Sooner or later, by way of the Sight Conservation Chairperson (SCC) or other alert member, a Lions Club gets news of a local citizen who qualifies as lacking fund sources and needs an expensive eye procedure. That may be cataract surgery, corneal transplant, etc. The Club Treasurer determines that their budget falls short of the fee. The SCC looks up the Foundation's District Project Chair in the District Directory and makes contact. Our State Projects Chair helps with the paperwork, studies the medical reports, confers with the prospective patient and his/her family, case worker, medical providers, and so on. The State Projects Chair persuades the doctor to reduce the fee, usually to less than half of the original. The club may (but is not required to) provide a "co-payment" depending on the health of its budget. At the next Foundation Board meeting (or immediately in case of an emergency) the Directors approve the case. The patient gets the procedure, the Foundation pays the bill. Some cases are more complex but most follow the above pattern.

A Foundation Projects Form may be downloaded and printed by clicking here.

Projects Reports

At the January 5, 2013 Foundation meeting in Ybor City, 54 cases were approved by the board of directors: Cataract (38), Cornea (1), Laser (9), Lens Exchange (2), Prostheses (2), Pterygium (1), Retina (1).

Year-to-Date Totals
(May 1, 2012 - January 5, 2013)

Total Cases - 232
Cataract (155), Cornea (5), Enucleation (2) Glaucoma (4), Laser (25), Laser Exchange (2)
Prosthesis (11), Pterygium (1), Retina (3), Vitrectomie (14)

Estimated Total Cost -$1,202,096.00

Club Co-Pays - $44,800.00

Savings - $805,456.00

Cost to the Foundation - $351,840.00