Lions Gift of Sight Today Newsletter:
A publication for our friends and partners
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Neurosciences
University of Minnesota
Fall-Winter 2024
© Copyright 2024 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
Lions Gift of Sight TODAY is published twice a year by the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Lions Gift of Sight
1000 Westgate Drive - Ste 260
Saint Paul, MN 55114
For more information, visit LionsGiftofSight.UMN.edu (opens in new window) or call 612-625-5159.
Lions Gift of Sight (LGS) is a community-based non-profit eye bank. Founded in 1960, it is the oldest donation organization in Minnesota. LGS serves the needs of donors in Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and North Dakota, 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year. LGS distributes corneas for transplant and eyes and corneas for research and medical education throughout the world.
With a stringent eye bank quality assurance program that audits all aspects of operations, LGS upholds the highest tissue quality standards. LGS is accredited by the Eye Bank Association of America, inspected by the Food and Drug Administration, and follows OSHA and University of Minnesota Research and Innovation Office guidelines. LGS is owned by the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is proud to be part of the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Table of Contents
Executive Director, Sean Poppoff, Message: Data and Donation Tell Stories
The role of an executive director is one that is often immersed in statistics, trends, analysis of strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities—topics vital to the endurance of a business, non-profit or otherwise. These subjects appear dry at first glance, but when you dig in, they tell a story worthy of sharing. My story today is about statistics.
In 2018, Lions Gift of Sight experienced a 30% dip in our donor referrals, causing concern that we would not be able to serve the many corneal surgeons who rely on us to provide donor tissue for their transplant patients. To mitigate the effect of the changes, we created new relationships with, to then, untapped referral sources and strengthened our relationships with our many remaining referral sources. The response from our partners was incredible, in particular from the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s office. After learning the value of donation for research, they reworded their hospice registration form and began referring more hospice deaths through their donation referral portal. These changes resulted in an overall donor referral increase of 127% in just one year!
Earlier this year, more changes came, and we started receiving referrals from sources that had all but disappeared in 2018. As a result, we have seen a significant increase in donor referrals and resulting donors. A shout out to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s office who created a portal similar to Hennepin’s and yielded a large increase in their donation referrals. For the first time in several years, we are recovering more corneas for transplant than research, giving our transplant surgeons more options!
The data demonstrates the growth we are experiencing: January through August 2023, we received 10,828 referrals compared to 12,736 referrals for the same time period in 2024. Through September in 2023, we had a total of 1,317 donors, but this year we are already at 1,660.
Every data point tells a story about the generous support of so many people: individuals who commit to donation before their death; family members and friends who speak with our donor coordinators to make donation happen; hospital, hospice, funeral home, and medical examiner staff taking time to facilitate donation. We thank every partner who is part of the Lions Gift of Sight story.
Article Pictures
At the top of the article is a headshot of Lions Gift of Sight Executive Director, Sean Poppoff.
An included picture shows Sean Poppoff, Lion Wendy Goldsmith (new chair of the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation), and Dr. Silvia Orengo-Nania (new chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences) in front of the eye bank's entrance.
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The Minnesota State Fair and U!
The University of Minnesota has had a presence at the Minnesota State Fair since 1859, just one year after the Gopher State was granted statehood and just five years after the then “territorial” fair began. 165 years later, the U makes its presence felt in no less than ten locations throughout the 322-acre fairgrounds! You could find Lions Gift of Sight at two of these venues.
U of M Central
Lions Gift of Sight exhibited at U of M Central on August 28. Staff educated visitors about eye anatomy and health, eye donation, corneal transplantation, and ophthalmology research. They encouraged people to sign up to be donors and to talk about their donation wishes with family and friends. It was 12 hours of wonderful interactions and intriguing conversations with fairgoers.
Driven to Discover
The Research Team had a hot and sticky day at the Minnesota State Fair’s Driven to Discover Building on August 26, but that did not stop them from enrolling more than 140 test subjects! They surveyed people on “Dead or Alive? In the Eye of the Beholder,” a study to help understand how people accurately (or not) estimate the percentage of dead or damaged cells in a donated cornea.
Article Pictures
At the top of the article is a crowd shot of people at the State Fair with the University Central building in the background.
Three other pictures accompany the article:
Angie, Sam, Tina, Taylor, and Sung welcoming people to the LGS booth at the U Central building with warmth and smiles.
Hannah, Panhia, Sung, Ching, Hanna, and Peter eager to start enrolling subjects at the LGS booth in the Driven to Discover building.
University of Minnesota president, Dr. Rebecca Cunningham, and Goldy "high tenning" at the U Central building.
