The Lion's Club helps low income residents obtain eyeglasses, vision exams, and hearing aids.  They can arrange for seeing eye dogs, coordinate with the NW Lions Foundation, and a local physician for organ donations. They can also provide information and referrals.  Eligibility is determined on an individual basis. When funds are low, priority is given to youth.  They also participate in a vast variety of projects important to their communities. These projects range from cleaning up local parks to providing supplies to victims of natural disasters.

Vision and Hearing Assistance offered at Lions Club - Quilcene

Helps low income residents obtain eyeglasses, vision exams, and hearing aids.

Programs that implant devices which provide useful hearing and communication ability for people who have severe to profound hearing loss, including those with nerve deafness. Cochlear implants have electrodes or "channels" which are placed in the inner ear and stimulate remaining nerve fibers to transmit signals which the brain can interpret as useful sound.

Cochlear Implants

Programs that offer visual acuity tests for the purpose of identifying individuals who have an impaired ability to see that may require further examination.

Vision Screening

Programs that pay all or a portion of the costs associated with purchasing, leasing or otherwise acquiring assistive technology equipment. Included are programs that pay for needed assistive technology products outright and those that provide or arrange for grants or interest-free, low-interest or market rate loans to finance the lease/purchase.

Assistive Technology Equipment Acquisition Assistance

Programs that specialize in the surgical replacement of corneal tissue in individuals whose own corneal tissue is diseased or otherwise dysfunctional. The cornea is the transparent front layer of the eye covering the iris and the pupil.

Corneal Transplants

Programs that pay the optometric or ophthalmologic bills of people who are unable to obtain necessary eye care without assistance. Eye care bill payment assistance programs may have age, income, disability, need or other eligibility requirements.

Eye Care Expense Assistance

Programs that pay for or provide amplification equipment for people who have impaired but correctable hearing. Included are hearing aids that are placed in the canal, in the ear (ITE or intraural), or behind the ear (BTE); eyeglasses aids; body aids; and vibrotactile aids which vibrate to assist the wearer to recognize speech and increase environmental awareness.

Hearing Aids

Programs that pay for or provide corrective lenses for people who have defective but correctable vision, with or without a prescription, or which provide vouchers which can be exchanged for glasses or contact lenses.

Glasses/Contact Lenses

Programs that pay for or provide devices other than hearing aids, such as voice amplifiers, personal FM systems, inductive loop systems or infrared theater or television head sets which enable people who have hearing impairments to make use of their residual hearing.

Assistive Listening Devices

Programs that are concerned with maintaining or improving the health of the eyes and their appropriate functioning as the organs of sight.

Eye Care

Programs that accept new or secondhand eyeglasses, repair the items if necessary, and keep the glasses for people in their own programs or donate them to other community-based organizations for distribution to the people they serve.

Glasses Donation Programs

Programs that assess the current ability to function of people who have disabilities and prescribe or recommend the most appropriate assistive technology product to meet their individual needs including communication/learning aids, control and signaling aids, daily living aids, hearing augmentation aids, mobility aids, prosthetic/orthotic/seating devices, recreational aids, speech aids and/or visual/reading aids.

Evaluation for Assistive Technology

Programs that pay for or provide equipment which can be used to create materials that are written in Braille (a system which uses raised dots to represent numerals and letters of the alphabet that can be identified by the fingers), Optacons or other devices that help people to read and/or write using their sense of touch. Included are devices such as calculators, alarm clocks, watches, calendars, kitchen equipment, scales and other items which have tactile displays.

Braille and Tactile Aids

Programs that accept hearing aids and/or other hearing augmentation equipment, refurbish them if necessary, and keep them for use in their own program or donate them to community-based organizations for their own use or for distribution to the people they serve.