ROME — The best part of her Lions Club officer role is traveling to meet with individual clubs and hearing members share their own stories and ideas, said District Governor Sheree Vora.

Each new district governor designs a metal pin to reflect the theme of their leadership to be sold as a fundraiser. Vora decided to commemorate her own penchant for listening.

“My district governor pin is a book because I believe in sharing your stories,” said Vora, who oversees the 1,210 members in 48 clubs throughout District 20-Y including all of central New York. Vora travels an area that goes south practically to the Pennsylvania border, north to Tug Hill and her newest club in Boonville, west to Route 81 and east to Cooperstown and beyond.

She has already visited 31 of her clubs since taking the office in the summer.

Among the many service projects for the Lions Clubs are those dedicated to aiding the sight and hearing impaired both locally and worldwide. They have also recently taken up an outreach for people facing diabetes, Vora noted.

Every year, a district governor creates a personal project that the individual chapters offer to support. This year, Vora’s project is to renovate an inpatient treatment room at Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital in Syracuse to make hematology and oncology treatments easier for youngsters. Individual club chapters also have their own projects, she added.

Collections are ongoing for used eyeglasses and hearing aids, and they can be dropped off in special Lions Club boxes in most local post offices and eye doctors’ offices, Vora said. The Lions Club chapters throughout her district also offer vision screenings for children in area schools, she said.

Locally, the Rome chapter had a very busy fall season doing vision screenings for kids in area schools, said their Membership Chair Susan Bailey.

“We went through 10 different Rome schools and screened 3,202 kids in the system,” she said. “We found 529 referrals for following up with an evaluation with an eye professional.
This is one of our favorite programs, and is one that has continuously grown over the past
several years.”

The Rome chapter also hosted a Sundays on Tuesdays program over the summer serving ice cream treats and giving out books to kids, movie nights for the community, a Halloween program at the Rome Polish Home where they handed out more than 600 books and a social night at Copper City Brewing Company to invite out potential members.

Another recruitment night is coming up as well.

“We are encouraging anybody who is interested in becoming a member of the club to come and join us at our next meeting the fourth Tuesday of January at 6 p.m. at the Rome Art and Community Center,” Bailey said. “The more hands we have, the more impact we can make. And we would like to encourage people to join us in service to the community to help others who need it and to give back to those who could really benefit from their help.”

Vora is planning to meet Jan. 24 with the Rome Lions Club chapter, she said.

Currently, Lions throughout the district are also reaching out to help area residents impacted by the recent severe snowstorms with financial assistance. They are also preparing for flood damage reparations from the melting of all of that snow, she added.

Reaching out to the communities to see what the residents need to make their lives better is what Lions service is all about to her, Vora explained. “That’s what I like about the Lions Club - we serve our communities by identifying their needs,” she said.

For more information on the Lions Club, find Central NY Lions on Facebook or ask any local Lions Club member.