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Employee Spotlight: Administrative Team
Every organization needs a team who offers support to everyone else. For LGS, that is our administrative team. This team purchases office equipment and supplies, provides key card access to employees, works with multiple departments, vendors, and partners to manage the eye bank’s finances, and acts as liaison for all facilities matters. In a nutshell, the admin team keeps everything running!
The team works closely with the University of Minnesota to handle finances, since the eye bank is operated under a managed service agreement with the U. The team also supports the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation, since the foundation owns the eye bank. They prepare financial reports for the board of directors and translate the funds in the budget for Lions Gift of Sight to the actual finances of the eye bank under the University. Complicated? Not for these folks!
A beloved member of the team is Grecia Glass, who greets you with a big smile when you first step into the eye bank. Grecia will enjoy a well-deserved retirement in December, after serving 19 years at the eye bank, and she will be missed. During her time here, she has worn many hats. First as a PR assistant and Lions Liaison, supporting Lions clubs in their sight-saving efforts. Then she became our accounts payable go-to. Now she serves as the receptionist and supports our community liaison in donor family correspondence.
As Grecia reflects on her time at the eye bank, she shares that it feels like a family to her, and she counts many co-workers as close friends. She likes that everyone has a different role and that they all work together toward the compelling mission of restoring sight. Grecia is grateful for her wonderful eye bank memories, but looks forward to retirement and having more time for herself and for enjoying the little things in life with her loved ones.
Article Picture
An included picture shows Grecia, wearing her Minneapolis Ambassadors Lions jacket and smiling.
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Hennepin County Library & LGS Make Readers Available to Library Patrons
It was truly a gift when Lions Gift of Sight was contacted by two local optical stores with dozens of non-prescription reader glasses they wanted to donate and divert from landfills.
This donation of readers came at a time when LGS was meeting with Hennepin County Library staff to explore new partnership opportunities. Library staff shared that their patrons often found themselves in need of reading glasses to access the many visual resources at the library, and a pilot project evolved that not only supported the eye bank’s mission to restore eyesight but also connected the eye bank to Minnesota’s largest library system.
To make the project work for everyone, library staff created a workflow for tracking and cleaning readers to avoid spreading germs or infections. With that important safety protocol in place, the readers were made available to patrons at Central and East Lake branches in Minneapolis. Next Spring, the eye bank and library will assess the venture and determine the feasibility of expanding to Hennepin County Library branches that serve communities of color. To learn more, please contact Lions Gift of Sight at [email protected].
Article Picture
The included picture shows four Hennepin County Library staff members with eye bankers Jennifer and Lynn. All are holding a pair of donated readers and smiling.
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KerifyTM: Groundbreaking Tool Improves Tissue Analysis
It is only fitting that Lions Gift of Sight (LGS) is part of the University of Minnesota, given our shared values of research, education, and outreach. In the field of eye donation and cornea transplantation, our eye bank, like the university, is “driven to discover!” Lions Gift of Sight is forward thinking in its efforts to continuously discover new efficiencies, new technologies, and new equipment that improve the lives of patients. As stewards of the precious gift of donated human corneas, it is our responsibility to leverage new technology and software to further evolve our capabilities in restoring sight.
It was last February when Lions Gift of Sight announced a revolutionary new technology in eye banking: Kerify™, an image processing and analysis software. This exciting technology propels us from using traditional specular microscopy when evaluating donor tissue to using an innovative new cloud-based platform.
Specular microscopes are limited in that they can only scan about 1% of the cornea. The resulting evaluation may, therefore, either miss significant areas of damage or designate isolated areas of damage as representative of the whole cornea. Kerify™ is able to scan 100% of the cornea with micrometer precision (1/1000th of a millimeter), and it can produce results within seconds.
Kerify™ will improve our tissue allocation team’s ability to select the best and safest donor corneas for patients who are receiving corneal transplants. At the same time, it can help us avoid rejecting donor corneas that we previously classified as poor quality. Thus we ensure the best outcomes for our patients while honoring the gift that our donors so generously give to us.
Kerify™ was made possible through a partnership of Lions Gift of Sight, ADCIS (which developed the new image processing and analysis software), and the Eye Bank Association of America (which will help bring this new technology to eye banks across the country). To learn more, contact LGS Business Development Director Brian Philippy, at [email protected].
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An included picture shows Research Fellow Peter Bedard and Research Scientist Sung Lee explaining the benefits of KerifyTM at the Eye Bank Association of America Annual Meeting in June.
The KerifyTM logo is also shown.
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Two Missions that Align: LGS & Anatomy Bequest
In October 2023, the University of Minnesota’s Anatomy Bequest Program (ABP) and Lions Gift of Sight, already partners in donation, found a way to serve more Minnesotans while helping meet the increasing need for eye tissue—LGS coordinators began taking overnight and weekend referral calls for ABP. The results are impressive!
