1113 Lions club
Lions club member Wayne Dunlap and President Max Herzel at the 2012 Homewood Metro Lions Club Pecan Sale at the U.S 31 Piggly Wiggly in Homewood
In Lebanon, a young man begins to dance at the sounds he hears when fitted with a hearing aid. In Kenya, children hear their classmates’ laughter for the first time.
These are moments made possible by Homewood Metro Lions Club and other lions clubs across the state.
“[We do] anything to help people who are handicapped,” said Max Herzel, president of the Homewood Metro Lions Club.
On Saturday, Nov. 9, the Homewood Metro Lions Club will host a Camilla Pecan Sale at the Piggly Wiggly on U.S. 31 to benefit the Alabama Lions Sight Conservation Association, Alabama Lions Eyeglasses Recycling Program, Camp Seale Harris and other community projects. An $8 donation is requested for each 12-ounce bag of pecans, and there will be a collection bin for unwanted hearing aids and eyeglasses.
All collected eyeglasses will be sent to a recycling location in Moody, where they will be washed, catalogued and taken on missions to Latin America, India and other places around the world.
It’s this gift of sight that motivates Herzel and the Lions.
“Some of these people have never seen their grandchildren,” Herzel said. “It’s amazing the number of students that need glasses who don’t know it. It’s a blessing for them.”
All collected hearing aids will be catalogued and shipped to the Starkey Hearing Foundation, a global organization that recycles hearing aids and distributes them in Lebanon, India, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi.
“Due to financial needs, these people can’t afford hearing aids,” Herzel said.
The Lions clubs collect eyeglasses and hearing aids year-round and also supports the Alabama Lions Sight Conservation Association, a non-profit project of the Lions Club of Alabama in Birmingham that funds medically necessary eye care for low-income adults and children and provides vision screenings in schools and communities across the state. The Lions Club of Alabama raises about 60 percent of the organization’s revenue. The Homewood club also supports Camp Seale Harris, an overnight diabetes education/recreation program for children ages 6-17.
Herzel said he is thankful for the support of the Piggly Wiggly during their semi-annual sale and that last year there were few leftover bags of pecans. While club membership is lower than it has been in the past, he has high hopes for the future of the club’s outreach.
“We are looking to grow,” Herzel said. “The economy has changed, but we are trying to rejuvenate.”
For more information on the club, visit lionsclub.org.
