Lehigh Valley Sights for Hope Lions Club Activates with First Member Inductions

The Lehigh Valley Sights for Hope Lions Club, a branch of the Whitehall Lions Club, was activated officially Monday with its first member inductions.

The 10 members were installed Monday by Pennsylvania Lions District 14-K leaders during the club’s inaugural meeting. First-year membership fees for all Sights for Hope clients have been underwritten by the Whitehall Lions Club. The club’s first members also include a Sights for Hope volunteer and two members of the organization’s staff. All members inducted on or before June 30 will be designated as charter members.

The Lehigh Valley Sights for Hope Lions Club was created to empower Sights for Hope’s clients with visual impairments to give back to their communities. Lions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization, with 1.4 million members in 200 countries, and its members are known throughout the world for their work to improve the lives of people with visual impairments. With Monday’s inductions, there are approximately 720 active Lions in Pennsylvania’s District 14-K, which encompasses Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Sights for Hope traces its inception to efforts by Lions clubs from those counties in 1928 and Lions clubs and districts throughout Sights for Hope’s service area provide financial support annually.

“The activation of the Lehigh Valley Sights for Hope Lions Club is a meaningful milestone in our relationship with Lions in our communities,” said newly-inducted Lion Dennis Zehner, Sights for Hope’s Executive Director and CEO. “It also provides a vital opportunity for people with visual impairments to pay forward the support they have received in advancing their self-sufficiency and to express their personal independence.”

Gary Dvorshak, a Sights for Hope client and a member of Sights for Hope’s Board of Directors, was elected the club’s President on Monday. Sights for Hope client Kim Weimert was elected to serve as the club’s Membership Chair, and Zehner was elected to be the club’s Treasurer.

The club’s next meeting will be held at Sights for Hope’s Lehigh Valley Services Center on Saturday, March 5, at 10 a.m.

Sights for Hope blends a service tradition inspired by Helen Keller nearly a century ago with contemporary practices to remove the barriers to independence and success caused by visual impairments. Sights for Hope transforms the lives of people with visual impairments in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and Monroe County through life skills education, specialized technologies, individualized support services, free vision screenings for children, and community education programs. Sights for Hope services impact more than 10,000 people in a typical year and are provided at little or no cost. A total of 85% of Sights for Hope clients with visual impairments are from low-income households. Sights for Hope, known formerly as Center for Vision Loss, is an independent member of the Pennsylvania Association for the Blind (PAB) and is affiliated with the VisionServe Alliance, a network of North American agencies that serve people with visual impairments.

Image: The first members of the Lehigh Valley Sights for Hope Lions Club