Lions Club dinner funds cataract surgeries at PRHC


By Jenn Watt

Published March 28 2017


A trail of straw led into the Haliburton Legion Saturday evening through the lobby and up to the stage where bales had been placed alongside wagon wheels and cowboy boots for the third annual Lions Club hoedown.


All that was missing were the lassos as hungry cowboys saddled up to the tables for beef on a bun as Gord Kidd and Friends crooned country tunes from the front of the room.


Lions Club members from other clubs joined in with Haliburton area residents for the meal music and silent auction raising funds for specialized cataract surgery equipment for the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.


One of the ongoing campaigns of Lions Clubs around the world is improving sight which made this campaign particularly fitting. Forty-four Lions Clubs fall within the catchment of the Peterborough health centre said Larry Franks chairman of the Lions Centennial Committee with the Fowler’s Corners Lions Club. Franks has been spearheading the campaign to get a new machine for Peterborough which requires $175000 by January 2018.


PRHC performs about 3000 cataract surgeries a year but their equipment is outdated and must be replaced within one year.


The Haliburton Lions Club has joined in with Fowler’s Corners and several other clubs to do this fundraiser.


“Our club pledged $3000” said David Mills Lions district governor and Haliburton resident. “Everything made here [at the hoedown] goes to that.”