Lions Club receives award for giving

The Cape Girardeau Noon Lions Club was awarded the Haywood Snipes Award for generous donations to the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation. The award is bestowed upon Missouri Lions Clubs with each cumulative donation of $10,000 to the research foundation.

Lion Haywood Snipes dedicated many years to volunteerism. As Missouri Lions Sight Committee chairman during the late 1960s and early 1970s, he helped Missouri Lions raise more than $250,000 to build what is known today as the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation.

The Cape Girardeau Noon Lions Club has donated more than $40,000 to the foundation's sight-saving programs since 1987.

The award was dedicated to Leland "Freck" Shivelbine, a Cape Girardeau Noon Lion for 57 years who has served in numerous positions including president from 1963 to 1964, for his support of the foundation and Lionism, and his service.

Gifts made to the foundation by Lions Clubs assist in the funding of its programs dedicated to the preservation and restoration of sight, including the amblyopia prevention program, free glaucoma detection screening, eye care for indigent Missourians and eyeglass recycling program for transport overseas by humanitarian groups.

The foundation also operates the Heartland Lions Eye Banks, which restore sight at a rate of five people per day with cornea tissue for transplant. The eye banks process and distribute donated tissue from seven facilities in Missouri, Kansas and Illinois.

For more information, visit www.mlerf.org.