2023 Impact Report
BECOME A DONOR

Misko Continues to Advance Eye Banking Through Memorial Scholarship

Feb 24, 2014 | News

Almost a year ago, Jachin Misko, Regional Director of Clinical Services, passed away. He was a pivotal leader in establishing Saving Sight’s DSAEK cutting lab and procedures, an achievement that considerably enhanced the ability to provide tissues needed by recipients. Operationally, he streamlined processes for preparing donor tissue for distribution to surgeons, and he served in a leadership capacity in communicating with surgeons.

Jachin was also a leader within the Eye Bank Association of America, serving on the Exam Committee, Continuing Education Committee, Medical Review Subcommittee, and Medical Advisory Board. That is why a scholarship, the Jachin Misko Memorial Scholarship for Technical Advancement in Eye Banking, was created in his memory this past winter. Saving Sight partnered with Numedis, a manufacturer of corneal preservation media, to offer up to $2,000 to cover the travel, registration, and lodging costs for an eye bank technician from an EBAA member eye bank to attend the 2014 Technician Education Seminar (TES) in
Tampa, Florida.

Tony Bavuso, chief executive officer, said, “I believe this is a particularly meaningful way to honor Jachin because it represents the impact he had on all of us and on changing lives by saving sight through eye banking.” The scholarship will be offered to a promising eye bank technician for at least the next four EBAA Technician Education Seminars.

This year’s recipient was Monica Freiburger, an employee of Iowa Lions Eye Bank. Of her experience winning the scholarship, she wrote, “I was both excited and humbled by the responsibility that came with this scholarship.” To read more about Monica’s experience at the seminar, view the February 2014 issue of Insight, the EBAA’s monthly e-newsletter.

As the anniversary of Jachin’s passing approaches, the staff of Saving Sight remember him for the outstanding contributions he made as a member of our team. If you would like to contribute to the memorial scholarship to help us honor him by supporting future leaders in eye banking, please visit our Giving page where you can designate your gift to the fund. You can also send a check to our headquarters in Kansas City at 10560 N. Ambassador Dr., Suite 210, Kansas City, MO 64153 with a note stating that your gift is intended to support the Jachin Misko Memorial Scholarship for Technical Advancement in Eye Banking. If you have any questions, please call our accounting department at 1-800-753-2265 or send us a message through our Contact Form.

 

Name Change to Saving Sight Focuses Spotlight on Mission

Dec 6, 2013 | News

Columbia, Mo. (December 6, 2013) – On December 1, 2013, the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation, a regional nonprofit with a 53-year history, changed its name to Saving Sight. The name change reflects the organization’s commitment to its mission statement: “We change lives by saving sight.”

The name change was pursued as a strategic priority to align the organization’s name and brand with a wide variety of stakeholders—including program recipients, donor families, financial donors, Lions clubs, and other volunteers—and engage them in the mission to save sight. The name Saving Sight also unites the largest division of the organization, formerly known as Heartland Lions Eye Banks (one of the largest eye banking organizations in the U.S.), with several other charitable vision services, including the KidSight vision screening program.

“We chose the name Saving Sight because it clearly and concisely communicates the impact our programs have on recipients,” said Tony Bavuso, chief executive officer of Saving Sight. “Likewise, the call to action to help join in Saving Sight is a very meaningful one to our volunteers, especially Lions clubs.”

A new website was also launched with the name change. While the company’s website, social media (see links below) and email domains have been updated to reflect the name change, all other contact information for Saving Sight and its five offices throughout Missouri and central Illinois remain the same.

About Saving Sight
Saving Sight is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to change lives by saving sight. Founded in Columbia, Mo. in 1960, the organization introduced eye donation and the gift of sight to Missouri.

Saving Sight and Numedis Announce Memorial Scholarship

Dec 1, 2013 | News

Saving Sight is proud to announce its partnership with Numedis, a manufacturer of corneal preservation media, to offer the Jachin Misko Memorial Scholarship for Technical Advancement in Eye Banking. Together, Saving Sight and Numedis will offer up to $2,000 to cover the travel, registration, and lodging costs for an eye bank technician from an EBAA-member eye bank to attend the 2014 Technician Education Seminar (TES) in Tampa, Florida.

