Lions Club raises fund to help blind through fireworks sales

For the first time in Independence, consumer grade fireworks are legal to celebrate the Fourth of July.
That has presented an opportunity for fireworks enthusiasts, and also for non-profit organizations to sell fireworks to raise funds for their causes.
The Independence Host Lions Club didn’t want to let that opportunity go to waste. The city issued 12 licenses for nonprofit organizations to be fireworks vendors and the Host Lions Club got three of them.
“We saw it as an opportunity to have a consolidated area to raise funds,” said Lions Jack Ferguson.
With the help of athletes at William Chrisman High School working as volunteers alongside Lions Club members, Ferguson expects to raise between $5,000 and $10,000 per fireworks stand.
Funds will go to various opportunities to help visually and hearing impaired people in Independence.
“There’s so much that we do, it’s going to be spread out,” President Lance Garnish said.
Independence Host Lions Club is a part of the Lions Club International Foundation. The global organization’s main focus is to aid in blindness and hearing loss.
“Our motto is ‘We Serve,’ ” Garnish said. “We’re here for the care, cure and prevention of blindness.”
Garnish, a retired police officer, is the newly appointed president for Independence Host Lions Club.
“Everybody is a volunteer. Everybody works hard. They never lose focus,” Garnish said. “Out of all of the eight Lions Clubs in Independence, I’m glad I’m a member of Independence Host.”
Other events the Independence Host Lions Club do throughout the year are Pancake Day, a breakfast held in Westminster Hall at the First Presbyterian Church of Independence; Candy Day, where Lions hand out mints for donations; and Emerald Autumn, an Irish music concert.
In addition to fundraisers, Independence Host Lions Club also holds educational and helpful workshops.
Lions Quest is an opportunity for school districts in the metro area to teach adults how to teach visually impaired children and how to make them feel important in the community.
“We work with recognizing differences, valuing those differences, and not letting those differences set them apart,” Second Treasurer Jan Ferguson said.
Lions Clubs also collect a number of eyeglasses and donate them to the less fortunate all over the world.
“We donated 4,000 pairs of glasses two months ago to the Lions Heartland Eyebank in North Kansas City,” Ferguson said.
The Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation in Columbia, Mo., is the fourth largest eye bank in the world, serving the less fortunate in more than 200 countries.
“We are responsible for 80 percent of all eye care worldwide,” Garnish said.
Challenged by Helen Keller in the mid 1920s to educate people about blindness and hearing loss, the Lions Club, then a men’s business networking group, started its quest. Lions are now known as the Knights of the Blind.


Independence Host Lions Club, with the help of William Chrisman athletes, will be selling fireworks at the following locations until Jul 5:
• 2035 Independence Center Drive
• 3844 S. Noland Road
• 39475 S. Bolger Road