Prior to this date, three to four whole body donors per month also became eye donors to LGS. Today, the monthly volume has grown to more than 15. Angela McArthur, Director of ABP, reflects, “Our expanded partnership with Lions Gift of Sight has allowed us to enhance our ability to offer high quality service to the donor families that we serve. LGS donor eligibility coordinators are exceptionally well trained and kind professionals. By working together, we are able to ensure that individuals who generously donate their bodies to our program also have the opportunity to contribute to the important work of Lions Gift of Sight.”
LGS Director of Clinical Operations, Jolie Schmidt, and staff have risen to the challenge from an operational perspective. “Since expanding our collaboration with ABP, our donor coordinators have managed more than 550 notifications of death on behalf of the Anatomy Bequest Program. Many of these individuals, preregistered to be whole body donors through the program, were also offered the opportunity of eye donation for transplant, research, or medical education.”
Currently the third largest academically-housed body donation program in the U.S., ABP is among the world’s largest in studies supported annually. And the eye bank and ABP are now offering families more potential avenues for anatomical donation, a clear benefit to all. We look forward to our continued partnership!
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An accompanying picture shows ABP Director Angela McArthur with nine of her team members. The photo was taken at the Lions Gift of Sight Donate Life flag raising in April 2024.
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Goldsmith Elected Chair
The Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation is turning 65 soon, and it just welcomed its thirteenth chair, Dr. Wendy Goldsmith. Dr. Goldsmith is the first woman to chair the foundation, the first doctor to chair the foundation, and the first chair to come from outside the metro area in about 15 years. All reasons to celebrate!
Dr. Goldsmith has been practicing optometry for more than 30 years. She graduated from the Southern College of Optometry and completed a postgraduate residency in ocular disease at OMNI Eye Services in Memphis. She is the CEO of Goldsmith Eye Care and is a past president of the Minnesota Optometric Association.
Dr. Goldsmith, also known as Lion Wendy, is an 11-year member of the Veseli Area Lions club in south central Minnesota. She has been a Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation director since 2019 and has taken the lead on many projects, including chairing the board’s State Fair committee.
With change often come partings. It is with deep gratitude that we say goodbye to immediate past chair, PDG Rob Hed. Lion Rob led the foundation for four years, shepherding the nonprofit through COVID and competition, two incredible challenges for the Lions Gift of Sight eye bank. We thank Lion Rob for his insightful leadership and wish him the very best in his next endeavor: Global Service Team Coordinator for Minnesota, Manitoba, and northwest Ontario.
Make Your Mark.
It is what Lions do.
Article Picture
Accompanying picture shows current Vision Foundation chair, Lion Wendy Goldsmith, and past chair, Lion Rob Hed, at the Multiple District Convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Of Note
A Mission for Vision
Eye banks across the country provided 29 corneas for a two-week medical mission trip to Honduras led by Mark Hansen, M.D., of Minnesota Eye Consultants. Lions Gift of Sight contributed 10 corneas to this endeavor.
“On the first day more than 100 patients were screened to determine how to best match corneas to patients. This was both exciting and difficult, as there were many potential recipients,” said Dr. Hansen. The first cornea transplant recipient was a young adult with an ulcerated cornea. A temporary patch was removed prior to performing the corneal transplant, and the result was beautiful. The patient was thrilled with his greatly improved vision.
In addition to performing surgeries, Dr. Hansen uses mission trips to teach local medical personnel. This particular trip involved an area ophthalmologist who conducted his third penetrating keratoplasty procedure.
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Jolie Schmidt, LGS Director of Clinical Operations, and Dr. Hansen, holding a cooler containing precious corneas for the medical mission.
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Dr. Erik van Kuijk Poised to Retire
An $80K donation from a grateful patient, this one benefiting ophthalmology research? Thank you, Dr. van Kuijk, for securing this gift for the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation! And thank you, too, for all the support you have given the department, Lions Gift of Sight, ophthalmology clinic care and research, and Lions International.
Fredericus (Erik) van Kuijk, M.D., Ph.D., is set to retire in December and recently stepped down after 13 years as Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences. Having practiced ophthalmology for nearly 40 years, his service to the field is well known, from the Netherlands to Montana to Texas to here in Minnesota. But his service to the Lions Gift of Sight eye bank itself and to Lions International is known only to a more intimate circle.
