Sep 9, 2026 | Recipient Stories
Carol
For much of her life, Carol never gave much thought to her eyes. She raised four boys, built a long career in sales, and was just settling into the thought of retirement when the world in front of her began to change. What she didn’t know yet was that her sight was slipping away, and that two donors, along with the families who honored their decision to give, would help her get it back.
For years, Carol’s eye doctor told her the same thing: one day, she’d have cataracts. Then one day, the message changed.
“All of a sudden, he didn’t say cataracts,” Carol said. “He said, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’ve got this and that.’ And I was like, okay — I didn’t realize. I didn’t know anything about it, never heard about it.”
The diagnosis was Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy, a progressive condition that clouds the cornea and takes vision over time. It’s hereditary but can skip generations, which is why Carol never knew it ran in her family until her own son was later tested.
She didn’t fully grasp what was at stake until a chance conversation at a party in Dallas. A woman there, who knew nothing of Carol’s situation, started talking about her own mother. “She said her mom was told she needed the transplant, and she said, ‘No, forget it.’ And now at 88, she’s blind. And frustrated.”
For Carol, it was a glimpse of the road she didn’t want to take. “That is scary to think that that could have been the outcome,” said Carol.
Carol’s path led her to Dr. Cavanaugh, a corneal transplant surgeon she came to trust completely. “He does a phenomenal job,” she said. “I just felt like, whoa — God led me to that, really swiftly.”
Her first transplant came in December 2025. The second followed this summer. Going in, she was, in her words, “over the top nervous,” unsure of exactly what would happen. What she found instead was calm.
“It was very comfortable and peaceful,” she said. “I wish I could have seen all this before I had to go through it.”
The hardest part wasn’t the surgery. It was the 48 hours of lying still afterward, following every instruction to the letter. Carol is a self-described rule follower, and it showed. At her follow-up, the first thing her surgeon said was that it looked like she’d followed instructions.
“That made me really happy,” said Carol.
Today, one month out from her second surgery, Carol is still healing. “Right now, everything looks like I’m looking through a screen door,” she remarked. Her vision is coming back gradually, and with two more months of recovery ahead, she knows the clarity is on its way. “I know it’s a process.”
What moves Carol most isn’t the science of what she received. It’s the people behind it. She thinks often about her donors and the families who said yes.
“That was just such an incredibly tough decision,” she said. “I know the family is just grieving like crazy.”
Carol understands that grief in a way few recipients do. Last year, she lost her son. He was 47, and she wasn’t able to donate his organs. That loss changed how she carries this gift.
“After losing my son and receiving this gift,” said Carol, “there’s a different level of joy that comes with it. Everybody takes it for granted. But you don’t really know until you get one or give one.”
It’s part of why Carol chose to write letters to her donors’ families, a chance many recipients never realize they have. For Carol, the exchange gave her something grief alone couldn’t. “It doesn’t take the sting out of death,” she says. “But it just gives you more peace.”
Carol hopes her story does two things at once: encourage others to say yes to donation and reassure donor families of the difference their loved one’s gift makes.
“I’m just so grateful that I had the opportunity to have this experience,” she said. “If it encourages somebody else to do it — hooray. And if it helps a donor’s family to know the success, then that’s really — those are both golden.”
She keeps coming back to one word: gift.
“If you can just stay positive and know it’s a gift, you’re going to be in the right boat,” said Carol. “I’m just so thankful every year that goes by that science gets smarter and is able to help us.”
One decision can change someone’s world. Carol can see again because eye donors, and the families who honored their decision, chose to give. You can make that same choice. To join the organ and tissue donor registry, visit registerme.org.
Aug 12, 2026 | News
At 5 p.m. on a Friday, Saving Sight received an urgent request from a physician partner. A patient had suffered a corneal perforation and needed emergency surgery the following morning. The surgeon had secured operating room access—but transplant tissue needed to arrive by 7 a.m.
Nicole Taylor, a member of Saving Sight’s Client Services team, immediately identified suitable tissue and began coordinating an after-hours delivery to the surgery center.
Debora van Klinken Muntz, Cornea Laboratory Technician
Nicole Taylor, Client Services Specialist
Within 30 minutes of receiving the request, the team had a plan in place.
