Atlanta Metro Lions serve routinely in local
projects - raising money for the Georgia
Lighthouse, the Camp For The Blind,
Health Fairs, Mobile Eye Clinics. We are board members, client finders, advocates,
hand-holders, nurturers, and transportation providers. We have collected more than 12,000
pairs of used eyeglasses since our inception and a large number of hearing aids for
recycling. These glasses and hearing aids are cleaned, classified, packaged for proper
prescription and used both locally and world-wide.
We have adopted a school - G. A. Towns
Elementary School in Northwest Atlanta. We provide funds for specific school projects, we
act as role models and participate in various school activities. Among the activities we
are proud of, we created a chess club of which we have chess players with skills that can
rival most adults. Our most important contribution to the school is we have established a
link for the children into the adult community.
Our Lions club supports traditional Lion
causes, also. Together with the Georgia Lions Multiple Districts, we collect money from
the general public on "White Cane Day" each April for the direct benefit of the
Georgia Lions' Lighthouse for the
Blind. Additional fund raising activities yield further support for the Lighthouse and
for related charities such as Emory Children's Eye Tissue Center, the Georgia Lions Camp For The Blind,
and the Leader Dog Foundation.
We support the Lions
Club International Foundation, both with our own funds and with gifts and donations
from others. LCIF projects are as diverse as training indigenous health workers in 3rd
world countries - to the removal of cataracts - to helping flood victims in South Georgia.
We support less "standard"
charities, mostly local causes like:
The Diabetes Association of Georgia
The Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation of Georgia
Southwest Hospital Foundation
Omenala-Griot Teaching Museum, AMMSA
LCIF - Melvin Jones Fellow
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers
Sadie May's Home
Carrie Steel Pitts Home
Quality Living Center
Atlanta Public Safety Day
World Sight Day
International Peace Poster Day
We have also subsidized service trips for
optometry students to go to third world countries and other geographic locations. The
students are a part of Student Volunteers for Optometric Service to Humanity (SVOSH) where
they volunteer their time and skills under professional supervision to render visual
services to poor people. The picture below shows the students, involved in SVOSH, whom we
sponsored in order for them to volunteer in Costa Rica.
Our major fund raiser is our annual "Food Tasting Extravaganza"
held every October which supports all Lion Charities including some additional funds to
work with the blind. During our 10 years, Atlanta Metro Lions Club has raised and
distributed more than $116,000 to these charities. We also have an annual "Law
Day" where we honor men and women in law enforcement who volunteer their time,
off-duty, to civic and community organizations that promote service to their communities.
In our ten years of existence, Atlanta Metro
Lions Club is one of the largest and certainly one of the most active clubs in Georgia.
Centered in Southwest Atlanta, we represent the entire metro Atlanta Area. We proudly
boast that we are part of Lion District 18-A which covers most of Northwest Georgia. You
can access the Lions of Georgia website at www.galions.org.
We accept new members at anytime and welcome
visits to our meeting of potential members. If you are interested in joining us in doing a
"marvelous work", visit our contact us page where you
can find all pertinent information regarding where to find us. One of our greatest
ambitions is recruiting new members because we are fully committed to eliminating
blindness and the more members we have, the more work we can do. Remember, "we
serve."
