Hastings Lions host MAC walk Sept. 29

Minnesota Lions District 5M6 (Dakota Ramsey and Washington counties) are holding the annual Vision and Hearing Walk (formerly known as the MAC walk), from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 29, at Carpenter Nature Center, 12805 St. Croix Trail. The Hastings Lions Club is hosting the day.

Helen Keller served as ambassador for the American Foundation for the Blind until her death in 1968. During this time, she came to the attention of the Lions. In 1925, she spoke to Lions members at their annual convention and challenged them to become “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.” Since then, millions of Lions members worldwide have devoted their service careers to helping people with visual impairments.

The walk on Sept. 29 supports the Lions Sight Programs at the University of Minnesota including Minnesota Lions Eye Bank, dedicated to recovering, processing, and distributing donated eye tissue for use in sight-saving corneal transplants, vision-enhancing surgery, research, and education.

The walk also supports the Lions Children’s Eye Clinic, opened in 1978; more than 5,000 children are seen every year.

Proceeds support ophthalmology research at the Lions Research Building. The University of Minnesota Lions Research Building, opened in 1993, includes a state-of-the-art laboratory where investigators collaborate with other University departments on research projects.

The Minnesota Lions Macular Degeneration Research and Rehabilitation Center (The MAC) was established in 1998 to research the causes of, and cures, for the disease that affects the central vision; the leading cause of blindness in the United States.

The Minnesota Lions Fund was established to prevent blindness in infants and children. Created in 2010, the fund supports infant and children's eye research, and education. 

For almost 40 years the Lions 5M Multiple District Hearing Foundation has had a partnership with the University of Minnesota.    

Lions have raised more than $7 million dollars in funds for equipment, capital improvements, and research projects and have established the Lions 5M International Hearing Center, the Lions Children's Hearing Center, the Lions Voice Clinic, and the Lions Affordable Hearing Aid Project.

In addition, the 5M Hearing Foundation has funded a newborn hearing screening program in all 111 hospitals in Minnesota.

Participants can register the day of the race or they could write to Hastings Lions Club, Box 68, Hastings, MN 55033. A registration form will then be sent.

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