Bremerton Central Lions Club - Lions e-Clubhouse

THE NORTHWEST LIONS FOUNDATION

FOR SIGHT AND HEARING

Many years ago, Helen Keller spoke at the Lions Clubs International Convention and challenged the Lions to become "knights of the blind". Today we embrace the conservation of sight as one of our primary objectives. We do this locally and globally through our contributions and fundraisers for our club, our charitable foundation, the Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight and Hearing and the Lions Club International Foundation. We collect, clean, sort and recycle eyeglasses for distribution through the NW Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center in Lacey, WA, with over 2,400 pairs of glasses collected last year. Our club provides eyeglasses and reconditioned hearing aids for low income residents of Bremerton on a case by case basis. We have purchased hearing and vision screening equipment for testing young children in our area. We can host the Lions Health Screening Van for screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, hearing, glaucoma and vision at no cost to the community. Our club members routinely transfer donated corneal tissue from our eye bank in Seattle to transplant recipients in Kitsap County.

NORTHWEST LIONS EYE BANK

Hardly a "bank", it is a busy, high-tech medical laboratory for processing and evaluating donor eyes for quality corneal tissue. Since formation, the Eye Bank has provided over 20,000 cornea transplants. Providing eye tissue recovery and distribution, family support and bereavement programs, our highly-trained technicians coordinate the process from the beginning, through screening and placement of tissue with surgeons. We are now a leader in the national and international cornea transplant community.

LIONS HEALTH SCREENING UNIT

Started in 1996, this specially-equipped unit travels to communities throughout Washington and Northern Idaho. It provides free health screening for vision, glaucoma, hearing, diabetes and blood pressure. The Lions Health Screening Unit is staffed by local Lions Club members and community health professional volunteers. In 2000, the LHSU screened over 25,000 individuals, including over 8,000 children.

LIONS LOW VISION CLINICS

The Foundation funds the operation of five low vision clinics. These grant supported clinics, located in Bellevue, Spokane, and Vancouver, Washington. The newest clinic, the Lions Pediatric Low Vision Clinic is located in Silverdale Washington and is funded by the Lions Sight & Hearing Foundation and the people with visual impairments. Trained low vision specialists prescribe appropriate visual aid devices such as magnifiers, monoculars, and closed circuit televisions for enlarging printed materials.

LIONS HEARING AID BANK

The Hearing Aid Bank is dedicated to helping individuals hear well in every community in Washington and Northern Idaho. To this end, it collects and redistributes donated hearing aids, that have been recased and recalibrated, to hard of hearing individuals who could not otherwise afford them.

Individually, our club provided seed money to Allison's Hope, a program designed to provide hearing aids to those who couldn't afford them.