The following was submitted by the Orcas Island Lions Club.

Each year the Orcas Lions Club has brought out the Northwest Lions Foundation Health Screening Van as a service to the Orcas community. This year the Orcas Lions Club needs the community’s help to make it successful and ensure we can bring it back next year.

Begun in 1997 by the Northwest Lions Foundation, the van travels throughout Washington and northern Idaho to provide free health screenings for vision, hearing, glaucoma, diabetes and blood pressure. The specially equipped unit is staffed by volunteers (usually Lions) and health professionals. The foundation’s goal is to speed early detection of health problems through screenings so that corrective assessment and intervention steps can be taken immediately. Preventative care is the foundation of a healthy community: but it is a luxury for too many people who don’t have a doctor, a means to pay for care, or a means to travel to get care. Through the Lions Health Screening Unit, the screenings give peace of mind, protect sight and hearing, and may even save lives.

Each year health technicians identify at least one person who has a problem that needs a referral to a physician. In some cases, this can be a lifesaver: as in the case of high blood pressure. During our school visits, they screen students for hearing and sight issues, which will help them to succeed in the future. Again, this is a plea to the Orcas Community to help Lions Club staff the testing positions. No experience is needed. The Lions need to fill 48 volunteer slots on April 2 and 3 for the public screening and 15 volunteer slots for the April 4 school screening. Each of the volunteers fills a two-hour slot and training is provided for the station you’d be working. If you can spare two hours to help out, contact Toby Hiller at 360-376-5333 or email tthiller@centurytel.net.