programs

Known for working to end preventable blindness, Lions participate in a vast variety of projects important to their communities. These projects range from cleaning up local parks to providing supplies to victims of natural disasters. Beginning in 1917, the association of Lions clubs has provided millions of people with the opportunity to give something back to their communities.

Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina is a non-profit, non-denominational home for children located at Lake Waccamaw. They provide out-of-home child care for at-risk children in residential care, family foster care and adoption. The program of care includes educational, social, and spiritual development. Boys & Girls Homes is a member of the Children and Family Services. The Lions support Boys & Girls Home with financial assist-ance and volunteers. Some of the child-ren stay in the Lion's Cottage, which is located on the campus.

Camp Dogwood is a recreational facility, serving the blind and visually impaired people of North Carolina. The Camp is located on the shores of Lake Norman. The North Carolina Lions own, fund and maintain the camp. Camp Dogwood provides a camping program during the summer typically with twelve one-week sessions. It is recreational-vacation experience utilizing the waterfront for boating, swimming, fishing, skiing, and tubing along with activities in arts and crafts, evening activities.

The Lions have been involved in Clinical Eye Research for years. The Lions have partnered with the North Carolina Lions Clinical Eye Research Center at Bowman Gray and the North Carolina Lions Pediatric Eye Care Center at Duke Medical Center. More than $1 million dollars was raised by Lions in support of these projects. Our current project is the NC Lions Diabetic Eye Clinic at the University of North Carolina Healthcare Diabetes Center, which opened in 1996. Because diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in Americans, convenience of eye care is paramount. Early detection of eye disease can have a significant impact on prevention of blindness. The eye is also an important organ to examine in the context of clinical studies.

It is estimated that more than 230 million people have diabetes. This number is expected to rise to a staggering 350 million by 2025. People with diabetes are at risk of losing sight due to diabetic retinopathy, which affects the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that transmits visual messages via the optic nerve to the brain. When this delicate tissue is damaged by diabetic retinopathy, the result may be visual impairment or blindness. Diabetes awareness was adopted as a long-term commitment of Lions Clubs in 1984. The primary objective of the Lions program is to reduce the number of new cases of blindness caused by diabetic retino-pathy through education, early detection and treatment, and support of research.

The North Carolina Lions offer multiple year educational grants to sighted child-ren of blind or visually impaired parent. Grants are awarded based on the economic need of the family and the scholastic record and character of the applicant. Grants are available through the North Carolina Lions Foundation, districts and local Lions clubs. Checks are payable to the college designated by the recipient. Checks will be applied to the recipient's college expenses. No funding is available for studies beyond a Bachelors Degree.

Founded in 1845, the Governor Morehead School is the state’s only school that specializes in educational services for children with visual impairments, birth through age 21. In addition to the school’s traditional K-12 program, preschool and outreach services are offered to children with visual impairments. The school is part of the Office of Education Services of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. The school is located in Raleigh. In addition to serving on the school’s board, the Lions provide funding for the school’s athletic programs. The goal of the athletic program is to allow our students to participate in sports and other recreation and leisure activities with the same opportunities as any other student in public or private schools while providing a healthy and safe environment. To allow competition with other visually impaired and sighted students from different schools and states, our school participates in the Eastern Athletic Association for the Blind. They believe athletics enriches student's skills in the areas of sportsmanship, communication, socialization and self-discipline. Presently the school offers wrestling, cheerleading, track and field, weight lifting, swimming, basketball, and goal ball.

The Raleigh Lions Clinic for the Blind is a private nonprofit rehabilitation facility. Since it was established in 1966, the Clinic has provided vocational eval-uation, medical services, work ad-justment training and limited transitional employment for persons who are blind or visually impaired throughout North Carolina. The Raleigh-Host Lions Club sponsors the Clinic in cooperation with the Division of Services for the Blind, a state agency. The Clinic is located in Raleigh.

Lions Services provides vocational rehabilitation and employment opportunities to individuals who are blind or visually impaired and to provide eye care for those within the community who need financial assistance. LSI intends to provide individuals with life long opportunities and choices that promote personal and economic independence for an enhanced quality of life, while respecting their dignity and right of self-determination. The company began operations in 1935 and the following year it was established as the Charlotte Workshop for the Blind by the Charlotte Central Lions Club. In 1975, the company was incorporated as a nonprofit textile manufacturer to employ people who are blind and became known as Lions Services, Inc. Since its founding, Lions Services continues to expand its scope of products and services. From a small chair caning facility, the agency has evolved into a manufacturer of products for the Department of Defense. Lions Services is owned by the Lions of Mecklenburg County.

The Marjorie McCune Memorial Center is a licensed Adult Care Home owned and operated by the Lions of Western North Carolina. Located in Black Mountain, the center is nestled in the Swannanoa Valley in a country setting. The staff provides residents with quality care while encouraging independence. Many residents are no longer able to live alone or may need help from time to time. At the McCune Center they believe residents can enjoy life with dignity and it is our responsibility to provide it. For those who live at the McCune Center, life is simply an extension of their own lives. Originally intended to accommodate the visually impaired, the McCune Center has become home to any persons with disabilities or inabilities to manage everyday life on their own.

