For the past five years the Santa Monica Lions have been providing eye screenings through an event called Lions Eyes Across California. It is a single day of service in California, held in March and focused on vision, the signature service project of Lions since 1925.
With the support of Virginia Avenue Park and the City of Santa Monica, SM Lions held the event this year at a new location in Virginia Avenue Park, the Thelma Terry Building. This change helped us shift our focus to children’s eye screenings, as well as offering diabetes screenings/consultations. We screened 18 children, performed refractive screenings on 24 adults, provided free eyeglasses to more than 30 adults and collected more than 1500 eyeglasses from the community. We also screened 34 people for diabetes, offering a personal counseling following the results. Thanks to a partnership with students from Santa Monica High School, each child attending the event was able to select a gently used book to take home.
The SM Lions’ new focus on children’s eye health is part of Lions Clubs International’s new program, named KidSight. We will be reaching out to preschools and youth organizations in our community to provide free eye screenings for the children they serve. Our commitment to this project is based on identifying indications of vision issues that could impact a child’s success in school and their self-esteem. Every child deserves the best chance to enjoy and succeed at school, as they begin a lifetime of learning. If you or anyone you know works with children and would like to have children ages 6 months – 6 years-old screened, please contact Susan at 310-442-9513 or santamonicalion@gmail.com.
As part of this new vision program, the SM Lions will be participating in the Santa Monica YMCA’s Healthy Kids event on Saturday, April 27th from 9 AM to Noon. Please bring your children to the SM YMCA for a morning of fun activities and learning, helping children and their families understand the importance of diet, exercise, and making healthy lifestyle choices.
If you want to learn more about the Lions KidSight Program or the Santa Monica Lions, you are welcome to attend a lunch meeting on the 1st or 3rd Thursday of each month. Please contact to Marilynn at santamonicalion@gmail.com or 310-903-8819 to RSVP for lunch. Our meetings are held at the Elks Lodge at 1040 Pico, Santa Monica from 12:15 – 1:30 PM.
