November and 321 in the month of December.

Alabama Lions Sight is dependent upon the donations that come from all of the Lions clubs, like Tallassee’s . Without donations from clubs, Lions could not oversee the programs that we have established. The Lions Club event sponsors and donors to the Tallassee Lions club are a part of this great effort.

The club has recently been able to sponsor a Leo organization at the Tallassee High School. The club is led by President Cannon Curlee and Faculty Advisor Shannon Dubose. The charter group has 19 students as members of the first club in Tallassee. About Leos; Leos serve. It’s what they’ve done since 1957 when the first Leos club was formed in Pennsylvania, USA. Now, over 50 years from their beginning, Leos have grown into a dynamic force for good--actively providing their communities and the world with kindness and service. And this is just the start. The good Leos can offer is endless. The success of Leo clubs is a crucial part of the success of Lions Clubs International. Leos are the ones who will carry our great story into the future and improve upon it.