Showing posts with label Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank. Show all posts

Sunday, April 6, 2025

A Colorado Rockies Game as a Guest of the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank



 


My husband and I were invited to attend one of the Colorado Rockies' opening weekend baseball games against the Athletics this past weekend at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, through a raffle that The Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank sponsored.




It was a special T-shirt giveaway to the first 15,000 ballpark guests!


Please click on to enlarge the photo collage.

We saw placards on our way through the ballpark for many other giveaways and theme days ahead for the season.


I took these photos of our foothill neighborhood as we began our drive to Denver, and as you can see, it was a cold day with some icy snow that fell overnight. so.....




...it was nice to know we were going to a private suite within Coors Field, and be part of a group of cornea donor families and cornea recipients.

I was a cornea recipient in 2015, which granted me the miracle of good sight in an eye that had become clouded and scarred from an infection. You can read my story on this post. Every day I say a prayer to thank and honor my donor for the gift of sight.



The private suite was very warm and comfortable with a wonderful view of the baseball field. We were also able to sit outside if we wanted, or stay inside and watch from the window or on the large TV screen.



We saw a Golden Glove award ceremony that two Colorado Rockies players won--Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar.  The Rawlings Gold Glove Award is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances. It is awarded at each fielding position in both the National League (NL) and the American League (AL). The Gold Glove is widely considered one of the most prestigious defensive awards in baseball.



While the game progressed, all the guests in the suite enjoyed complimentary food and snacks that The Rocky Mountain Lion Eye Bank had the suite's catering provide.

It was exciting to see the Rockies perform a rare triple play in the second inning!  It was only the fifth triple play in their history as a team.
Sadly, the Rockies lost the game to the Athletics, but it was an exciting game nonetheless!

During the game, my husband and I were touched to hear the stories that some of the donor families told us of their loved one's donation. I also told them of my gratitude to have had my full sight restored through cornea donation. 

All in all, it was a memorable evening full of meeting and sharing with donors and recipients, during an exciting baseball game, in a warm, comfortable suite with good food.




My husband and I are signed up to be organ, eye, and tissue donors through our state driver's licenses in the Donate Life America program.

 More than 100,000 patients are estimated to be waiting for a transplant. Give hope and help save lives by registering your decision to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor at your local DMV, on RegisterMe.org.




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Sunday, December 1, 2024

Circle of Light Photo Project


 In September I was invited to a reception at the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank located at the University of Colorado Hospital campus for a reception for photographers, as one of the photos I submitted for their annual "Circle of Light" photo project had been selected for display.

The Circle of Light Photo Project, hosted by the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank, is an annual art exhibit of photographs taken by people whose sight was restored through cornea transplants. Cornea transplant recipients take photos of things they are grateful to see after receiving the gift of sight from an eye tissue donor.




The photo that was chosen out of a sampling I submitted this year was the one above-- a view in the San Juan Mountains in SW Colorado of the Durango to Silverton Train ride my husband and I took last fall--click here--to see that post.

I was a cornea transplant recipient in 2015--you can read my story in this blog post. Every day since I have been so grateful that a donor's cornea has restored my gift of sight! I was legally blind because of cornea dystrophy in my right eye before the transplant and now having 20/40 vision and normal depth perception has been such a blessing. 

My transplant cornea came from the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank, an organization that yearly provides about 2,000 corneas for transplants in Colorado and Wyoming and to locales beyond--even around the world--if there is no local recipient on the waiting list. 
The Lions Clubs have long been active in service to the blind and visually impaired and began providing support for eye banks more than 60 years ago. Today there are over 60 Lions eye banks in nine countries that provide the "Gift of Sight" to thousands of men, women, and children. If you are looking for an excellent charity to contribute to this holiday season, donate to your local Lions Club or the Lions Club International, to help them continue their work in alleviating blindness.





Approximately 90 photo entries were submitted by cornea recipients for this year's Circle of Light show. “We invited our staff to vote for their favorites,” said Jenn Venerable, the community and professional relations manager at the Aurora eye bank, and 19 images were ultimately chosen to be in a traveling exhibition in both large poster-size reproductions.



The photos were also reproduced in smaller framed and matted 8 X 12  photos.

It was so nice to meet some fellow photographers at the eye bank reception, including the mother of a cornea transplant donor. She told us that although she suffered from losing a young son in an accident, she was comforted by the knowledge that two other people had their sight restored through her son's donated corneas.



In November,  I volunteered to be present for a day during one of the traveling Circle of Light photo exhibits, this time at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver, where I represented the photographers by speaking with staff and visitors who stopped by the exhibit display located near the hospital cafeteria. 

If you want to learn more about becoming an organ donor and giving the gift of sight or life, please visit this link. 

As I learned at a past seminar about donation, giving a part of yourself upon death is ending your life with a comma, and not a period. You can help someone else to see, or survive with a vital organ. What better way to honor life?

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