LEHP Awards
Reward Members of your Community for Outstanding Service or Involvement in a Visionary Project with a Prestigious LEHP Award.
Presentation of these awards not only recognises the service offered by the recipient, to their Lions Club or Community, but also contributes to the ongoing work of the Lions Eye Health Program in reducing the incidence and impact of vision loss throughout the Australian community.
PDG Roley McAtee OAM Vision Award
Roley became a member of the LEHP National Management Committee in 2005 as a Queensland Districts representative. In 2007, Roley was elected as the third LEHP Chairman, he continued to serve in this role until the latter part of 2020.
Under Roley’s leadership the program flourished, expanding its reach right across the continent and introducing new areas of focus, including Low Vision, Indigenous Eye Health and the Children’s Vision Screening program.
Roley’s dedication, enthusiasm and tireless efforts with LEHP and many other Lions activities have been acknowledge with Life Membership of Lions Clubs International, as a Melvin Jones Fellow, and a Dr. Bob Coulthard Award recipient. Roley’s highest and most recent recognitions include Order of Australia (OAM) in 2018, and Lions Clubs International highest honour, Ambassador of Goodwill, presented at the ANZI-Pacific Forum in Jakarta in 2019.
The Roley McAtee Vision Award has been created to acknowledge deserving Lions Club or community members in recognition of their outstanding service to the community or their involvement in, or initiation of, a visionary activity or project. It can be presented to an individual, to the local community, Lions Club, or an organisation that has demonstrated support or care for members of the community or the environment.
This may be an ideal award to present to those club members who have taken a leading role in the LEHP Children’s Vision Screening Program service challenge.
For a donation of $500 to LEHP an attractive plaque and lapel pin will be supplied. The inscription can be customised to suit the individual recipient’s service.
Current List of PDG Roley McAtee OAM Vision Award Recipients
PID Dr Bob Coulthard Recognition Award
Dr Bob Coulthard is one of the best known and respected members of the Lions organisation in Australia and overseas. Bob Coulthard joined the Lions Club of Marion SA in 1963 and has served four terms as President. He was District Governor of S3 in 1982-83 and Council Chairman the following year. In 1965 he began over 30 years of Sight Saving activities when he helped organise the first major Lions sight project in South Australia – a week long programme of glaucoma screening and education about preventable blindness.
Bob introduced amblyopia (lazy eye) awareness to Adelaide kindergartens in 1971, which was later expanded throughout SA and NT. Through the next 15 years he conducted regular screenings for clubs in several districts with over 600,000 tests being completed in that time. The Lions Professional Chair of Opthalmology at Flinders University is largely a result of his leadership in helping raise $400,000 to endow that appointment. Bob was elected to the Lions International Board in 1988, and at his first board meeting he put forward a plan to establish a global sight conservation program – now known as SightFirst, one of the largest sight related programs in the world.
In 1988 Bob was made a member of the Order of Australia for his services to the Lions Save Sight Foundation, both in Australia and Internationally, since 1965. Once LEHP-Australia expanded nationally Bob was the inaugural SA coordinator and subsequently Deputy Chairman, serving in those roles for many years.
LEHP-Australia recognises Dr Bob’s contribution in all areas of sight conservation, preservation and restoration and his invaluable contribution as a former Deputy Chairman of LEHP-Australia. This award honours the contribution of Dr Bob to LEHP and all sight related programs. It has been created as an opportunity to recognise worthy recipients; a Lion, Leo or a non-Lion, a business or corporate benefactor.
Purchase of this award can be made by Clubs, Districts, individuals or non-Lion entities for a $1,000 donation to LEHP. A plaque, inscribed with the recipient’s name and customised text to describe their service, will be provided by LEHP along with a lapel badge. The donation can be made in $500 amounts paid over two years.