Debora van Klinken Muntz had already left for the day and was grocery shopping when Nicole called. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, Debora returned to the lab to carefully prepare and package the tissue while transportation was arranged with an overnight courier.
Within 30 minutes of receiving the request, the team had a plan in place. The tissue arrived at the surgery center in time for the procedure the following morning. The physician later shared that the surgery had gone well and expressed appreciation for Saving Sight’s quick response.
The effort reflected the care and coordination behind every donor gift. By acting quickly and working together, Nicole and Debora helped ensure that donated corneal tissue reached a patient when it was urgently needed—giving the surgeon an opportunity to help preserve the patient’s sight.
Jul 20, 2026 | News
Saving Sight is pleased to welcome VCC Kelly Rackovan, representing Multiple District 26, to our Board of Directors.
VCC Kelly brings a lifelong passion for service, leadership, and community engagement to Saving Sight. Through many years of involvement with Lions Clubs, she has dedicated herself to helping others and strengthening the communities she serves. Her experience in both volunteer leadership and the healthcare field has given her a deep appreciation for the importance of improving lives through compassionate service.
As a new board member, Kelly is excited to expand her understanding of Saving Sight’s programs and the many ways the organization restores sight through cornea donation, vision health initiatives, and innovative services like First Gift and Vital Tears. She is especially looking forward to learning more about KidSight®, having previously volunteered with vision screenings and seen firsthand the impact early detection can have on children and their families.
Outside of her professional and volunteer commitments, Kelly enjoys spending time with her four grandchildren, reading, and exploring creative crafting projects with friends. She values opportunities to connect with others and believes meaningful service begins with strong relationships and a willingness to help.
Please join us in welcoming VCC Kelly Rackovan to the Saving Sight Board of Directors. We are grateful for her dedication to serving others and look forward to the experience and passion she will bring as we continue to change lives by saving sight.
Jul 2, 2026 | Community Partners, News
Each year, Saving Sight’s Charitable Grants Program helps extend our mission by supporting organizations that improve access to vision care and strengthen eye health services throughout Missouri. Through the generosity of our supporters and the guidance of our Board of Directors, these grants empower our partners to make a meaningful difference in the communities they serve.
The organizations that received charitable grants in 2025 have already demonstrated the tremendous impact these investments can make.
KidSight
KidSight continued expanding its statewide vision screening program, screening more than 56,800 children this year—an increase from nearly 48,700 the previous year. More than 4,700 children were identified as needing additional eye care, with hundreds receiving comprehensive eye exams, eyeglasses, and care coordination through mobile clinics, provider partnerships, and referral networks.
Missouri Lions Eye Mission Foundation
Missouri Lions Eye Mission Foundation used its grant to purchase two new Spot Vision Screeners, expanding its ability to serve communities across the state. The equipment helped Lions districts build their own local mission programs, contributing to multiple independent mission events, dozens of statewide vision missions, and the engagement of more than 300 volunteers.
Mid-South Lions Sight & Hearing Service
Mid-South Lions Sight & Hearing Service used grant funding to provide comprehensive vision care for 15 Missouri patients, with additional Missourians receiving services through the UMKC Cataract-A-Thon.
Show Me Lions Eyeglass Recycling
Show Me Lions Eyeglass Recycling invested in a new lensometer, increasing its capacity to process donated eyeglasses more efficiently. The additional equipment allows more volunteers to work simultaneously, helping prepare more glasses for vision missions around the world.
Together, these organizations continue to expand access to vision care, support volunteers, and improve lives across Missouri and beyond.
At its June 2026 meeting, the Saving Sight Board of Directors approved this year’s charitable grant awards, continuing our commitment to organizations dedicated to preserving and restoring sight.
This year’s grant recipients are:
• KidSight – $28,500
• Missouri Lions Eye Mission Foundation – $16,500
• Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service – $10,000
• Show Me Lions Eyeglass Recycling Program – $5,000
We are proud to partner with these organizations as they continue expanding access to vision care, supporting underserved communities, and changing lives through the gift of sight. We look forward to seeing the impact these grants will make in the coming year.
Jun 29, 2026 | Community Partners, News
PCC Ron Campbell and Lion Dr. Teri Page
Saving Sight is proud to name Lion Dr. Teri Page of the Poplar Bluff Lions Club as the 2026 Lion Ambassador of the Year. For nearly two decades, she has brought vision care to one of the most rural corners of Missouri. The award was presented at Saving Sight’s board meeting on June 13 in Kansas City.
