The Greenfield Lions Club is being spotlighted for the month of September at the Southern Hills Community Bank in Greenfield.
October 2020 marks the 69th year of the Greenfield Lions Club being active in the Greenfield area. During these years, its most important mission has been to help people maintain their vision. One of the first projects of the club was the visual screening of every student in the Greenfield School District. In 1953, more than 800 students were screened by club members, their spouses and other volunteers. The club continues that work through its eye screening programs for all preschoolers and kindergarteners.
Every October since 2006, Greenfield Lions has sponsored an eye screening of every kindergarten student in the Greenfield Exempted Village School District completed by the fifth-year optometry students of Ohio State University. Several tests are performed. These tests include stereo acuity, near vision acuity, color vision, cover test, distance visual acuity, retinoscopy and ophthalmoscopy. Since the fall of 2014, the Greenfield Lions Club has screened preschoolers in the Greenfield School District. This includes classes in the Greenfield schools as well as the Presbyterian Preschool and Head Start.
In 2017, theclub purchased a new screener which is more thorough and easier to use than the original screener. The price of the new screener was more than $7,000. Funds for the purchase came from local community support of Sight Seals and other Greenfield Lions Club projects.
Any student in the Greenfield School District that needs help with optometry services and cannot afford it is eligible for help from our club. Increasingly, the club is receiving requests for adults, especially senior citizens, who it gladly helps also.
The club does so much more. Through various fundraisers, it supports many local youth and high school activities such as New Directions, Kamp Dovetail, and other young individuals with special needs. It has financially supported other service organizations, individual churches, and the Greenfield Area Christian Center, which provides for food and clothing needs. It has swept city sidewalks with Lion Club brooms, worked at athletic and band booths, planted flowers, served food at the Greenfield Oktoberfest, and sponsored the communitywide Christmas shows.
It is able to accomplish its important work because of the generous community support for its fundraisers including: Broom sales, Oktoberfest food booth, Greene Countrie Towne Festival booth, community Christmas shows and Sight Seals.
Currently, the Greenfield Lions Club has 29 volunteer members.A donation box is located at the display table at Southern Hills Bank in Greenfield with all monies going to the Greenfield Lions Club.
Submitted by Angie Trefz, branch manager, Southern Hills Community Bank.
