Annandale Lions Club

(Chartered 1948)

Memorial to Lion Jim Naccarato

Lion Jim served our club faithfully as a member for 17 years.  He worked tirelessly on our service projects such as eyeglasses recycling, and he hosted an �eyeglasses recycling night� at his office less than two weeks before he passed away in July, 2002.  At the time of his death, he served as our Second Vice President and a member of our Board.

In memory of Lion Jim, and his tireless work to help people see things more clearly,  members of our club made a donation to the Old Dominion Eye Bank to purchase a specular microscope.  Such microscopes help doctors make corneal transplants successful.

The human cornea is made up of 5 microscopic layers, with the inner layer being the most important. The Endothelium is the inner most layer and houses the cells that act as pumps to keep the cornea clear. The endothelial cell is the only cell structure in our body that does not regenerate. As the cells die off the others expand to fill the dead area. The more cells we have, the healthier the cornea.

In 1977 a California company developed a microscope that enabled eye banks to count the endothelial cells. Prior to this piece of equipment, the eye banks transplanted the cornea and hoped that the cells worked.

Today, eye banks use the Specular Microscope in the evaluation process. With the new scopes, not only can we view the number of cells, we can also view the shapes and viability of the cells.

This piece of equipment is responsible for the evaluation of healthy tissue and has been critical in making corneal transplants the most successful transplant being performed today.

We are honored by Lion Jim's memory, and delighted to recognize his service through this donation.

Lions Club of Annandale
Post Office Box 453
Annandale, Virginia  22003
info@annandalelions.org