The scholarship serves as a memorial to Jachin Misko, the former Director of Clinical Services at Saving Sight, who passed away last March. Throughout his career, Misko proved himself a leader in technical innovation who was fueled by a passion for excellence and a desire to seek out improvements in the technical processes of eye banking. He played a pivotal role in establishing Saving Sight’s DSAEK cutting lab and procedures, and he was heavily involved with the EBAA, serving on the Exam Committee, Continuing Education Committee, Medical Review Subcommittee, and Medical Advisory Board.

Misko’s work directly impacted the lives of thousands of corneal transplant recipients. “I believe this is a particularly meaningful way to honor Jachin because it represents the impact he had on all of us and on changing lives by saving sight through eye banking,” said Tony Bavuso, chief executive officer of Saving Sight. “I hope this can somehow bring a measure of good out of a tragic loss to all who knew him.”

The Jachin Misko Memorial Scholarship for Technical Advancement in Eye Banking will honor Misko’s legacy by supporting eye bank technicians who show promise for advancement in the industry. All nominations must be submitted by an EBAA-member eye bank’s Executive Director/President/CEO. The deadline for the 2014 scholarship is Thursday, December 12, 2013, and further information,
including the nomination form, can be found on the EBAA website.

If you would like to contribute to the memorial scholarship to help us honor him by supporting future leaders in eye banking, please visit our Giving page where you can designate your gift to the fund. You can also send a check to our headquarters in Kansas City at 10560 N. Ambassador Dr., Suite 210, Kansas City, MO 64153 with a note stating that your gift is intended to support the Jachin Misko Memorial Scholarship for Technical Advancement in Eye Banking. If you have any questions, please call our accounting department at 1-800-753-2265 or send us a message through our Contact Form.

We are Saving Sight

Dec 1, 2013 | News

The Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation and Heartland Lions Eye Banks will operate under the name Saving Sight as of December 1, 2013. The moniker change
was approved by the board of directors at their meeting in September because the new name unites the sight-saving programs of the Missouri Lions Eye Research
Foundation, of which Heartland Lions Eye Banks is the largest, under a single brand identity. “Saving Sight is going to sharpen the focus of our organization and make it easier to communicate all the great work our staff and volunteers are doing,” said Chief Executive Officer Tony Bavuso.

Refining the Foundation’s identity is a key objective in our strategic plan, a five-part document created by staff and board members to guide development over the next three years. “We chose Saving Sight because it clearly and concisely describes what our programs are doing to help people,” said Bavuso. “With the strategic plan in place to guide us, now is the time to implement a name change that will help us achieve our mission: we change lives by saving sight.”

Saving Sight will continue to offer high-quality donor tissue and other services to help improve the vision and lives of nearly 50,000 people per year. The rebranding, however, will involve a change in website, social media and other avenues of communication. Office locations and phone numbers will remain the same, but the new website, social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Vimeo) and email addresses (first initial and last name preceding @saving-sight.org) will go live on December 1, 2013. The previous websites (www.mlerf.org and www.hleb.org) and email addresses (first initial and last name preceding @mlerf.org or @hleb.org) will redirect automatically to the new site and addresses as of December 1.

“We are one of the five largest eye banks in the country, so refining the identity of an organization our size is a complicated task,” Bavuso said. “But I’m excited
about what this new name will mean for us.” Hospital partners, surgeons, donor families, recipients, organizational partners, volunteers and other stakeholders
are invited to read Saving Sight’s strategic plan as well as view the short video below that captures both our history and our future. To get more involved with
Saving Sight or to ask questions about the strategic plan, please message us through our Contact form or call 800-753-2265.

Heartland Lions Eye Banks’ Work in Corneal Transplantation Contributes to Total Lifetime Net Benefit of Nearly $6 Billion

Heartland Lions Eye Banks’ Work in Corneal Transplantation Contributes to Total Lifetime Net Benefit of Nearly $6 Billion

Oct 9, 2013 | News

Corneal transplants performed in the United States this year will result in nearly $6 billion in total net benefits over the lifetime of the recipients, according to a six-month study undertaken by the Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA). Heartland Lions Eye Banks has been an EBAA member since 1961 and will provide nearly 2,600 corneas for transplant this year – an estimated lifetime value of $217,214,628*.

The study compared the medical cost of transplant procedures to the direct and indirect lifetime costs of the alternative: living with blindness or severe vision impairment. With a corneal transplant, a recipient avoids the direct expenditures that come with vision loss (e.g., higher routine medical costs and long-term care costs) and the indirect costs of potential years of lost productivity to both the recipient and any family caregivers.

