Seeing the Future

Photography Courtesy of Shallotte Lions Club

From helping the visually impaired to environmental stewardship to providing breakfast after a storm, building a better future through community service is what Shallotte Lions Club is all about.

To understand what the word “service” in the term “service club” really means, just spend a few minutes talking to Regina Evans about the Shallotte Lions Club. Evans, an active club member and former club president who lives in rural Ash, is a fierce advocate for the Lions and the importance of their work. She also epitomizes the club’s value with every step she takes.

That’s because Evans is legally blind. She lives as independently as possible thanks in large part to the WeWALK Smart Cane the club purchased for her. The canes cost more than $800 and integrate with an app on her smartphone that allows her to access navigation and other features. It’s a 21st-century upgrade that seems like a natural evolution of the Lions’ traditional commitment to helping the visually impaired.

In addition, Evans uses smart glasses with Ray-Ban frames made by Meta (Facebook), which warn her of obstacles, allowing her to navigate everything from aisles in Walmart to the distance between her home and her daughter’s house on the family’s property. Recently, she recounted, she was able to walk onto a beach pier without assistance knowing she could be told what was in front of her.

Photography by Kristin Gettleman

Evans is also an advocate for color-blind glasses that benefit students who cannot distinguish certain colors, especially when they are trying to read visual displays and follow teachers’ lessons. But such glasses cost more than $200.

Game-changing technology can be unreachable for those living on fixed incomes or paycheck to paycheck, and there are a lot of people fitting that description in Brunswick County. That makes the work of the Lions that much more meaningful.

Evans became a Lion after a bout with breast cancer nearly 15 years ago. Blind from birth, she said she sees dark and light “and that’s about it.” She learned Braille and graduated from Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh after a doctor in Durham recommended the school to her family.

Years later, while living in South Carolina, she became an advocate for people with disabilities and found a mentor, the late Carl Applewhite of the Georgetown Lions Club and a Lions district governor, who pointed her in the Lions’ direction.

“We had hours of conversations about the importance of Lionism,” she recalls, adding that Applewhite’s influence on her life will never leave her.

As author Kristin DiMaggio recounted in the April issue of Lions Magazine, it was 100 years ago, in June of 1925, when a speech by the legendary Helen Keller, who became deaf and blind at 18 months old, inspired the organization at their ninth annual convention. From that point forward, the Lions fully embraced the cause of helping the visually impaired.

Today, the Lions maintain that focus with added focus on causes such as screening for diabetes, encouraging environmental stewardship and supporting cancer research.

“Being a Lion means a lot to me,” Evans says. “Lions do so much to serve and help the community. Reaching out to those who need help is what Lionism is all about.”

One of the club’s biggest, short-term efforts came last fall when a major flooding event slammed parts of Brunswick County. The club mobilized its disaster trailer to provide breakfasts for two days to people in need in the Southport area.

The club has come a long way since it was chartered in 1947, but for that work to continue effectively, the Lions face the same challenges as other traditional service clubs. In these time-stressed days, it is hard to attract new members, especially younger working people.

That is part of the challenge that current President Kevin Toman, an educator in Columbus County, embraces as he looks to the future and thinks about what volunteerism means in 2025 and how the club can respond and evolve.

While technology can help people engage, he notes, there is “still a real need for boots on the ground.”

“We’re a lot more than a social group,” Toman says. “We have a core group of 15 to 20 members who really get out there and work.”

They have an inspiring example with Evans, who continues to teach life-skills classes to disabled people when she can.

“I try to be very self-efficient and independent,” she says, adding that transportation challenges are major for those who cannot drive in Brunswick County.

Evans is proud of so many of the Shallotte Lions’ efforts.

“If you go to Mulberry Park (in Shallotte) where the swings are, there’s a sign with Braille on it for the children to feel while they’re playing,” Evans says. “The Lions did that.”

THE LION’S SHARE
Here is a list of some of the Shallotte club’s regular activities:
Providing vision screenings for hundreds of Brunswick County elementary and middle school students each year.
Collecting and recycling used eyeglasses at collection points around the area.
Providing the N.C. Lions Vision Van locally for vision and hearing screening.
Supporting local groups such as Brunswick Family Assistance through fundraising, such as its successful annual golf tournament and sales of brooms through cooperating local businesses.
Supporting statewide Lions’ initiatives such as the VIP (Visually Impaired Person) fishing tournament and Camp Dogwood in Sherrill’s Ford for the visually and hearing impaired.
Providing large print books to local libraries.
Supporting recycling and other environmental efforts.

DO YOU HAVE THE HEART OF A LION?
Shallotte Lions Club
The group meets monthly at White Funeral Service: 3660 Express Drive, Shallotte
If you are interested in learning more about the Shallotte Lions Club, check out: Shallotte Lions Club
or contact club president Kevin Toman: ktoman@columbus.k12.nc.us