Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? So asks the genie within my brain. Tomorrow I am committed to giving a short program to a neighboring Lions Club. Two months ago, I wrote a speech that I would use to give to fellow Lions to awaken them to blindness which is one of our pillars of service. I posted the speech on this blog, but no one has read it. That told me that the speech was not very good. Or else the title put people off. I thought it was rather catchy, “How Many Ways Can You Go Blind?” It turns out that there are so many ways that ophthalmologists have lost count. No one is interested into why some people go blind until that person is you. Then it becomes the number one priority on your list.
My job today, immediately after this post, is to rewrite my speech to eight minutes down from fifteen. Why am I procrastinating? I didn’t become a Lion to write and give speeches. I joined to serve my community, and giving speeches has become that service. So, I must put my mind into gear and rewrite what I thought was a perfect speech.
Today, tomorrow, and Sunday, Lions Clubs all around Illinois will be standing on street corners, in front of businesses, and anywhere people move, holding and shaking their buckets to solicit donations of change or greenbacks and handing givers a roll of candy. Candy Day is an annual event and a tradition to raise money to support the Lions of Illinois Foundation (LCIF). The Foundation provides services to the blind and supports research in eye diseases at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago. If you happen to see me standing on a corner with my bucket, please don’t use me as a target, but stop and drop a fiver into the bucket, I’ll hand you a roll of candy and a cheery thank you.
When I asked my friend and fellow Lion that question, Optometrist Dr. Smith replied, “Probably 500, but I’m guessing it’s more like 1000.” That gives us a huge opportunity to serve the blind. As the blind-and-deaf Helen Keller challenged us in 1926 to become Knights of the Blind, she gave us something to work on. Back then, she was so far ahead of us in this topic that it was scary. Thankfully, the Lions Club International decided to adopt blindness as a pillar of service. We have been striving to help blind people ever since.
Statistically, there are over 12 million people over the age of 40 in America who are classified with visual impairment. Out of that 12 million, over 1 million are legally blind.
Lions have been supportive since Helen Keller presented her challenge to us. For instance, we invented guide dogs and the white cane.
The World Health Organization (WHO) cites five causes of vision impairment and blindness:
1. refractive errors
2. cataract
3. diabetic retinopathy
4. glaucoma
5. age-related macular degeneration
Many more reasons are apparent, like accidents and disease, but there are too many to discuss now.
I am proposing a new way to serve the blind to Lions Clubs. Many newly diagnosed blind people are above the age of sixty. When they are struck with the diagnosis, they are devastated as they would be if they heard they had cancer. Older people have trouble adapting to the condition. The loss of independence is devastating. The loss of mobility combined with losing independence makes living stressful. Yet, people adapt, but often with a significant loss of personal dignity.
About thirty years ago, a young couple from the south suburbs of Chicago, both blind, decided to do something positive with their lives and formed a support group they called OASIS. They worked hard to turn their handicap into something positive. They figured they could help people get back into life even with the lemon they were handed. They met with a handful of vision-impaired individuals and led them in prayer and discussions about handling things that were hard for them. They used their personal experiences as a positive motivation to lead others to do the same thing: leading everyday life as good one can lead without sight.
Five years ago, the Frankfort Lions became aware of OASIS through our neighboring Mokena Lions Club. Together, we joined them by sending money to help them with their work. Since then, Kim and Joe Kuster, the originators of OASIS, have retired and moved to Tennessee to be near their grandchildren. This left the two clubs with a more significant opportunity to keep the organization going and self-supportive. It has been a full year since the Kusters left, and we are still in business and are growing in numbers.
We have learned that people with visual impairment, especially older ones, enjoy the company of people with the same affinity. They feel comfortable with each other, knowing they are not standing out as being different.
OASIS brings together a community of people in similar situations. They come with someone who can drive them and sit around a table with people they can talk to and share experiences with. A facilitator leads them in prayer and motivates them with ways to overcome hardships. Often, they lead the group to share how they handle situations. The leader introduces them to items that make life easier, like large print calendars, talking clocks, and magnifiers. Every meeting is different from the one before. Lions serve a snack and kibitz with the attendees. They clean up and assist with a game if one is played. A favorite is bingo.
I am telling you this because OASIS is an instrumental and helpful organization within this community. I am sure you also have many people within your realm who could benefit from a vision-impaired support group. We would be happy to help you start a chapter within your club. If you wish to help but are not ambitious enough to begin your own OASIS chapter, you may want to assist OASIS in several ways. Our most urgent need is for volunteer drivers who can adopt a visually impaired person to take them to and from OASIS meetings once each month. Our second largest need is money to run the meetings and expand services.