“We’re acutely aware of how valuable cornea transplants are to our recipients because they tell us,” said Tony Bavuso, chief executive officer of Heartland Lions Eye Banks. “But this study gives us a more objective understanding of the financial benefits of our work. I think the EBAA has done a great job of illustrating that cornea transplants not only give the gift of sight to recipients but they also enhance productivity and reduce medical costs for our nation.”

Eye disorders are the fifth costliest to the U.S. economy after heart disease, cancer, emotional disorders and pulmonary conditions. The Eye Bank Association of America commissioned this study to determine the economic impact of corneal transplants. Researchers used previous years’ transplant numbers and census data to estimate total corneal transplants for the full 2013 calendar year.

The cost-benefit analysis depicted in the table below reveals that the lifetime benefit of the procedure is overwhelmingly greater than the costs of the surgery.

Lifetime Economic Cost-Benefit of Corneal Transplantation

Source: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Corneal Transplant, September 2013, The Lewin Group

Since Heartland Lions Eye Banks’ founding in 1960, more than 40,600 men, women and children have received corneal transplants to restore vision and relieve pain from injury and eye disease. With a success rate greater than 95 percent, the one-hour procedure restores the patient’s sight and quality of life. In fact, it’s one of the most common and least invasive transplant procedures performed in the U.S.

Corneal transplants also translate into direct savings by the federal and state governments. The study assumed full retirement at age 65, so the net indirect cost savings is small for these patients, but the per-capita lifetime net medical benefits of $67,500 for patients age 65 or greater receiving corneal transplants in 2013 will save Medicare, Medicaid and patients a combined $2.4 billion nationally, including $92,894,792* in the states served by Heartland Lions Eye Banks.

For a full copy of the report, please contact EBAA at info@restoresight.org.

About Heartland Lions Eye Banks:
Heartland Lions Eye Banks is a division of the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization that changes lives by saving sight through eye banking, community vision programs and eye care assistance. HLEB operates six branches throughout Missouri, Kansas and Illinois, and it’s one of the five largest eye banks in the U.S., offering high-quality donor tissue to corneal transplant surgeons. For more information, contact pr@hleb.org.

About EBAA:
The Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA), established in 1961, is the oldest transplant association in the nation and champions the restoration of sight through corneal transplantation. Over 80 member eye banks operate in the United States, Canada and Asia. These eye banks made possible more than 70,000 sight-restoring corneal transplants in 2012 and the opportunity to perform more transplants is significant. Aside from those suffering from infections or communicable diseases, virtually everyone is a universal donor. The function of corneal tissue is not dependent on blood type, age, strength of eyesight or the color of the eye. To learn more, visit www.restoresight.org.

* Savings calculations are determined by multiplying the net lifetime benefit by number of patients served in 2012.

 

FiJaBAM Update: Former Employee Bikes the US and Makes Big News for MLERF

Jul 11, 2013 | News

FiJaBAM is short for “Fiji and Jasmine Bike Across America.” Jasmine, a former employee who worked with donor families in the Donor Services Center, embarked on a cross-country bicycle trip in mid-April with two goals in mind: 1) cycle 4,000 miles from New York City to Los Angeles, and 2) raise $5,000 for the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation. After training for several months, collecting gear, and developing travel plans this past winter and spring, Jasmine hit the road with $100 and her pet dog, Fiji, in tow.

Now mid-July, Jasmine and Fiji have recently passed through Indiana and are poised to reach Missouri soon. What started out as an ambitious journey to improve her health and raise money for the Foundation’s sight-saving programs has gotten some big press. First, Jasmine’s trip was covered by Pet Project Magazine in Missouri and the Cumberland Times-News in Maryland (and the Foundation’s site: see her original article). But then on July 10, USA Today released a story about Jasmine and other cyclists who are undertaking long journeys for great causes this summer. “Running or pedaling through rain and shine,” the article begins, “thousands of people are crossing the USA under their own power this summer in an annual grass-roots ritual that blends personal challenge, wanderlust and volunteerism.” Read the entire article at USA Today. 

The staff of the Foundation finds Jasmine and Fiji to be motivational and hope you will consider supporting their cause as they head out west for the latter part of their trip. You can view the FijaBAM travel website for regular updates from the road, and making a financial contribution is easy. Donations can be given at her GoFundMe site to support her travels, the Foundation, or, better yet, both.