The Lion’s club and Sankara Nethralaya have been, to quote Lion Shri GV.Raman’s words ‘Partners in conquering blindness’. So it was only natural that they decided to rise to the occasion to felicitate two of the senior heads of their partner institution chosen by the State government for high distinction. The awardees being felicitated were Dr S.Bhaskaran, Chairman, Sankara Nethralaya who was honoured with a ‘Life time Achievement’ award and Dr TS.Surendran, Vice-Chairman, Sankara Nethralaya honoured with the ‘Best Doctor” for year 2011 – 2012 by the prestigious Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University.
The felicitation ceremony held at the Sri VD.Swami Auditorium on 19-12-2011 began with a warm welcome and an interesting account of the Lion’s club’s service to society in general and particularly for the cause of fighting blindness for the past 40 years by Lion K.Andal. The welcome address was followed by the presentation of the citation titled ‘Congratulations’ to the awardees by Lion Shri GV.Raman, Past District Governor, who presided over the day’s function. Past District Governor Lion Dr KS.Lakshmi joined Lion GV Raman in felicitating the awardees; she recalled her long association with Sankara Nethralaya and the great work done by these eminent and service minded doctors.
The Lion’s Club of Central Madras made a donation of rupees 50,000 to Vision Research Foundation’s corpus fund on the occasion. Thanking the organizers of the function for their felicitation Dr S.Bhaskaran and Dr.TS.Surendran recalled their more than 15 years of association with the Lion’s club and expressed their profuse thanks to its members for the club’s continued assistance in cash, kind and service to Sankara Nethralaya.
The occasion also marked the holding of the 41st Inter collegiate oratorical competition on current affairs for college students by the Lion’s club. Students from major colleges in the city participated and awards were distributed to the winners. The function concluded with a vote of thanks by Lion Shri S.N.Harinarayanan, Project Chairman.