As many of you know, I am the Event Manager for our 18th Annual Chicago VisionWalk taking place on Sunday, June 4 at Ned Brown Meadows of Busse Woods in Elk Grove. This is in support of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the world’s largest private funder of retinal degenerative research.
I’m hoping for four things from your club (although one or two would be great!):
1. Allow me to present to your club, live or virtually, about our research and background. I’ve spoken to more than 1,000 Lions over the past few years. I will be leading one of the main training sessions at our upcoming 1F District Convention on social media.
2. Support our Chicago VisionWalk as a sponsor (benefit sheet below).
3. Volunteer at our walk in June.
4. Help spread the word about our event.
As a Lion myself in Arlington Heights and South Milwaukee, I know the challenges our clubs have faced hosting our own events. But our Foundation’s mission has remained the same, to fund research to find treatments and cures for retinal diseases.
THANKS TO MANY LOCAL LIONS CLUBS, the Chicago walk is one of the top fundraising walks in the country, and I hope you will support those efforts to hit our goal! I have already received several Lions sponsorships, including a couple new ones, which is highly motivating.
It is an event that ties in directly with many Lions goals. Lions Clubs in general have a huge connection with the mission of our Foundation. In fact, our Founder, Gordon Gund, was named a True Visionary by Lions Magazine a few years ago, pictured here.
The Foundation hosts 40 walks across the country, and the Lions are a big part of those walks, as volunteers and fundraising teams. Our Chicago walk has at least 15 Lions Clubs as sponsors. Pictured above are 1F District Governor Chris Marks and 1st VDG Terry Dooley on stage last year addressing our audience.
If you would like to find out more about the walk, you can go to Chicago VisionWalk. The 5K walk is a family-friendly event benefitting the entire state of Illinois and is free to anyone and everyone! We will have bounce houses, mascots, carnival games, facepainting, live band, and much more. We will also be serving a free lunch, prepared by my very own Arlington Heights Lions.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to e-mail me at SSroka@FightingBlindness.org, or call at (847) 370-4902. I can send any information you would need. Thanks a bunch!
Lion Steve
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