Vision with a vision: Palmer Lions mark 5 decades of service

PALMER — This weekend’s 46th annual Palmer Lions Club Gun Show is more than a place to buy, sell and swap firearms and accessories. It’s a lifeline for hundreds of Palmer-area children.

That’s because the Palmer Lions Club, which marks its 50th anniversary this year, uses the proceeds from the show to fund its year-round efforts to enrich the lives of local youths. In fact, you could say the club’s vision is their vision.

Along with supporting Palmer athletics, volunteering for local events and donating community improvements — like the arch over Palmer Pioneer Cemetery or the milepost at the Palmer Museum and Visitors Center — the club’s main initiative is vision. Lions collect old eyeglasses to be refurbished and sent to third-world countries and expend exhaustive volunteer hours conducting vision screenings for about 500 to 600 Palmer elementary school children a year.

“That’s really what it’s all about, things like that,” said Bob Morigeau, a 25-year Palmer Lions Club member and gun show coordinator. “There are kids’ eyesight saved from that, and that’s a great thing and a big deal. Of all the organizations or clubs you can belong to, this to me is the most worthwhile one because everything we do is all volunteer and it all goes to the community.”

Even the show itself is a model of service. Along with the booth fees and admission that go to the club, the Lions also allow other groups to benefit from the event. One such group is the Winner’s Circle 4-H Club, which runs the concessions for the show as a fundraiser. Also, the Lions raffle off three rifles with the proceeds benefiting the Salvation Army food bank and the Palmer Food Bank, Morigeau said.

“Everything that we do goes to support local activities, whether it be high school sports or academic scholarships, groups like the seniors and all the different clubs. We’ve supported Little League, we help buy the mat for the Lancer Smith Memorial (Wrestling Tournament), things like that,” he said.

If Saturday’s opening of the gun show is any indication, this year could be a good one for the Lions, he said. When the show opened at 10 a.m., it took more than an hour for the line of people waiting to get inside Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds. At that pace, Morigeau is hopeful the event can bring in about $20,000.

“Most recent years it hasn’t been that good, but I expect this year could be better,” he said.

As for the Lions’ longtime dedication to giving children vision screenings, nobody’s more aware of how something so simple can change a child’s life than longtime Lion Monty Hotchkiss. A former Palmer Lions Club president and vision screening volunteer, Hotchkiss said a member of his family benefited from a screening.

“I have a great-grandson — well, three great-grandsons — and we did their eyes at the house where we had the (computerized vision) camera,” he said. “We did their eyes and for one of them it indicated a problem. So, my granddaughter took him to the doctor and the doctor looked at him and said, ‘Yes, they do have a problem.’ No one realized he couldn’t see well.”

Just how much of a difference vision screenings have in a community are in the numbers, Hotchkiss said. Of all the tens of thousands of screenings Lions Club International conducts each year, about 8 percent of children screened are referred to doctors because of potential vision problems.

Contact reporter Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

What: 46th annual Palmer Lions Club Gun Show

When: Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds

Cost: Admission $7 for adults.