Located in Oxnard, California, the Oxnard Noontimers Lions Club is celebrating its 52nd year. We meet at Noon every Friday at the Oxnard Residence Inn by Marriott by the River Ridge Golf Course.
If you know of anyone in the Oxnard area who needs help with vision or hearing issues, please please visit our Help page where we have some options for you. If you know of someone in another area, be sure to contact the local Lions club for assistance. The Lions have been helping the vision and hearing impaired since Helen Keller spoke at our International Convention in 1925. We provide glasses and hearing aids to kids in schools who otherwise would be at a disadvantage. Funds from activities like the Golf Tournament (see above) are used for these kinds of activities. Helen Keller spoke to the Lions International Convention in 1925 and challenged the Lions to become "Knights of the Blind." All Lions clubs in 200 countries around the world try to make her dream come true. Recently, Lions International raised $200 million for Campaign Sight First II, which aims to wipe out all preventable blindness on earth. It's a tall order. The first Campaign Sight First saved or restored vision for 27 million people. Unfortunately, there are still 37 million afflicted. Our second campaign hopes to do even better.
Lions help out in other areas, too. After the tsunami struck south Asia in 2004 the Lions community responded immediately. If Lions International were classified as a nation, we would have been the fifth most generous provider of aid on earth. We were actually more effective than that, as all of the aid was coordinated with local Lions clubs. We built homes where Lions bought the material and most of the labor was donated by local Lions. Had we paid for labor, of course, the money wouldn't have gone as far.
Our Honorary Noontimer, Father Eugen Nkardzedze, continues his work in the bush in Cameroon. We have sent one huge cargo container of stuff for his church, but the crooks in Nigeria hit him with so much in taxes and bribes that we won't do that again. It cost more to get it into Cameroon than we spent on it. Considering that it contained a new ATV, camcorder, laptop computer and other stuff, that's no small bribe. We do, however, continue to send smaller care packages and money. If you are looking for a dedicated, hard-working priest who is setting up schools, digging wells, bringing basic health care and building his church, you can't do better than send checks or supplies to Father Eugen.