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Brockville General Hospital |
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News Release |
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MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Brockville Lions Club Sends Vision of Hope Overseas Brockville—The Brockville Lions Club is giving a second life to a ophthalmological microscope from Brockville General Hospital by shipping the outdated equipment to the third world, where older technology and supplies are desperately needed. It’s part of a vision of hope set in place over 85 years ago by the late deaf and blind writer, lecturer and activist Helen Keller. “In 1925,” says Lions Past President and District Governor Ted Hughes, “Helen Keller spoke to the Lions Club International Convention in Ohio, and asked them to be her ‘Knights of the Blind’. We agreed and that has been one of the mandates of the Lions Club ever since.” Founded in 1917, the Lions Club is the world’s largest service club organization with over 45,000 clubs in 206 countries, and 1.35 million members world-wide. The club boasts 72,000 members in Ontario. “We’ve done the ‘Sight First’ Campaign for many years,” explains Brockville Lions President Ross Brown, “where we collect unwanted eyeglasses and get them to people in need. It’s been very successful in this community. The Lions Club International just completed ‘Sight First II’ in which we raised $200 million to combat all curable blindness. Brockville was a model club in that campaign, raising $26,000 in this community alone. “Getting donated, used ophthalmological equipment like this microscope to third world countries desperate for any supplies is also part of that whole mandate of sight conservation,” he adds. The Lions have transported the Moeller microscope to Kingston, where Walker Capital Moving— a local company—takes over, supplying free transport to the Canadians Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centre in Calgary. There, it is decided in which country the scope is needed most. This one, Hughes says, will go to a clinic in Thailand. It’s a win-win situation for two health care facilities—the overseas clinic and Brockville General Hospital. “Thanks to the community’s generosity,” says Ray Marshall, BGH President and CEO, “BGH was able to purchase a replacement microscope for our ophthalmology program. We are very pleased to be working with the Brockville Lions Club to have the existing microscope transported to an area of high need. “The Lions Club has been a major supporter of BGH’s ophthalmological program,” he adds, “so it is rewarding to work with them to enhance eye care elsewhere in the world.”
The journey begins: BGH President and CEO Ray Marshall (centre) consigns the microscope to the capable and committed hands of Brockville Lions President Ross Brown (left) and Past President/District Governor Ted Hughes (right). For more information, please contact:
Healthy people – Outstanding Care
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