Oak Brook, Illinois, USA, December 10, 2008— Today the Lions Clubs International – LSU Eye Clinic was inaugurated. University staff, local Lions and Lions Clubs International Past President Jimmy Ross attended the launch event. Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) has awarded a grant of $500,000 to the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center’s Department of Ophthalmology to establish the Lions Clubs International – LSU Eye Clinic.
This clinic, part of the LSU Interim Hospital system, provides vision care for the medically indigent and for patients sponsored by the Lions Clubs of Louisiana. The clinic is directed by Bruce A. Barron, M.D., Clinical Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology. Funding for the clinic was made possible by the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Program at LCIF, which provides support for vital public facilities and programs helping damaged regions recover and resume functioning.
“For the first time since Hurricane Katrina, there is a facility devoted specifically to the provision of eye care for people in the greater New Orleans area who do not have health insurance, thanks to this generous gift from LCIF. This facility has state-of-the-art equipment that allows diagnosis and treatment of devastating eye conditions. The patients whom I have seen at the Lions Clubs International – LSU Eye Clinic have all expressed an enormous amount of gratitude that such a clinic is now available to them. Most of them have been through a lot of stress since the hurricane, and this clinic has relieved their anxiety about eye care,” said Barron.”It is a privilege for the members of this committee, on behalf of Lions Clubs members from all over the world, who have given so generously of their time and money to provide through Lions Clubs International Foundation, the resources to help establish this clinic. This clinic will be an important resource in this underserved area,” said Loweill Bonds, LCIF Hurricane Katrina Committee Chairperson and past international director.
Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization with nearly 1.3 million members in approximately 45,000 Lions clubs in 205 countries and geographical areas around the world. Since it was founded in 1968, Lions Clubs International Foundation has awarded more than 9,000 grants totaling more than $640 million dollars.
For more information on the LSU Eye Center of Excellence and its research programs, go to http://www.lsu-eye.lsuhsc.edu.