Some individuals and organizations see the world as vast community where diverse people from across the globe can and should come together to share resources, educate, and work together to improve lives, or, as Lion’s Club International says it themselves:

“Our mission is to empower Lions clubs, volunteers and partners to improve health and wellbeing, strengthen communities, and support those in need through humanitarian service and grants that impact lives globally, and encourage peace and international understanding. And we fulfill it every day, everywhere we serve.”¹

In 1917, with the world still embroiled in World War I, Chicago businessman Melvin Jones opined, “I am finding out that you do not get very far until you start doing things for others.”

With that seed of inspiration to do more for the world than simply improving his and his fellow businessmen’s prospects of financial success, Melvin Jones started organizing a humanitarian service organization that would come to be called Lion’s Club International, and grow from a few dozen men and $72, to over 1.4 million members in more than 48,000 clubs in over 200 countries, boasting a legacy of providing over $1.3 billion in grants to date.

Knights of the Blind

In 1925, at the Lion’s Club annual convention in Ohio, famed activist and author Helen Keller gave a speech where she said, in part, “Lions—you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind—will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in my crusade against darkness?”

Already committed to a wide variety of public projects including improving public libraries, clothing drives, and fundraising for children’s hospitals, Keller’s speech motivated Lions members to increase their efforts to help prevent and treat vision loss, and they have continued to do so for the last 100 years and counting.

One innovative project, the Lions Recycle for Sight Program, began with a simple premise – with many millions living in low and middle income countries lacking access to basic eye care services and corrective lenses, why not recycle and redistribute discarded eyeglasses in more privileged nations to improve the vision of those desperately in need.

Quite simply, Lion’s Clubs connected with community partners in libraries, local businesses, schools, and opticians and eye doctor’s offices to collect usable glasses in simple collection boxes for pick-up and redistribution, and this program is still active and thriving today.

SightFirst – Expanding Lion’s Visionary Legacy

Since 1990, SightFirst has been a grant awarding program of Lions International dedicated to fighting preventable and reversible blindness across the globe. To date the program has impacted more than 544 million people with over $389 million in SightFirst grant funding for over 1,400 projects in 118 countries.

Building on their decade’s long success, Lions has recently embarked on a new Vision Grant opportunity that continues their efforts to combat blindness and preventable vision loss and assist people in underserved communities who are blind and visually impaired through infrastructure development, equipment procurement, and improving human resources.

Lions Club International welcomes new members anytime, anywhere there is an active club, and their visionary commitment to improving vision and preventing vision impairment and blindness globally is an effort whose success is fueled by every individual member or donated pair of glasses.