New Lions Club formed in county
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Local residents Billy Cunningham and Sammy Walker are currently working to form a new chapter of the Lions Club, which is well known for its efforts in sight conservation.
Both men say they are aware there are already two chapters here, in McMinnville and Rock Island, and they have no intention of competing with those clubs. They hope to work alongside them to carry out Lions Club programs.
?We?re going to try to service the people out in the county,? Cunningham said. ?We?ve got a Lions Club in McMinnville and they do a really good job of servicing the people, and they go out in the county too because there?s nobody out there, but there are a lot of people in the county all around McMinnville. We?re trying to start a club to help the people out there.?
The new organization will be called the Warren County Lions Club, and since the membership is still fairly small, it actually meets at Cunningham?s home on Old Shelbyville Road, near Crisp Springs Market, for the present.
?We have to have 20 members to become a full-fledged Lions Club of our own,? Cunningham said. ?Right now we?re just a branch. Once we get those 20 members, we?ll probably find a meeting place.?
It costs $25 per person to join, but if a spouse joins as well, their fee will be refunded. Dues for the Warren County Lions Club are $10 per month. Also, those who join prior to the club receiving its official charter, which takes three months from the time the club gets its 20th member, will be designated a charter member.
For more information, contact Cunningham at 815-9889 or Walker at 668-2339.
Though the club is not yet official, it is holding its first fundraiser this weekend. There will be a Lions Club Breakfast with Santa at Applebee?s this Saturday from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Price is $5 for the meal, and children can have their picture taken with Santa for $5, with all the funds going to Lions Club programs.
For those who may not be familiar with the Lions Club and what they do, Cunningham outlined some of the Lions Club goals and programs.
?The No. 1 focus of Lions Clubs all over the world is sight conservation,? Cunningham said. ?That?s not the only thing that we do, but that?s our main focus.?
In fact, Lions Clubs across Tennessee recently cooperated to create a new facility designed for that purpose.
?We have a brand new program that we?re really, really proud of,? Cunningham said. ?We worked in conjunction with Vanderbilt University back in 1997 to establish the Tennessee Lions Eye Center at Vanderbilt. We did a huge fundraising project over a period of about five years to help put the equipment in the center. They furnished all the doctors and the space for it.?
And in a case of one good deed bringing on another, because of that partnership with Vanderbilt an additional highly beneficial Lions Club program was born.
?While we were involved with that endeavor, a byproduct developed in that the head of the department came to us at one of our state conventions and said, ?You know, we?ve got children in Tennessee that are going blind because we have no way of checking them early enough to catch a problem.? So as a result of that we have developed a camera with which we can take a picture of a child?s eyes between the ages of 1 and 6, and by looking at that picture, we can determine whether they are going to have a problem or not. It?s a phenomenal program.?
Lions Club members themselves are trained to use the camera and will go to schools and day care centers, or anywhere there are children in those age groups, and make the photographs at no charge.
And statistics show the program is amazingly effective.
?Since 1997 we have photographed the eyes of over 300,000 children,? Cunningham said. ?In about 4.5 percent of the pictures we make the child has a problem. And we refer those to the Tennessee Lions Eye Center and the doctors there look at them, and about 85 percent of those we refer actually have a problem, so it?s a pretty accurate system.?
Once a problem is discovered, representatives from the eye center follow up until the child receives treatment, though this does not have to be at the Lions eye center.
?They can go to their own doctor or any hospital in Tennessee,? Cunningham said. ?We just want to make sure that child has help, and if they can?t afford it, we?ll help fund it. So as a result of this, since 1997, we have about 8,000 children that could have been blind that can now see here in Tennessee.?