LORAIN LIONS REPRESENT DISTRICT 13B AT HEALTH & DENTISTRY BUILDING DEDICATION

ABOVE (left to right): IPP Lion Doug Kayle, Lion Dr. John Smith and Lion Ken Cromer attended the dedication of the new Lorain County Health & Dentistry building on Monday, July 22.  It was a very nice event and Stephanie Wiersma, President & CEO of LCH&D, spoke very positive remarks about District 13B Lions who have raised $250,000 to equip the new vision clinic which will open in September or October of this year.

This is the front entrance.  What a remarkable transformation from November 2011 at the groundbreaking ceremony for the building construction.

Senator Sherrod Brown talks about the importance of community health centers within the health care environment in serving thousands of persons with limited or no access to other sources of medical services.

Lorain Mayor Chase Ritenauer stressed the value to the city of restoring a strategically located major building on the main entrance to the city on Broadway.  With more projects like this one, that require making bold decisions and taking risks, the city of Lorain will open the door to a better future.

This view shows the entrance to the Vision Clinic through the glass doors on the right and the waiting room on the left right beside the main entrance reception desk.

ABOVE:  The Vision Clinic dispensary in the foreground and the clinical rooms off the hall way to the rear.  In a couple of months, this area will be stocked with state-of-the-art equipment thanks to the efforts of the Lorain Lions and District 13B's 56 clubs and over 1800 members.

This was the ceremonial ribbon cutting.  The event was attended by more than 100 guests, including the VP of the National Association of Community Health Centers. Shawn Frick.

DISTRICT GOVERNOR HENSEL VISITS LORAIN LIONS

District Governor Francis Hensel visited and spoke to the Lorain Lions at our Thursday, July 25 meeting.  Governor Hensel thanked the Lorain Lions for their leadership in the district and for their hard work on the Vision Clinic Project. He stressed the importance of using this successful project to bring in new members.

ABOVE:  Lion President Bruce Diso (left) welcomes Governor Hensel.

Lion President Bruce presents the Governor with a Lorain Lions Lighthouse pin and Governor Francis displayed his expertise and knowledge of Lions pins as he explained that there were five different versions of that pin produced by our club.  Lion Hensel is a pin collector and owns several thousand!  Lion Bruce announced that the Lorain Lions were going to be donating $50.00 to the Vision Clinic Project in Governor Hensel's name in appreciation for his visit.

RECENT SPEAKERS EDUCATE, INFORM AND ENTERTAIN

On June 27, Valerie Smith, Adult Services Supervisor at Lorain Public Library System's Main Library, presented a fascinating program about Sears "mail order" homes that were popular in the first half of the 20th century.  Many Sears homes were built in Lorain and Lorain County because of convenient access to railroad shipping.  Valerie, wife of Lion Dan Smith, showed slides of many of the styles of these homes that are quite prevalent and in use today.

On July 11, Irvin Del Valle, Social Worker for the Mercy Outreach Center, a program of Mercy Regional Medical Center, talked about the very needy families that this service reaches out to to assure proper medical care.  Irvin refers some of his clients to the Lorain Lions or Elyria Lions for help with eyeglasses.

On July 18, Gregg,Mehling of the Lorain County Drug Task Force, told us about the growing problem of opioid addiction in Lorain County and what his agency is doing, including a new pilot program authorized by legislative action for trial in Lorain County.  The program allows law enforcement and firefighters to administer a Narcon nasal spray to persons who have overdosed on an opioid and which saves many lives.