LV Lions Club Expands
LV Lions Club Expands
Local Lions Club now serving Ellicottville, Salamanca, and Cattaraugus
Service clubs are dwindling. Our lives are busy. People have so many interests, most families have both partners working, kids must be run to sports and activities, etc. It is a lot to ask of today’s citizens to give another bit of effort to something that has nothing to do with their own families. We are all exhausted. Yet, thankfully, there are still people who are compelled to go that extra mile and give that time for a cause that is greater than themselves. In fact, there are more than 1.4 million members in approximately 46,000 LIONS clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world. (It is the largest service organization in the world.) In our immediate world, there are 20 members in our Little Valley Lions Club doing yeoman’s work, taking care of the optical needs of citizens now in four communities. Ellicottville has been without an active club for several years, and the Little Valley Club has recently stepped in to care for the optical needs (and some auditory needs as well) of our citizens in need as well as those in the other communities they already serve.
Jodie Scanlan, a Lions Club Board Member, related how the Lions continue to have events to raise funds for eye exams and eyeglasses for students and for adults in need. In fact, their newest fundraiser, Dining in the Dark, on April 10th places them in a position to respond to the Ellicottville Central School’s current need for fourteen children who need eye care. They will be taken care of, thanks to the Lions Club, the kind and generous people who support the club and its efforts, and to the 20 members who grease the wheels and keep the organization ready to help in times of need.
In speaking with Lions Club President, Kevin Andrews, he told of how the Scanlan family got involved in the club when they discovered their daughter had limited vision and needed a very expensive machine for her therapy. The Lions purchased it for her and the Scanlans have been very active members of the club since then, including Jessica Scanlan, the recipient, who is legally blind and now works as a Vision Rehab Therapist for the NYS Commission for the Blind.
The club also supports the work of Dr. James Reynolds, a Little Valley native. Dr. James D. Reynolds, M.D. is a professor and chair at the Ross Eye Institute in Buffalo. He specializes in pediatric ophthalmology, adult strabismus, pediatric retina and ROP (retinopathy of prematurity). Andrews states that Dr. Reynolds has travelled across the world to do sight saving surgery.
Another need was addressed twice, for a prosthetic eye for individuals who did not have coverage and would otherwise have not been able to receive one. Imagine! You may think of the old-fashioned glass eye, but today, prosthetic eyes are no longer glass spheres. Instead, a prosthetic eye includes a porous round implant that’s inserted into the eye socket and covered with eye tissue called conjunctiva. A thin, curved, glossy painted acrylic disk made to look like a natural eye - complete with an iris, pupil, white, and even blood vessels - is slipped onto the implant. The disk can be removed, cleaned, and replaced when needed. It also moves in unison with the natural eye and looks and behaves naturally, including crying. Without insurance, they run anywhere from $2,500 - $8,300. Even at the lowest cost, that is quite an undertaking for a small club which still works to take care of the other needs in the areas they cover. If that isn’t enough, they assist with donations for care, training and placement of seeing eye dogs.
A word from Kevin Andrews, Lions Club President: “If anyone would like to be involved in a club that helps the local community and this immediate area and make a difference in someone’s life… or help a family with a financial need, this is what we strive to do. When we are needed, we want to be here for people, especially now that the number of communities we cover has increased. We can’t imagine not being here when someone - adult or child - needs glasses or other visual help. We would love to have you join us or at least check us out.”
Go online to www.littlevalleylionsclub.com or call Andrews at 716-628-8643.