You can donate to OASIS (a not-for-profit 501c3 organization) by clicking the OASIS website link below.
I’m attending a Frankfort Lions Club Board of Directors meeting this evening. I resigned from the Board a few years ago after fifteen years. It was time to let the young people direct the club. I have switched my efforts to the BOD of OASIS, which serves those with vision problems. The issue on the table is that OASIS inherited a device called ORCAM from someone who passed. It is well over ten years old, and now we are trying to determine what to do with it. A quick call to the ORCAM distributor gave us some information that was in error. We were told that the old device needed to be upgraded. Like most computers, it requires some serious upgrading to handle today’s software. The cost was quoted at $1600.00. A brand-new one costs $4500. It was my job to sell this upgrade to the Lions Club. They, of course, are much smarter than I am and challenged the cost. The list of questions fired at me, the messenger, were too many and too complicated for me to answer. I went home with my tail between my legs, head down, and a bleak look.
I am not a total dummy, so I sought help getting answers and recruited two more Lions to assist. Happily, this evening, we will present a happier picture. The story has changed from $1600 for an upgrade of a 2011 unit, which will make it function only slightly better, to $1600 for a new unit with all the bells and whistles of 2023.
I believe the Distributor’s Representative tried to discourage us from seeking the upgrade, and has changed his original story from upgrade to buy a new unit, and since he screwed up so badly he is willing to give it to us at cost. If we (I) fail tonight, we will merely dig our heels in deeper and devise a new plan to secure an ORCAM for a deserving person.
For those of you who don’t know what an ORCAM is, I’ll explain to the best of my ability.
ORCAM is a company in Israel that invented a device that attaches to a pair of eyeglasses. The body of the ORCAM holds a tiny camera, a computer, and a speaker. The wearer can hold up a document, and the camera sees it for him. It then reads the printed words and transmits the sound to the wearer’s ear via a speaker built into the rear of the body. Between the eye and the ear a computer recognizes the words and converts them to sounds. The unit can also recognize faces to tell the wearer who he is talking to. That feature requires that pictures of people be entered into the ORCAM memory.
A few years ago, I became acquainted with OASIS, a support group established by Joe and Kim Kuster. Both of them are legally blind. Joe has lost 100% of his vision, and his wife Kim was born with a condition that seriously reduced her vision. She can see, but only if she holds a document up to her face and thru a magnifying glass. Over twenty-five years ago, they decided to do something with their gift and established OASIS, a support group for people with vision loss.
Years later, they were introduced to the Frankfort Lions Club and gave a short program on their work. Back in the nineteen twenties, at one of the Lions’ first conventions, Helen Keller, both blind and deaf, gave a speech about living in a silent and dark world. She challenged the Lions to become Knights of the blind. The Lions accepted the challenge and have been doing so ever since. Our club is no different. Every year, we donate to causes assisting people who have vision loss. Sometimes, we give to the Leader Dog Foundation others, we send blind kids to a special camp. Every year we support our own Lions of Illinois Foundation whose sole purpose is to help the people of Illinois who have vision problems. We stand on street corners dodging cars with a bucket in our hands giving out rolls of spearment candy to anyone who donates; the money goes to Lions of Illinois Foundation.
So, when Joe and Kim came to us with their story, the Frankfort Lions became avid supporters of their group. At first, it was with a solitary donation. Later, some of our members went to their meetings and helped them with handouts, serving refreshments, and leading them to the restrooms. Over the past few years, the Frankfort Lions and the Mokena Lions have challenged each other to help OASIS with money and service.
Sadly, Joe and Kim decided to retire and move to Tennessee to be near their daughter and grandchildren. I am proud to say that the two Lions Clubs have opted to continue OASIS for the many members who rely on them for help. OASIS is not a part of the LIONS. It is a separate organization that supports people with vision loss. The Lions also help people with vision loss, so we are a happy marriage. I left my role as a member of the board of directors for the Frankfort Lions and joined the board of directors of OASIS.
I am still a Lion doing service to the community. I participate in the annual Winter Coat Drive, collecting coats from people who don’t need them and dispersing them to those who need them. This Saturday, I will participate in the Frankfort Police Department’s annual Trunk or Treats Halloween Parade and candy giveaway. Over two thousand kids will parade with their parents along a route of cars, trucks, and tents decorated in ghoulish skeletons, witches, zombies, and ghosts dragging their collection bags past a waiting monster Lion for a piece of candy. Lions have fun, too.
After the Halloween Parade, Lions begin their Holiday collections of money by standing in front of various local businesses, shaking our buckets, and looking for donations that we will spend on food for families within the community who are in desperate need.