Lion Teri joined the club in 2004 on the invitation of another optometrist in town. It continued a pattern at her practice: the doctor she succeeded had also been a Lion. “I believe in the Lions’ mission of serving others,” she said. “As vision and hearing are two of the components that Lions support, it was a great fit for me. At my first meeting, everyone was welcoming, and the group always has a lot of fun.”
She’s a licensed optometrist who owns and operates Pearle Vision in Poplar Bluff, but a full work schedule has never slowed her service. As one of just two optometrists in the club’s Low-Vision Eye Program for Low-Income Residents, she has provided exams and new eyeglasses at a steep discount for roughly 20 years, reaching hundreds of people who might otherwise have gone without. The children stay with her the most. “I especially enjoy seeing the children who benefit from our organization,” she said. “Learning is exponentially harder when a student has a vision deficiency.”
That reach owes a lot to how the club runs its referral system. Poplar Bluff Lions has built strong ties with local schools and other service organizations, which helps direct people in need to the right resources — and Lion Teri has made sure the process moves fast once someone gets there. “Our system for patient approval is efficient, and the turnaround time is often less than a day,” she said. “I keep applications in my office and have on many occasions started the process while the patient is waiting.” Speed matters, she added, because the club tries to get people into glasses as quickly as possible.
When a patient’s vision can’t be corrected with glasses, Lion Teri doesn’t stop there. She works with the club’s vision program coordinator to connect them with advanced care at the Mid-South Sight and Hearing Center in Memphis.
Some of her biggest contributions are the ones easy to miss. At the club’s Annual Chili Day, the fundraiser that pays for free eye exams and frames for low-income residents, Lion Teri collects more than a hundred boxes for to-go orders every year, pulling them from behind local stores. “We have a wonderful Dollar General store that provides unlimited boxes of all sizes. I just have to collect them from out by the dumpster,” she said. “Recently, Home Depot and Menards have been generous with box donations, so I feel like I’ve been robbed of my dumpster-diving event.” The evening before the event, volunteers from the local high school and the Sierra Osage Girls Center, a juvenile detention facility, help the club prepare. “I love being able to interact with the girls from the center,” Lion Teri said. “They enjoy volunteering, and I feel that our positive interaction at the event is both helpful to them and to us.”
On the day itself, Lion Teri is the club’s fastest delivery driver, moving several hundred orders in a three-hour stretch, a pace that’s become a running joke among fellow Lions, who point to her long-time hobby of amateur car racing as the explanation. And without telling most of her fellow members, she quietly donates more than 1,000 individual peanut butter and cracker packs for the meals each year.
She has also been central to the club’s two Missouri Lions Eye Mission Foundation events, held in Poplar Bluff in 2024 and 2026. At each one, she helped screen and examine more than seventy patients and recruited a second optometrist to join her. She brought screening devices from her own office to clear the backlog, including a new auto-refractor that printed eye prescriptions almost instantly.
“Lion Dr. Teri Page has been instrumental in providing critical, life-changing vision services to hundreds of residents of the large, rural population of southeast Missouri,” wrote Lion Wendy Williams, Missouri Lions Past Council Chair, in her nomination. “She is the epitome of the Lions Clubs International motto of ‘We Serve!'”
Lion Teri says the recognition caught her off guard. “I was truly surprised and humbled by the nomination for the Saving Sight Award,” she said. “There are so many Lions out there doing so much good work, and my small part is never enough. Saving Sight has a truly amazing mission and has done so much to aid in the prevention of blindness. I’m proud to be affiliated with them through this award.”
To honor her partnership in service, Saving Sight made a $1,000 donation in Lion Teri’s name to the Animal Welfare Alliance in Poplar Bluff, the nonprofit she chose.
For Lion Teri, the math on service is simple. “Vision outreach through any organization is a 1,000 percent return on your investment of time,” she said. “Knowing that you’ve helped even just one individual is a feeling that cannot be understated, much less helping hundreds. Vision is the most basic of senses for quality of life, maintaining employment, and connecting with others. It’s a truly rewarding feeling every time we help anyone in need.”
