New Middletown Lions Club to fund Seeing Eye dog project

NEW MIDDLETOWN — The New Middletown Lions Club will present $8,000 to Pilot Dogs of Ohio today for training a Seeing Eye dog for the blind.

This is the third pilot dog the group has funded over the past several years. One went to a Youngstown man and one to an Austintown woman.

Lions Club President George Kerlek Jr. said the Lions have asked the Columbus-based organization to place this dog locally again if possible.

Pilot Dogs of Ohio, a Columbus nonprofit group, places 150 dogs annually.

The presentation will be made at the Lions Club regular meeting at 7 p.m. at the preschool building of St. Paul the Apostle Church on state Route 170.

The 40-member club raised the money through various fundraisers including a night at the races, which is dedicated to the project.

Kerlek said the group sets $1,500 aside every year toward a pilot dog. He said the cost has gone up but they try to pay for one every three or four years.

The donation is consistent with the Lions Clubs International’s dedication to preventing and treating blindness, a mission dating to Helen Keller’s challenge to group’s national convention in 1925 in Sandusky. The group is nicknamed “Knights of the Blind.”

On hand for the presentation will be Jay Gray, head of Pilot Dogs of Ohio, Carl Leonhardt, 13D Lions District governor and Bonnie Rice, head of the District cabinet for sight, hearing and pilot dogs.