Lions Club International partners with WesternU
The Upland Host Lions Club showed off the Lions District 4-L 4 Sight and Hearing mobile screening unit to Western University of Health Sciences’ College of Optometry and College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific faculty and staff in front of the Patient Care Center on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010.
The unit will help further establish relationships and teamwork between Lions Club International and WesternU, in concert with the university’s recently approved campus chapter of Lions Club International.
The mobile unit is set up for community vision and hearing screenings and is available for WesternU faculty to borrow for community events.
“”Once the campus club has its charter night and becomes an official Lions club, it will become part-owner of the mobile screening unit,”” said Ken Myers, Diabetic Awareness Chairman for Lions District 4-L 4 and a member of the Upland Host Lions.
Pomona Host Lions Club members and WesternU faculty Raymond Maeda, OD, Chief of Primary Care for the College of Optometry, and Richard Sugerman, PhD, Professor of Anatomy, College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, will be co-advisers for the new club. Second-year optometry students Jennifer Buell and James Miyasaka and first-year optometry student Kathryn Venittelli will coordinate and lead the campus club.
“”The College of Optometry at WesternU is excited to work with Upland Host Lions to staff the van with amazing faculty and students when going to community events,”” said Kristy Remick-Waltman, OD, Assistant Professor and Director of Community Outreach for the College of Optometry.
The Pomona Host Lions Club helped establish the club on campus, which seemed like a natural fit, said Maeda.
Some of the goals for the club will be to facilitate local community outreach events, coordinate international community service trips, offer networking opportunities at WesternU, and organize an annual service trip in Tecate, Mexico, to provide vision screenings and free glasses to the citizens of that community.
Faculty members from the College of Optometry and COMP were impressed with the Sight and Hearing unit, told Myers that the mobile unit could use a portable slit lamp and an auto refractor, and offered to search for a donated lamp. The University owns two portable auto refractors that can be used in the unit.
Lions Club International is the world’s largest service club organization, with 1.35 million members in more than 45,000 clubs worldwide, according to their website. It was founded in 1917 to help fight blindness. The club also cares for the environment, feeds the hungry and aids seniors and the disabled. The local Upland Host Lions Club began in 1924. Pomona Host Lions Club was chartered in 1921.
