Note – this is an article I wrote for the Oregon LIONS monthly magazine back a couple years ago. It seems like a nice place to launch this blog from. Helen Keller truly smiles.
CHALLENGE OFFERED AND ACCEPTED
Helen Keller would smile. Ever since issuing her challenge to the Lions Club, members have worked in various ways to accomplish her summons. Eduardo Torres and his wife, Yolanda, are two outstanding examples of how this mission can be taken on.
The Torres couple are optometrists in Rio Verde, a town in the north central Mexican state of San Luis Potosì. Their two sons are also optometrists. During the last six years, the couple have worked with their local Lions Club, El Refugio, hosting six vision clinics. Incidentally, El Refugio is a club that recently celebrated its 101st anniversary, one year older than the international version of Lions, itself!
It is all about experience!
I first came to Rio Verde on the second such clinic back in 2013. There was a Lions In Sight clinic in the town the previous year. Each year, Lions In Sight operates one clinic in each of the different Mexican districts with towns chosen by the districts. For 2013, the town chosen for district B-3 ( the district including Rio Verde) decided at the last moment the host club could not run a clinic. With experience gained from their first clinic, the Rio Verde club stepped forward taking responsibility for the mission. Even when the LIS doctors’ bag – a bag which included instruments needed by the incoming doctors to run the clinic – the problem was overcome with the Torres loaning their equipment to the visiting doctors.
Yolanda Torres included in her speech at the clinic finale ceremonies those visiting were now part of her family. They would be treated as such upon their return. Well, I returned this year and can attest to the truth in her statement.
Lions in Sight
Lions In Sight is a special Lions subgroup based out of California. The group has for over 20 years been providing vision care outside of the US around the World. With time, doctors and Lions members accompanying the team to help dispense glasses, include people from all over the US. Vision missions are a special opportunity for Lions to meet one another on an international level and share an international purpose – the challenge given us by Helen Keller, the restoration of sight.
As a part of many of these clinics over the years, it is always a great part of a mission experience to see the interaction of local Lions and American Lions in and out of the clinic. Common purpose helps break down language barriers. So many visiting Lions return to the US warmed by their experiences with international Lionism. They cannot wait to do it all over again.
Clinic date in Rio Verde
Returning to Rio Verde this year, I brought along Rick Stubblefield, fellow member of my local club in Gresham, Oregon. Rick has been involved for much of his over 20 years as a Lion providing care for those in need of vision care on a local level. He is involved as well as in the ever-ongoing collection of used eyeglasses so familiar to Lions clubs. He joined me on this trip to see where all of those used glasses collected end up. The experiences Rick enjoyed on his trip demonstrated Lionism extends far beyond local boundaries.
On this trip, our team – two doctors from California, myself and an ophthalmologist from Missouri; three Lions from California, two from Missouri, Rick, and another from North Carolina – were greeted by the Torres family and other club members at their ranchita on the outskirts of Rio Verde. The warmth of the greeting set the stage for a flawless clinic running over the next two days. We were family indeed, a part of the worldwide family of Lions.
Helen Keller smiles!
Helen Keller truly smiles at the ease with which the mission worked, largely the result of the pre-planning on the part of the Torres’. Over five hundred patients were seen, either receiving glasses or referrals for more complicated vision problems. One patient stood out for Dr Chetan Soni, an ophthalmologist from just outside Springfield, Missouri on only his second clinic trip. The patient drove over two hours to arrive at the clinic over flooded road fords with no glasses. We determined she was a very high hyperope – farsighted – but we had glasses close to her prescription. The smile on her face caused Dr Soni to exclaim, “That is why I come on these trips!”
POST CLINIC WORK CONTINUES
The mission of the Torres family continues after our LIS team has departed. They take the glasses not distributed during the two days of the mission out into their local communities and run their own missions. Sometimes they use their cars and sometimes horses to reach villages further off the grid. At the wrap up ceremony for this clinic both the district governor and his secretary (both from the state capital of San Luis Potosi two hours away) were ecstatic over the work done by the Torres family for the people in their district. Not only do the Rio Verde Lions take care of glasses for the needy of their area, but for those needing more complicated care. For people needing cataract operations, they provide a driver and van which drives patients north five hours to Monterrey.
With the fiesta at the end of the final ceremonies – in between Eduardo being serenaded by his family and mariachis in honor of his birthday the following day – Eduardo pulled me aside to talk about ideas he had for future clinics. “I want to go further out into the local mountains where the indigenous people live, those who cannot come into Rio Verde for our clinics. These people are very poor. There are no hotels, but we can sleep in the churches.” His eyes light up as he describes the possibilities. Why not? Helen Keller smiles!
