(Seguin) — When the Seguin Noon Lions Club hosts its Fall Fling drive-thru event on Thursday, it will be doing more than just serving up delicious pork steaks. It will also be raising money that will be put to good use right here in Seguin.
Much like other service clubs in the community, including Rotary, Zonta and Kiwanis, the Noon Lions Club periodically hosts fundraisers to help support children and others in the community. Lion Steve Peth says they offer scholarships, support other nonprofit groups and provide access to a special summer camp in the Texas Hill Country.
“One of the things we’ve got going is our three $1,500 scholarships for seniors, that are going to either some kind of secondary education, not necessarily college. It can be a two-year program. We support the South Texas Pregnancy Center, the Seguin Conservation Society (and) we support the diabetes awareness activity that’s going on. And our big one, this is a huge, huge thing — and that’s the Lions Camp in Kerrville,” said Peth.
Peth says their support for the Lions Camp goes beyond just sending local kids and others to the camp. He says they do more to make sure that the camp is available and accessible to those who need it most.
“This year we sponsored scholarships for some of the counselors in addition to the donation that our club makes every year to the Lions Camp. We also go and help clean up and do work. There’s work weekends there where Lions go and prepare it for the campers. The camp is free. We have kids from Seguin who are going there. Any child with disabilities can go there. We made the trip down there and did the donation for the scholarship this year and we’re at the graduation ceremony at the end of one of the sessions. It was incredible. It was absolutely something to see that these kids have such a great time and the people who run the camp do such a great job. All of us are motivated even more to go out and try and find some way to support the camp,” said Peth.
Lion Mike Wilson says the kids at the Lions Camp all have some type of disability. He says these kids all thrive in a special setting that allows them to explore the world in some new ways.
“Whenever they get there, they learn in most cases that they’re not alone with their disability, (and) that they have other children that are there. It’s a very big challenge for the parents to let them go, because the parents most of the time have been taking care of this child very closely the entire child’s life. And they get to go there and they get a chance to challenge their abilities that they do have and learn that they can do so much more than they thought they could in a lot of cases. And they leave that camp with a stronger feeling of confidence in being able to live a normal life in their own communities whenever they get back,” said Wilson.
The Lions also continue their mission to improve the vision of those in the community, especially children. Wilson says some of the proceeds raised this week will go to support the local KidsSight program.
“What it amounts to is an opportunity for the Lions to go wherever kids are and screen them for vision problems. The main objective of that is that we catch these vision problems early enough that a permanent condition does not set in called amblyopia. And amblyopia sometimes is called lazy eye, and it’s a more or less a permanent condition that is an interruption or a stalling of the brain development in these kids,” said Wilson.
The KidsSight screening is simple. They use a small, kid-friendly device to check for vision problems. Wilson says the key to correcting these problems is to catch them early.
“At an early age, these kids’ brain development is still increasing at a rapid rate. Whenever they are not getting a clear picture of the world due to some kind of vision abnormality, then the brain and the nervous system that triggers from the eye to the brain is interrupted, and it can cause a permanent condition there. If it’s not caught in time to correct the vision problem so that the brain develops normally — and so if we wait until seven or eight years old, in most cases, it’s too late and the condition has already set in and in almost all cases cannot be completely eliminated,” said Wilson.
The KidsSight program is widespread in the Seguin area. In fact, if your child attends school in the Seguin or Navarro school districts, there’s a good chance that the Lions have tested their vision. If there’s a problem, they have helped lead families to a pathway that will allow the child’s vision to be corrected.
“We are currently screening all the kindergarten classes in Seguin ISD and Navarro (ISD). We also do the entire campus at Ball Early Childhood (Campus in Seguin). That’s where the program began, because that’s where the youngest kids were and the greatest concentration of young kids. And it was also where we could do the most good by catching the vision problems early enough that they could get treatment and therapy to correct that, and to not have to have a permanent vision problem the rest of their lives,” said Wilson.
The Noon Lions and other local service clubs continue to provide support for the community in a number of ways. These clubs are all looking for new members to help support the work that they do. Wilson says all of these clubs — whether it’s Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary, Zonta or some other club — want to help make this community a better place to live, while also providing some camaraderie as part of that process. He says, for the Lions, there are many opportunities for you to join.
“We’ve got 4 Lions Clubs in the area. If you don’t count McQueeney, and we do because they are local to us, but they’re not in the same district divisionally as Lions go, but it doesn’t matter. We’re still all part of the Lions Clubs International,” said Wilson.
The Seguin Noon Lions Club is hosting one of its big fundraisers on Thursday night outside the Silver Center on East Court Street in downtown Seguin. It’s a drive-thru only event, and the club will be selling pork steak plates. The plates are $15 each if purchased before Thursday, or $20 during the event — with only a limited number of tickets available that night. Tickets can be purchased at the Silver Center, Starcke Furniture, Ascot’s Custom Travel or Tri-County AC & Heating.