Rotarian helps Breakfast Lions with eye project

For The Madera Tribune

Madera Breakfast Lions President John Sudduth thanks Dr. Sandra OwYoung for her participation in the Club’s eye project.

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Dr. Sandra OwYoung, O.D., a member of Madera’s Noon Rotary Club for more than 20 years, and John Sudduth, President of the Madera Breakfast Lions, have good reason to smile together. The Madera optometrist has agreed to assist the local Lions in their program to provide eye examinations and glasses for those needy school children who lack insurance coverage.

Previously, over several decades, Dr. Steven Howell, O.D., a Madera Lion, offered low-cost eye exams and glasses under this program. This valued resource ended, however, at the end of the last school year, when Dr. Howell retired.

According to Lion Club member Galen Wright, who is a retired MUSD administrator, the nurses of the school District are relieved that Dr. OwYoung is graciously responding to the need. Wright says that school nurses are well aware that health issues such as poor vision can seriously affect children’s ability to learn.

Wright says the eye program for kids began in 1925 when Helen Keller challenged Lions, then a relatively newly minted service club, to become “Knights of the Blind.” Since then, Lions worldwide, including Madera’s, have devoted themselves to the “Sight First” program.

Wright expressed his gratitude to Dr. OwYoung on behalf of the Madera Breakfast Lions.