Lions Club reforming, offering free vision screenings

It’s been six years since the Holton Lions Club was disbanded after 80 years of service due to declining membership, but a new Jackson County Lions Club is getting started to promote free vision screenings and better eyesight for children in the county.

The new county-wide Lions Club and vision screening initiative is being promoted by Terry Weldin, who moved to Holton with his wife last year from Burlington, where he helped establish a Lions Club in 1995. For the Jackson County club initiative, Weldin said he’s getting support from the Sabetha Lions Club, as well as previous members of the Holton Lions Club.

But it’s the vision screenings for young people that drives Weldin’s interest in getting a county-wide Lions Club going, and for him, the connection is personal — it stems from his two grandchildren, who were both diagnosed with astigmatism early in their lives and needed glasses.

“With my grandson, you’d think that a young boy would not want to be bothered with glasses,” Weldin said. “But he could see so much better with his glasses on that he put them on first thing in the morning and took them off the last thing at night, even when he was that young. He could tell the difference.”

His granddaughter has also benefited from wearing glasses, and now that she’s in the fifth grade, he says, “her vision has been corrected enough that she no longer needs to wear glasses.”

Weldin said that one in 20 children born in the United States is born with an undetected vision problem that could get worse over time if left untreated, and early detection is necessary to make sure that young people have the same success as his grandchildren in improving their sight. That’s why he connected with the Sabetha Lions to start a new club that would serve the entire county, he added.

“My son and his children live in Sabetha, and I wanted to be involved in a club where I could have a possible impact on my grandchildren in a beneficial way,” said Weldin, whose son is also a member of the Sabetha Lions Club.

With assistance from past Lions district governor Gregg Moser and Dr. Leslie Gallagher at Lifetime Eye Care in Holton, the following free vision screenings have been announced:

• At a vision screening event co-sponsored by the City of Hoyt, starting at 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10 at the Hoyt Community Building.

• At a screening event hosted by Denison Bible Church, starting at 8 a.m. Friday, Oct. 11, at the church.

• During the volunteer breakfast at the Holton Veterans Club in Holton on Saturday, Oct. 12.

• After church services on Sunday, Oct. 13 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Holton.

Weldin, who is also state secretary for the Kansas Lions Sight Foundation, said Gallagher’s involvement in the free screenings is part of the See To Learn program promoted locally by Lifetime Eye Care. The program, he said, provides “a free, professional look-see at a child’s eyes” at the age of three.

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