| Mandarin Lions Club receives contribution from New York businessman for Conklin Centers |
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The Bold City Lions Club in Jacksonville’s Mandarin section has a very good friend – in Brewster, NY.
Does that seem odd? It isn’t. You see, the club’s members, professionals primarily from the Mandarin and Southside areas, are committed – like all Lions – to public service and helping the visually- and hearing-impaired. Brewster-based Diversity Partners LLC works with major corporations such as Johnson & Johnson Co. and Avis Rent-A-Car to develop programs to improve socio-economic access for the disabled. Diversity client J&J has a Jacksonville division: Vistakon eye-care products. Brian Pall, of Mandarin, works for Vistakon and is a Bold City Lion. Herb Drill, of Mandarin, heads Able Me & Associates!, a Mandarin firm providing disability marketing consulting. He’s also Diversity’s representative in northeast Florida. Diversity’s marketing vice president, Bruce Robertson, wanted to acknowledge the contribution to Lions Clubs efforts through Lions Pall and Drill, particularly since Robertson’s father had been a Lions Club member. At the most recent Bold City Lions Club dinner meeting, Lion Herb Drill presented Mr. Robertson’s check for $250 to Club President James "Jeb" Stewart and Secretary/treasurer and incoming President Arlene Carlson. The money was sent to the Florida Lions Conklin Centers for the Blind, a nationally-accredited human service organization in Daytona Beach respected for being the first and only U.S. agency dedicated to providing coordinated vocational and independent living services to individuals who are blind and have another handicapping condition. Conklin Centers are owned and administered by the Lions Clubs of Florida with this mission: "That a significant percentage of blind and otherwise disabled people will be returned to a useful role in society." Also at the Bold City Lions dinner meeting, Past District (35-L) Governor Tommy Dover discussed how the Conklin Centers helps the multiple disabled clients at the Conklin Centers and how Lions Clubs International serves in China doing cataract surgery. Dover said the success of the SightFirst China Action Project convinced Chinese officials to allow Lions Clubs International to charter two clubs and cooperate with the government in a campaign to restore eyesight and prevent blindness. He said the campaign has "supported more than 2 million cataract operations in China and has sent 260 medical teams to remote regions to perform them. It has trained 12,000 eye-care personnel working in rural areas." Lions International has chartered clubs in Guangdong and Shenzhen, similar to other Lions Clubs worldwide. The clubs address sight preservation, youth services, education, medical services, and disaster relief championed by the Lions Clubs International Foundation (300 W. 22nd St., Oak Brook, IL, With the full endorsement of the People's Republic of China government, LCI is the first international sevice club to be granted permission to operate in China and have been established by local residents. As for the Conklin Centers donation, Lion Herb Drill, who has Muscular Dystrophy and vision problems, explained Diversity Partners’ believes "companies open markets for products and services when they open minds and envision possibilities. Endless is the potential presented by having millions more disabled people earning their own way." That’s the guiding thought of Adrian Guglielmo, founder and CEO of for-profit Diversity Partners, who suffered Attention Deficit Disorder and today is a member of the Women Presidents’ Education Organization. Mrs. Guglielmo says, "We advise companies on how to market to the largest minority group in the U.S. - disabled people. My staff and I do this by creating value in approaching the disabled community with marketing, promotions, and training." "Our mission is to change corporate attitudes towards people with 'different abilities’." Diversity Partners specializes in promotional marketing to disabled consumers of products and services, such as accessible rental cars, adaptive hotel rooms, and innovative adaptive medical devices. Company clients include Fortune 1,000 companies such as Cendant’s Avis Rent-A-Car, Johnson & Johnson, UPS, and Foxwoods Resort, among others. Reprinted from the Mandarin News & St. Johns River Pilot |
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