The North Carolina Lions Foundation is the education arm for the humanitarian acts of organ donation, procurement and transplan-tation of eye tissue. For many years Lions have been instrumental in obtaining eye wills. Thousands of individuals have had their sight restored with cornea transplants. Without the work of the Lions, tis-sue would not have been available for transplant.

The North Carolina Lions participate in the Lions Clubs International Peace Poster Contest. The contest is open to students aged 11-13. Through the contest, students are encouraged to visually depict their interpretation of the contest's theme. Each poster is judged on originality, artistic merit and expression of the theme. Posters advance through several judging levels: local, district, multiple district and international. At the international level, judges from the art, peace, youth, education and media communities select one grand prize winner and 23 merit award winners. One international grand prize winner will receive a trip to a special award ceremony with the sponsoring club president and two family members at Lions Day with the United Nations in New York City. There the winning artist will be presented with an engraved plaque and a cash prize of $2,500. Each of the 23 merit award winners will receive a cash award of $500 and a certificate of achievement.

Lions Clubs International in recognizing the profound impact of man's activity on the inter-relations of all components of the natural environment, encourages Lions clubs to help environmental quality by organizing community-wide clean-up projects, recycling programs, planting trees and educating others on the im-portance of restoring and maintaining environmental quality. Each year, Lions International sponsors an Environmental Photo Contest to showcase the beauty of nature.

The relationship between Lions Clubs International and the UN began after the end of World War II. The two organizations have cooperated on many humanitarian ventures. Lions have provided aid and manpower for UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization projects. Our relationship is limited to humanitarian endeavors. Lions Clubs has no involvement in the political or security affairs of the United Nations.

The Lions International Club Twinning Program is a voluntary and mutual ag-reement between Lions clubs in different countries. Twinning provides an opport-unity to learn about another club and its culture. Club twins actively illustrate the Third Purpose of the Association: to create and foster a spirit of under-standing among the peoples of the world.

Lions Clubs International has estab-lished an international hearing aid re-cycling program to promote the co-llection, refurbishing and distribution of donated hearing aids. North Carolina Lions no longer supply hearing aids to individuals. They are still active in hear-ing screenings, recycling and edu-cational projects. Used hearing aids are collected and recycled through the North Carolina Lions Foundation.

For many young people, participating in the Youth Exchange Program is a life-changing experience. Traveling to an-other country, living with a host family, and experiencing another culture are milestone events. Unlike other ex-change programs, the Exchange Pro-gram is not conducted for tourism, education or employment. Instead, it is a unique cultural learning opportunity. Ex-changes can be arranged in any of the more than 190 countries in which Lions clubs exist. Exchanges last between four and six weeks and the participant, ages 15-21, stays with one or more host families during the exchange. Parti-cipants experience life as part of their host family. Participants are sponsored by local Lions clubs and they should have a basic knowledge of the country’s language.

Lions clubs worldwide create exciting opportunities for young people. One powerful service Lions can offer is to provide young people with the chance to develop into humanitarians and lead-ers through the Leo Club Program. The clubs provide the youth of the world with an opportunity for development and contribution, individually and collectively, as responsible members of the local, national and international community. Sponsoring a Leo club will inspire Lions club members through involvement with their community’s youth. Connections to youth will bring new energy to a Lions club. Lions Clubs’ visibility in the com-munity will be increased with exposure to new audiences such as young pro-fessionals and parents of school-aged children. Leo clubs help foster future community leaders and future Lions.

Millions of children suffer with poverty and hunger, abandonment, poor water and sanitation, poor health care, chronic illness, disabilities, lack of education, lack of immunization and many more life-threatening conditions. Adopted in 2003, the Lions Services for Children Program aims to improve the lives of children and young adolescents in adverse circumstances through health and education services, locally and internationally. Lions' participation in the program starts by assessing the needs of children in the community. Programs are created to address these needs, which include: food, shelter or clothing, vision and hearing screenings, immunizations, assistance in coping with illnesses or disabilities, Information about proper nutrition, drug and alcohol abuse education, literacy programs, and vocational training.

The North Carolina Lions Foundation offers a vision screening van that travels across the North Carolina conducting vision screenings. Sponsored by local Lions clubs and staffed with volunteers, the vision van can the first line in the detection of vision problems. There is no charge to have your eyes examined.

Founded in 1903, Eliada Homes is a non-profit agency dedicated to the mission of helping children succeed. Located on a historic 200-acre campus in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Eliada serves children and families through a diverse spectrum of programs and services, including residential care, child development services, foster care, community support services, and therapeutic recreation. The Western North Carolina Lions sponsor the cottage on the campus. The Lions Cottage is a nine-bed psychiatric residential treatment facility that houses both boys and girls who, for a myriad of reasons, have treatment needs that surpassed those that could be met by unsecured residential care. Children in Lions Cottage attend school within the cottage and are unable to leave until they make significant enough progress to be stepped down to a less intensive level of care.