Holiday Vendor Fair this weekend
BULLHEAD CITY – “Seeing is joyful,” said Janis Young of the Bullhead City Lions Club (BHC Lions). We love what we do; it makes us happy to serve our community.” One of the organization’s biggest fundraisers to help kids and adults with vision problems get testing and acquire appropriate eyewear is the Holiday Vendor Fair happening Sat, Dec 10, 10a-3p at Coyote Canyon School, 1820 Lakeside Drive, Bullhead City.
“We’re hosting a new local food vendor, K Dogs Gourmet Hot Dogs at the Holiday Vendor Fair,” said Young. Other vendors include an on-the-spot crepe-maker,
jewelry, quilts, purses, skin care, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Dr. Sheila Barnett DC, stamps, candles, cookies, candies, holiday treats and fairy doors. “We have a lion fairy door for the Lions Club,” said Young.
In fact, it was educators who started the Bullhead City Lions Club chapter in 2008. “School administrators and teachers saw the need because kids couldn’t see to learn,” said Young. “We still have a school superintendent, principals, speech therapists and others from many different fields and backgrounds,” as members and volunteers.
The BHC Lions also assist adults with vision screenings and eyewear. “We’ve helped 48 people just in the last two months,” said Young. “We vision-screen children from preschool to 6th grade, screening 4,090 this year.”
“It’s fun to work with kids; they’re curious about the funky camera,” said Young. The Spot Vision Screener, created by Welch Allyn, is a handheld, portable, ocular screening device designed to help quickly and easily detect vision issues on patients as young as six months. “It can pick up multiple refractive problems, including myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, strabismus, anisometropia and anisocoria,” said Young.
“For adults, too, it’s important that they see,” said Young, “They know things are blurry, they know they need glasses. They attempt to fill out forms or be successful in life … It makes us happy, too, that we can help an adult.” BHC Lions provides adults and children without insurance, those who can’t afford eyewear, veterans and people in mental health organizations with screenings and glasses.
The BHC Lions have three trained screeners whose Certificates of Vision Screener were issued by the Arizona Department of Health Services.
There’s still vendor space available. Booths are assigned on a first-paid, first-served basis with inside and outside spaces having the same price–based on booth size. The early-deadline discount has ended.
• 10 X 10: $60
• 8 X 10: $55
• 8 X 8: $50
• 6 X 8: $45
Vendors are also asked to donate a basket of their product(s) to the BHC Lions for a future raffle at a fundraising event. Speaking of other fund-raising, Meat Bingo is held in February and “we’re helpful in other areas,” said Young, including backpack buddies, Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for the homeless and three scholarships for high school seniors who want a career helping others, as well as volunteering with other organizations on an as-needed basis. The monthly meetings are held the 2nd and 4th Mondays (except holidays), 5-6:30p, in the Vista del Sol craft room, 3249 Felipe Drive, Bullhead City.
Contact Young at 928-514-5062 or Young.Janis@yahoo.com or go to the Bullhead City Lions Club website: sites.google.com/site/bhclions, then click on “Dues and Donations.”
Juliette Cowall
