Page 4 - Summer 2020 Newsletter
P. 4

         “Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness?”
— Helen Keller
Lions: Helping the Blind
Many eye clinics and eye banks contain the Lions name or have a Lions affiliation. This support of vision can be traced to the remarkable Helen Keller.
Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1880, Helen Keller contracted a fever at 19 months of age that left her both blind and deaf. She lived in darkness and silence until a miraculous teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through 7-year old Helen’s isolation to teach her sign language, Braille, and speech.
All her life Helen was a tireless advocate for people with disabilities. In 1925, she attended the Lions Clubs International Convention and gave a short speech asking the very young service organization to help the blind. This speech so moved the Lions that they have worked to assist the visually-impaired and to eradicate preventable blindness ever since.
Lions Gift of Sight is proud to be a part of this tradition and thanks our Minnesota Lions and the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation for their unstinting support.
   A Note to our Surgeons
We know the stay-at-home orders
heavily impacted surgery centers,
and we are so grateful for your
timely notifications of canceled or
rescheduled surgeries. Although
under reduced operations in April
and May, Lions Gift of Sight was
able to meet the needs of those sur-
gery centers that called upon us,
and for this we thank our cornea
donors and our essential staff.
Tissue Request Portal
If you are not familiar with our
tissue request portal, it can be a
huge time saver for you and your
support staff. The portal allows you
to: schedule, reschedule, or cancel
tissue requests; monitor the status
of your requests; and accept tissue
offers. Please contact me for more
information or to schedule an ori-
entation session for your team.
Did you know that we can also offer
tissue by text, and that you can
then review and accept the offer in
the portal or by email?
If you have changes to your prefer-
ences, please just let me know.
Best,
buckm013@umn.edu 612-624-0178
                                           LIONS GIFT OF SIGHT (LGS) is a community-based non-profit eye bank. Founded in 1960, it is the oldest donation organization in Minnesota. LGS serves the needs of donors and recipients in Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and North Dakota, as well as Galveston, Texas, 24 hours-a- day, 365 days-a-year. LGS distributes corneas for transplant and eyes and corneas for research and medical education.
With a stringent eye bank quality assurance program that audits all aspects of operations, LGS upholds the highest tissue quality standards. LGS is accredited by the Eye Bank Association of America, inspected by the Food and Drug Administration, follows OSHA and University of Min- nesota Office of the Vice President for Research guidelines. LGS is a proud part of the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
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