The University-Ballard Lions Club celebrated its centennial with a gala luncheon on June 6. The UW Department of Ophthalmology was a presenting sponsor for the event, held at the Pacific Tower Panoramic Center in Seattle.
The University Lions Club, which has merged with the Ballard Lions Club, began supporting the UW Department of Ophthalmology by creating the Lions Eye Bank more than 50 years ago. Rebranded in the 2000s as SightLife, this eye bank has grown into one of the world’s largest, providing corneal tissue for surgeons throughout the US and the world.
Siddall Chair Tueng Shen, MD, PhD, was the celebration speaker. When Shen came to UW in the early 2000s, the University Lions Foundation supported her research with a grant. She held the title of the Northwest Lions Professor of Ophthalmology for several years until she received her current endowed chair position. She was introduced by Dr. Fred Minifie, a Lions member who is a past chair of the UW Medicine Eye Institute Community Action Board.
Dr. Shen recalled how the relationship between Lions and the Department grew over the 27 years Dr. Robert Kalina was chair and has continued to grow during Dr. Russell Van Gelder‘s 17 years as chair of the Department of Ophthalmology.
Dr. Shen recalled the Lions ' support for the Eye Bank, which provided corneal tissue for many transplants. She recognized Professor Emeritus Dr. Kalina for building the partnership between Lions and the department and the early development of the Lions Eye Bank as its medical director.
The Lions’ support for vision research is legendary, since 1925 when Helen Keller asked the members of Lions Clubs International to become her “Knights of the Blind.” Since then, hundreds of millions of lives have been changed through the vision-related work of Lions around the world, and today, the worldwide association is as dedicated as ever to hastening the day when no one should suffer unnecessarily from vision problems. Through eye centers and hospitals, medicines and surgeries, eyeglasses, and eye banks, Lions are working to end preventable blindness and aid the visually impaired.
At UW, Lions also supported an eye pathology laboratory that studied autopsy eyes that were not suitable for corneal transplant and led to many publications crediting the Lions. They supported a library that was a resource for our researchers and trainees. They purchased the first operating microscope and the first laser for the NIH clinical research trial that established laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy, previously a non-treatable blinding disease.
Minifie recalled Dr. Shen's research on developing artificial corneas, including going to her native China and implanting them in patients there. The University-Ballard Lions Club “has been truly proud to support Dr. Shen’s work over these many years,” he said.
Minfie presented Dr. Shen with a $12,000 donation to the Lions Gift of Sight Program from the Harry and Clare Cayo Wilson Charitable Trust administered by the University-Ballard Lions. The Lions Gift of Sight program, through the Department of Ophthalmology, provides eyeglasses to patients who may not be able to afford them and helps with the cost of scleral lenses for cornea patients. To donate to this fund, visit give.uwmedicine.org.