Service Clubs:

The April food drive to benefit the Burbank Temporary Aid Center conducted by all the Burbank Kiwanis clubs at all the supermarkets in the Burbank area was a great success, according to members.

There is no doubt that Burbank residents are very generous people indeed.

As a person came into the grocery store, club members would hand out a list of items that BTAC so desperately needs and sometimes people would return with a basket full of groceries to give away. Almost without fail, someone donated something — toothpaste, shampoo or a can of beans to a box of cereal. The response from the community was overwhelming.

The event involved all of the clubs in the Kiwanis family including Key clubs and Aktion Club. Edward Stapleton at BTAC must have been so surprised when the vans and trucks arrived with all the food that was collected.

For more information, contact Burbank Sunrise Kiwanis — Dave Hambly at (818) 848-4664 or dave@computercountryla. com; for Burbank Noon Kiwanis — Sam Engel Sr. at (818) 848-9560 or Herb Vincent at (818) 848-2962 or Chvincent1@aol.com; for Burbank Kiwanis For Fun — Jan Loporchio at (818) 843-0535 or panette@pacbell.net.

SIGHTFIRST PROJECT

The reality is that by the time you complete this article, one child somewhere in the world will have gone blind.

According to Lions Clubs International and the World Health Organization, one child goes blind every minute. Half a million will have lost their sight by the end of the year.

Members of the Burbank Noon Lions are joining fellow Lions worldwide to combat preventable blindness, said Marva Murphy, a member of the Noon Lions board of directors.

Lions around the world have been fundraising for the past several months to continue a project titled SightFirst that ran from 1990 to 1992.

As a result of SightFirst, Lions have saved or restored sight to 27 million people around the world and improved eye care for more than 100 million people, according to Lions Club International. The new campaign, SightFirst II will continue this effort and expand services including research into blindness as a result of Diabetes, a disease that is rapidly increasing in developed countries.

Additionally, SightFirst II funds will be dedicated to preventing childhood eye disease. Without the contributions of Lions, World Health Organization officials say that the world’s blind population could double from 37 million to 74 million by 2020.