Lions Club, the 'knights of the blind,' work to give sight to those in need

For more information Lions Clubs International membership is open to men and women. For information about eye screenings, becoming a member of any Coastal Bend Lions club or donating eyeglasses, call Gene Olszewski at 993-5962.

Jesse Guzman may be president of the Lions Club's Leslie Chappell Eyeglass Fund, but neither the title nor the responsibility of his club membership are the reasons why the 67-year-old travels deep into the mountains of Mexico.
   What steered him on this cross-border humanitarian journey, in fact, is perhaps what makes such men and women ideal members of the Lions Club.
   "I really believe we're supposed to be on this planet to help each other out," said Guzman, a member of the Corpus Christi Shoreline Lions Club.
   In addition to the eyeglass fund - started 20 years ago by a local former Lions Club member to help the city's underprivileged children - Guzman and fellow members participate in a Lions Club program that recycles eyeglasses.
   Twice a year, Lions Clubs in the region, collect anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 used eyeglasses donated by the public and ship them to a Lions Club in Midland, where they are cleaned and sorted by prescription. The eyeglasses are then distributed to the needy in Mexico, other parts of Latin America, Russia and India. Lions Club members also take a refractor with them on such trips, a tool enabling them to do eye screenings as well.
   "We are the knights of the blind," said Gene Olszewski, membership chairman of the Corpus Christi Downtown Lions Club, who has traveled to Mexico for the recycled eyeglasses program.
   Olszewski and other members are participating in a two-day eye screening April 27-28 in Matamoros, Mexico. Another eye screening trip to Nuevo Progreso and Reynosa is tentatively planned for Feb. 23-24.
   Lions Club members usually travel with a church group to these destinations, accompanied by doctors, optometrists, chiropractors and others, and set up shop for two days at a local church or gymnasium.
   "We give out glasses to people who have never even seen a pair, much less an eye doctor," Guzman said. "Our motto is to serve. As far as I'm concerned, that's where we do the most good, where the rubber hits the road."
   While their work on behalf of the blind and deaf is known worldwide, little known is that a single speech given by the late Helen Keller at the club's international convention in 1921 was what prompted the marriage between club and cause.
   Keller lost the ability to see and hear at a young age because of severe illness, and consequently her ability to speak. She spent her adult life helping the deaf and blind, winning awards of great distinction for her tireless efforts.
   Today, the service organization sponsors numerous programs, including some that specifically help those in need of hearing aids and guide dogs.
   "For me, it's a great way of giving back something to the world," Olszewski said.
   Sylvia R. Longoria can be reached at 886-3718 or by e-mail at longorias@caller.com