Dr. Erik (as he has known to his Lions colleagues) joined us as chair of the Department in 2011, just weeks before attending his first Thanksgiving for Vision celebration where he was inducted into Lions International. (Way to hit the ground running, Lion Erik!) He quickly embraced the Lions mission and their charge to be “Knights of the Blind.” Throughout his tenure as chair, he attended Vision Foundation board meetings to promote the work of the department and to secure funding for research and recruitment efforts. He is a staunch supporter of Lions Clubs International Foundation, which provides humanitarian relief and disaster aid throughout the world. And he has been awarded an International Leadership Medal from Lions International President Patty Hill. Other Lions honors include a Melvin Jones Fellowship, three Helen Keller Sight Awards, and an Every Day Hero Award.
Dr. Erik’s tireless commitment to Lions Gift of Sight and his efforts (in particular, over the last six plus years) to protect and promote the sight-saving efforts that take place here every day are no less heroic. He traveled many miles to advocate for the eye bank, both on state and national levels, and recruited hospitals in Montana, Texas, North Dakota, and Minnesota to maintain or begin a partnership with Lions Gift of Sight. So grateful is the eye bank that their large conference room is now named the Erik van Kuijk Conference Center. Both the Lions and eye banking are better for Dr. Erik’s contributions, and we wish him the very best in his next great adventure!
Article Pictures
Head shot of Dr. van Kuijk.
Dr. Erik with Immediate Past International President Patty Hill after receiving the International Leadership Medal in May.
Dr. Erik with four past Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation chairs: Lion Lyle Goff, PDG Lion Lynn Farley, PDG Lion David Moen, and PDG Lion Rob Hed. The photo was taken at the welcome home event for Past International President Brian Sheehan, a native of Bird Island, Minnesota.
Eye Donation Month 2024
Eye Donation Month is observed each November. This year’s theme, “I Can See Clearly Now,” emphasizes the literal outcome of eye donation – the ability to see – and the figurative outcome of what donor family members, recipients, or eye donation champions experience or “see now.” We celebrate Eye Donation Month and the transforming power of donation!
Accompanying Graphic
The graphic shows a blue sky with cirrus clouds and four balloons, blue, yellow, red, and green. At the top are the words We Can See Clearly Now. Text inside the balloons is as follows:
- 2.4 Million Individuals: EBAA member eye banks have restored sight to more than 2.4 million individuals.
- $ Nearly $8 Billion: Corneal transplants have an $8 billion lifetime economic benefit annually.
- Every 11 Minutes: Every 11 minutes someone has their sight restored with tissue from an EBAA member eye bank.
- 95% Success Rate: For all corneal transplants.
In the lower right corner is the Eye Donation Month November 2024 logo and #eyedonationmonth and eyedonationmonth.org.
Donor Family Spotlight: Laura Kelly Lovdahl
Meet Laura: Long-time staff member of LifeSource (the Organ and Tissue Procurement Organization in the upper Midwest), a member of the Minneapolis Ambassadors Lions club, the daughter of a cornea recipient, and the daughter of an eye donor. Rarely do we meet someone with so many meaningful touch points!
Laura’s parents, Pamela and John, met in high school in the 1950s, married in 1960, started a dairy farm south of Murdock, Minnesota, and began to raise a family. For 63 years they worked side by side, nurturing their children and doing the hard work that is necessary to run a dairy farm.
The work became even more difficult when, in the 1990s, John started to have trouble with his vision. He was diagnosed with Fuchs’ dystrophy, a degenerative eye condition causing pain and vision loss. Fortunately, because two people said “yes” to donation, John received the gift of sight through a corneal transplant in each eye.
In 2023, Pamela passed away after a battle with cancer, and her family was left without the strong, generous, witty woman they loved dearly. Pamela donated her eyes to Lions Gift of Sight to assist research scientists working to find treatments for diseases like macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma, conditions that can’t be helped by corneal transplants.
Lions Gift of Sight is grateful for our relationship with Laura, who is a superb Lions member and a tireless advocate for eye, organ, and tissue donation. In Laura’s words: “Every day, I am surrounded by incredible stories of people whose lives have been touched by donation.”
Article Pictures
Accompanying pictures are as follows:
Headshot of Laura wearing her Minneapolis Ambassadors Lions club jacket.
Laura with her parents, Pamela and John Kelly in their home.
Welcoming a New Board
We are pleased to welcome eight new members to the Minnesota Lions Vision Foundation Board of Directors! Joining this year are PCC Rob Wiener, Lion Kathy Barclay, Lion David Danielson, Lion Joann Vaughan, Lion Ron Tiernan, Lion Sherri Schmitz, Lion Steve Caron, and Lion Chris Correia. The new board chair is Lion Wendy Goldsmith, O.D. Lion Scott Grove became the new treasurer, and District Governor Kim Schommer is serving as council liaison. It’s shaping up to be a great year!
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Accompanying picture shows board members and a few eye bank staff posed on the west lawn of University Enterprise Laboratories on a sunny day.