Next Meeting, Tuesday, October 6, at the Coliseum Restaurant & Bar, at noon. A Business Meeting, which at this time of year is certain to include exhortations on behalf of the Holiday Treat Sale, or whatever the current title is. Regardless of title, we need to get the orders in immediately, in order to manage our inventory for maximum benefit, especially the ever-popular (and ever-troublesome) Fruit Cakes. It is likely that future plans for Lion activity, including the Holiday Party, will also be discussed, along with any inspirations of the moment, hopefully not all from the TailTwister.

At the last meeting, we had a number of guests, including Karen Pridham, WALT'S wife, and Gilliam Fink, Ingolf Wallow and Terri Young, all from the UW Medical School and all hosted by Dr. TOM STEVENS.

SCOTT GROVER reminded us that we are collecting non-perishable food items for local food banks at our meetings in October. Lions should bring any such donations that they can, and they will be put to good use. There apparently is no end to the need, even in this wonderful corner of a supposedly rich country. It's difficult to concentrate on schoolwork, or any other effort for the benefit of yourself or your society, if you're hungry.

BETTY INGWELL passed around a “We Want Your Hide” plea from Wisconsin Lions Foundation for deer hunters to donate hides from their successes during deer season this Fall. This has been a successful fundraiser for WLF in previous years. See BETTY for additional info if you need it. There was also mention of gift bags to be given to patients at the American Family Childrens Hospital. Again, if you would like to fill one of those bags, see BETTY on how to go about it.

Dr. TOM introduced Dr. Terri Young, head of the UW Dept. of Ophthalmology and Visual Services, who, after the usual battle with technology for presentation, got her material projected on the wall, and then told us a lot about the incredible research going on at the UW. The eye is possibly one of the most complex objects of its size in existence, and it is being studied at levels of detail (cells, and components of cells) that boggle the mind. Most of us know about putting on a pair of glasses to correct our nearsightedness or similar problem, but of course there are many vision impairments that go way beyond those simple fixes. Many problems that once led to blindness are now being resolved (your editor has four eye surgeries to prove it), and research has reached the point of working on total eye transplant, long considered to be impossible.

Dr. Young said that research, backed by incredible amounts and sources of funding, is moving so fast that it is outpacing the efforts to put the knowledge to clinical use in more efficient and effective caring for patients. The mission of her School is to provide opportunities for interaction to put research to use in patient care - “To Heal, Train, Cure, Care, Teach and Discover.” That's a high goal, and to the extent that they achieve it, a wonderful thing for people who need, simply, to see, or see again. It was a very good presentation on a very large and complicated subject.