Grant and Funding Programs Offered by District A-1 Lions Sight Conservation Foundation (A-1)

The District A-1 Lions Sight Conservation Foundation, commonly known as Eyes Right, is a volunteer-run registered charity created by Lions and Lioness Clubs in southwestern Ontario. Its purpose is to pool community resources to combat preventable blindness by purchasing specialized eye health and surgical equipment for hospitals across the region. Rather than operating the equipment itself, the foundation donates funds to hospital foundations, which then acquire the devices for use in local facilities.

Eyes Right focuses on hospitals within Ontario’s Lions District A-1, stretching from Windsor through London and St. Thomas up to south of Grand Bend. Since the early 1990s it has provided more than one million dollars in funding for ophthalmic equipment in centres such as Windsor, London, Chatham, Sarnia, Petrolia, St. Thomas and Strathroy. Projects have included cataract surgery systems, corneal transplant technology and advanced diagnostic tools for emergency eye care.

The foundation primarily offers project-based grants for capital equipment related to vision health. Typical initiatives include purchasing phacoemulsification machines for cataract removal, DSAEK equipment for corneal transplantation, wide-field retinal cameras, slit-lamp biomicroscopes, tonometers, ophthalmic carts and examination instruments. Funding is usually delivered as a grant to a hospital’s own charitable foundation, enabling tax-efficient acquisition and ensuring that equipment is owned and operated by the health institution.

Projects are often initiated and co-sponsored by local Lions Clubs. For example, Eyes Right has jointly funded major equipment purchases with clubs in Windsor, Petrolia and Strathroy, sometimes contributing matching amounts of $50,000 or more. These collaborations allow community fundraising to be leveraged into larger, high‑impact investments in regional eye care capacity.

Eyes Right maintains an open, discretionary approach to new initiatives. Stakeholders, particularly Lions in District A-1, are invited to suggest projects via a dedicated form or by contacting board members. Proposals typically outline the equipment requested, the location, the amount of funding required and the clinical need. Eligibility is primarily geographic and mission-based: projects must fall within the District A-1 boundaries and directly support vision health or eye surgery services.

By strengthening hospital eye care infrastructure, the foundation indirectly serves tens of thousands of patients each year who rely on cataract surgery, corneal transplantation and emergency ophthalmic assessment. Eyes Right reports that more than 100,000 patients have benefited from equipment it has helped fund. Projects targeting emergency departments in Windsor and Sarnia, for example, have reduced delays in diagnosis and referral for serious eye conditions by equipping ERs with modern imaging and examination tools.

In addition to equipment funding, Eyes Right actively promotes awareness of the need for corneal tissue donation, complementing its goal to save and restore eyesight. The foundation is governed by a volunteer board drawn from District A-1 Lions members with ophthalmology advice from a regional hospital specialist. Funding for its grants comes from club fundraising activities as well as personal donations, memorial contributions and estate gifts, all channelled into tangible improvements in vision care across southwestern Ontario.