Article in The Villager

Club has long history supporting the blind

BY BOB SWEENEY
PUBLISHER

Helen Keller once called the Lions Club her “knights of the blind.”

Lions have continued that long tradition in sponsoring the Blind Café, where patrons dine completely in the dark. The latest event was held at the annual Christmas party at the First Baptist Church of Denver.

Gail Hamilton, the president of Englewood Lions Club who lost most of her sight at birth and was totally blind by age 11 shared her extraordinary musical skills for the Denver Lions Club last week.

Hamilton was crowned Ms. Colorado Senior America in 2013 and won fourth runner-up on the national Ms. Senior America pageant that same year. She is a successful speaker, author and singer. She has recently published a book, Soaring into Greatness, which President Carter called “a beautiful story of someone who has overcome a physical handicap and changed it into a force that is an inspiration to many people.”

For the Denver Lions Club’s 100th anniversary Christmas party, Hamilton sang opera selections, including from La Traviata and La Boheme.

Lions also honored newly re-elected RTD Director Claudia Folska, the first blind woman elected to public office in Colorado. She has launched a new television program, Cooking in The Dark, filmed by Lion Sam McKenzie and now airing on public television Saturday mornings.

The Lions Club was founded in 1917. Denver, one of the 24 charter clubs, meets weekly at Muggiano’s on the 16th Street Mall.