The Iola Lions Club recognized Lion Mark Doll with the prestigious Melvin Jones Fellowship Award during its Honors Night on Monday, May 18.
The award honors Lions Club members whose service and dedication reflect the mission of Lions Clubs International. Each Melvin Jones Fellowship nomination also supports important programs such as SightFirst and other initiatives focused on health, education, and community well-being.
Doll, a past president of the Iola Lions Club, has contributed his time and resources to many local organizations, including the Iola Winter Sports Club.
Within the club, Doll serves on the board and is known for his thoughtful input on club matters. He is also a dependable presence during scholarship interviews, helping select recipients for the Mark and Terry Doll Scholarships awarded to local students.
Doll is also part of what fellow Lions jokingly call the “Magnificent 10,” a group of members known for their handyman skills and willingness to help with projects throughout the community. Their work has supported efforts at the Iola Historical Society, Community Work Nights, the River Walk Bridge, Chet Krause Park, Otto’s Beer Garden, and maintenance of Lions picnic tables on the Iola Car Show Grounds.
The Iola Lions Club congratulated Doll and thanked him for his years of dedicated service to the community.
Lions fight against blindness
The Lions Clubs International Foundation is expanding its global fight against blindness through its flagship SightFirst initiative, a multi-decade program that has transformed vision care for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Since its launch in 1990, the initiative has channeled more than $415 million into sustainable blindness-prevention projects. Foundation officials say the program has directly impacted the vision care of more than 544 million people, with a focus on underserved communities where eye care is scarce or unaffordable.
Unlike temporary relief efforts, the program focuses on building long-term local healthcare capacity. Grants from the foundation fund the construction and modernization of eye hospitals, provide advanced medical equipment, and train local ophthalmologists, optometrists, and community healthcare workers to deliver sustainable care.
The initiative targets the world’s leading causes of preventable and reversible blindness. Program data shows the funding has supported more than 9 million vision-restoring cataract surgeries. In partnership with The Carter Center, the program has also delivered more than 211 million antibiotic treatments to combat trachoma and distributed hundreds of millions of medication doses to arrest river blindness in Africa and Latin America. Recent funding rounds have expanded screening and early intervention programs for diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
Children’s vision remains a major focus for the organization. Through its Sight for Kids partnership with Johnson & Johnson Vision, the group has screened more than 30 million students and trained 190,000 teachers to detect early vision problems. In local communities, volunteers use high-tech digital screeners through the Lions KidSight program to catch vision issues in toddlers.
Organization leaders say recent updates to their grant structure will continue to expand this legacy, ensuring local clubs have the resources to build permanent eye care infrastructure for decades to come.
