The explosion of fall colors on the trees will soon flourish in Indiana. And for the vast majority, a quick look up is rewarded with brilliant shades of orange and red. The Carmel Lions Club want to make sure everyone can enjoy the beautiful scenery and that is why they dedicate so many hours and resources to protecting and enhancing eyesight.
This year, they are especially focused on children and are holding the IU Health Pumpkin Patch Festival. It includes a 5K Run/Family Walk on Saturday October 13th at IU Health North Hospital, 9:00am. The proceeds from the event will go towards eyeglasses for needy children, Leader Dogs for the sight-impaired, eye screenings for preschool children and the Diabetes Youth Camp.
Lion Jeff Boller started the first 5K seven years ago. The idea was to support the KidSight program. The Carmel Lions KidSight program is credited with saving children from irreversible blindness by doing early intervention screenings and catching problems timely. This year, the screenings will be held from noon to 3pm after the race as a key component of the Pumpkin Patch Festival. Lions Dwight and Alice Gossett and Lee and Jane Flower will be conducting the screenings, looking for Lazy Eye, myopia, hyperopia and anisometropia. Expert runner and Lion Adam Cmejla is the Chairman of the event this year. His goal is to increase the number of runners who participate and increase awareness of the Lions Club effort to fight blindness.
Lion Tom Lorson who has been involved with the project for several years and is responsible for creating the connection between the Lions and IU Health put it best. He said, “We feel this partnership with IU Health North Hospital is mutually beneficial and will only grow stronger in coming years. This event is a great way for us to carry out our motto of We Serve.”
If the Lions work for eyesight is not enough, let me also give kudos for their recent dictionary distribution project. This month, Lions donated 675 dictionaries to all 3rd graders at five Carmel elementary schools. They are motivated by two key goals. 3rd grade is when dictionary skills are actually taught in school but more important, the belief that 3rd grade is when students start reading to learn instead of learning to read.
The world is such a beautiful place; come out and help the Lions help everyone see it for themselves.