Explore our Impact

 Each year Lions club screen thousands of children here in the county and surrounding area to find a few that may need vision or hearing correction. Lions are using a new technology to perform eye screenings to detect vision problems in children as young as six months old. Through our KidsSight program, we target children from 6 months to 6 years of age to detect the causes of amblyopia, “lazy eye.” If lazy eye is caught and treated early, it can prevent blindness. Since 2010, Lions have screened over 70,000 children and referred over 7,000 children to physicians for follow-up care.

Lions have been screening children’s eyes for many years. The SPOT Vision Screener is a handheld, portable device that can detect focusing issues in patients 6 months of age through adult. The SPOT screens both eyes at once from a nonthreatening 3-foot distance and can take a reading within 1-5 seconds. Because the SPOT captures automatically requiring no response from the subject, it is especially valuable in screening special needs, preverbal, and pre-school children. The SPOT can detect the following focusing problems, any of which can cause Amblyopia, Lazy Eye. Anisometropia (unequal refraction) Hyperopia (farsightedness) Strabismus (eye misalignment) Myopia (nearsightedness) Astigmatism (blurred vision) Anisocoria (pupil size deviations) Every child screened must have written parental consent. As many as 40 -60 children may be screened in an hour. Each child is given a letter of results. Those referred for further examination are given a letter with a print-out of results on the reverse side that may be given to the eye doctor. The physical requirements for a successful screening is a space that can be dimly lit and have access to an electrical outlet. Lions District 24-D hosts thirteen SPOTS and keeps a busy schedule. 

Refractive errors can be easily corrected with eyeglasses, yet millions living in low and middle income countries lack access to basic eye care services. Lions have recognized the urgent need for corrective lenses and collect usable glasses in their communities to support the Lions Recycle For Sight Program. Here in Smithfield there are two drop off locations.  Lions Club mailboxes downtown at the Smithfield Icecream Parlor, and in the parking lot at the True Value on Church Street. The glasses are sorted to determine those that are usable or unusable, processed, and placed in inventory for distribution to optical missions around the world.  Lions help to minimize landfill waste by supporting precious metal reclamation and scrap processing for damaged glasses that are unusable. We also accept hearing aids at the above locations.  These hearing aids will be refurbished and reissued to the needy of the community . The Lions of Virginia have established a hearing aid bank to serve the needy in our community. Individuals that have a hearing problem are evaluated at the hearing bank and if a hearing aid is required, one of the refurbished units will be provided.

Having trouble paying for your eye exam and glasses?  Learn more here  LINK.

Local Lions Clubs provide Isle of Wight County School Nurses with Stop the Bleed Kits and training.
The Smithfield Lions Club, in conjunction with the Windsor Lions club and Smithfield High School Leo Club, answered the call with the purchase and donation of enough kits to have five at each school. But it didn’t stop there. Smithfield Lion Club member, Dr. Martin Payne, who is an ER physician and certified Stop the Bleed trainer, volunteered to provide the nurses with the training on how to use the kits. The morning session took place over the summer to prepare the school staff for the upcoming academic year.
Each nurse will now in turn provide several faculty members the same Stop the Bleed training.
Launched in October of 2015 by the White House, Stop the Bleed is a national awareness campaign and a call to action. Stop the Bleed is intended to cultivate grassroots efforts that encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives.
The Personal Bleeding Control Kits were developed in collaboration with leading manufacturers in the hemorrhage control industry and military. The tourniquet and compression dressings in the kits are the same technology recommended by the U.S. military to control bleeding.
Contents are packaged in a clear plastic, vacuum sealed pouch. Kit included: Instructional booklet on bleeding control, SWAT-T tourniquet, protective gloves, chest seals, large compression dressing, gauze bandages and hypothermia blanket.
Once again, the Lions Clubs in Isle of Wight live up to their motto “We Serve” 

 Smithfield Lions provides the Isle of Wight County Sheriff department with funding for Project Lifesaver to make it FREE to residents of the county.  Project Lifesaver is a program that protects and quickly locates individuals with cognitive disorders who are prone to life threatening behavior such as wandering.  The Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Department provides bracelets for FREE to citizens that could wander.  If you are a caregiver to someone with cognitive disorders and want to learn more about Project Lifesaver contact Sheriff Donnie Brown at dbrown@isleofwightus.net or calling 757-365-0632. 

The Smithfield High School LEO club is a division of the Smithfield Lion's Club. The club is a charitable organization that volunteers in the community. Leo club provides young people with opportunity for development and contribution - individually and collectively - as responsible members of our local community. 

Every year the Smithfield Lions works in conjunction with Isle of Wight County Christian Outreach program to adopt and provide holiday meals to those less fortunate.  Christian Outreach is an all volunteer non profit that provides free food, diapers, emergency assistance, dental assistance and more to those in need living in Isle of Wight and Surry Counties.  Smithfield Lions supports their efforts financially and through their holiday food basket program. 

The Smithfield Lions annually host the local competition of an escalating series of music contests (local, regional, district and state) sponsored by the Lions Clubs of Virginia culminating in scholarships for music study. This preliminary contest is open to youth attending elementary, middle, junior or senior high school (or equivalent home-schooled level) that are residents of Virginia. Contestants are not required to be from Smithfield, but are limited to participating in only one local competition.
Participants may only enter one local contest. For those advancing as far as the state finals, the Lions award scholarships of $2,500 for first place, $2,000 for second place, and $1,500 for third place, and cash awards of $1,000 for fourth, fifth and six places to vocal and instrumental finalists.

To be added to our email list please send a note to:   smithfieldlionsclubva@gmail.com 

Smithfield Lions has adopted Children with Special Needs as one of their legacy projects.  In the past they have supplied the students with bicycle helmets, refurbished their sandboxes and provided toys, and most recently a donation by Smithfield Lion's Club paid for a new fence at the preschool playground at Carrollton Elementary School, according to a news release.

The 4-foot PVC white vinyl fence was paid for by a $6,000 donation from the club. 

The preschool classes, along with building administrators and Isle of Wight County Schools Superintendent Jim Thornton, invited representatives of the Lion's Club to Carrollton to thank them for the beautiful fence. Lions Club members received cheers and applause from the preschool students, as well as the teachers and assistants, for the much-needed new addition to the playground.

Providing safe, quality eye tissue transplant to the Tidewater region since 1978

The Lions Medical Eye Bank and Research Center of Eastern Virginia is a non-profit transplant agency whose mission is to provide people the opportunity to donate eye tissues; healthcare professionals the means to end blindness; and patients the hope of clearly seeing form, color, and motion. LMEB was created by The Lions Club in 1978 with the goal to help restore sight to thousands of individuals in the Tidewater region of Virginia, across the United States, and throughout the world. Since then, the organization has grown to become a model for other eye banks worldwide. 

 The Smithfield Lions work with Magnolia Manor in Smithfield to bring in entertainment and activities like Bingo, Ice Cream socials, and holiday events.