Local Lions support Campaign SightFirst II

By Archive

Published: May 15, 2008

Enterprise Lions Club members stepped up to the plate this week and committed $20,000 over the next five years to Lions Club International’s Campaign SightFirst II.

Campaign coordinator Bill Filmore visited the club’s Wednesday lunchtime meeting to accept the first payment of $6,500 toward the $20.000 committment.

“The Enterprise Lions Club has stepped up and done their part and once again showed that they are leaders in Lionism in their district and state,” Filmore said.

Filmore also challenged club members to make personal donations to the fund, which he said will help the Lions Club in the United States meet their $200 million Campaign SightFirst II challenge.  The money, he said, will be put toward programs around the world to fight blindness.

Filmore said according to the World Health Organization, more than 1,300 people lose their sight each day. “More than 80 percent of those cases are preventable or reversible,” he said.

When the Enterprise Lions Club has donated its full $20,000, Filmore said it will have been responsible for saving the sight of 3,333 people in the world. He said the average cost to restore the sight of one person is about $6.

“Over the next 15 years, you will open your Lions Magazine each month and see how your association is helping eradicate preventable and reversible blindness somewhere in the world,” Filmore said.

“Don’t you want to be able to say you had a part in that?”