Lion President Hardee introduced guest speaker, Lion Dale McCarty, who gave a very interesting presentation on the Lions Leader Dog for the Blind Facility in Rochester Hills, Michigan, where he visited and toured this past summer. Lion & guests pictured left-right are: Lion President Bubba Hardee, Lion Dale McCarty, and Lion Vice-President John Pettigrew. Photo provided by Lion Al Gerhardt.
Historically the Lions focus on the blind and helping the blind began at the 1925 International Convention where Helen Keller appeared and challenged the Lions to become "knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness”. The Leader Dog for the Blind project started in 1938 by the Uptown Lions Club who started the project in Rochester Hills. This was the second Leader Dog project to start in the USA with the first in New Jersey. Today there are leader dog schools in 28 States and 55 locations in the USA and in 15 countries around the world. The Rochester Hills facility is the only one supported by the Lions. Lion Dale showed a video of the facility which was recorded recently after a $14.5M renovation and expansion that was completed in July 2017. For more information go to: http://www.leaderdog.org/
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