EATONTOWN, NJ (SBN) — The Eatontown Lions Club will begin its sixth year of free vision screening on September 14, 2023, partnering with the Eatontown and Ocean Township School Districts. Working with school nurses, the eight-member Eye Squad performs vision screenings annually in September and October for students in Pre-K through 8th grade. The Lions club is looking forward to its 10,000th free vision screening on an Eatontown Student at the Memorial School.
“We only need to screen 140 more students to reach 10,000,” said Lion Carl Lillvik, the Club’s Eye Squad Leader.
Lillvik described the vision screening program in this interview with SBN news director Steve Lubetkin.
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More than 12 million school-age children in the United States have some form of vision problem. Many vision problems run the risk of becoming permanent if not corrected by the time the eye reaches full maturity. Vision also plays an important role in education. According to educational experts, 80 percent of learning is visual.
Lions Club President Linda Butler said, “Early screening leads to early detection, which helps ensure that children get the follow-up care they need. We want to make sure that correctible vision problems don’t stand in the way of our children learning and seeing the world clearly.”
Vision Screening is part of a nationwide initiative called Lions KidSight USA, a national coalition that brings together Lions programs that screen children from 6 months on. KidSight USA was developed by Lions in the U.S. to protect the eye health of America’s children in their early years. Lions in the U.S. currently screen more than 500,000 children per year. Learn more about Lions KidSight USA at KidSightUSA.org.
About the Guest
Carl Lillvik
During a twenty-one-year Army career, Carl held line and staff assignments in operations, resource planning, logistics and project management. After his retirement from active duty, he was a program and operations manager for small businesses providing services to the Defense Department.
Mr. Lillvik served as a private sector member of the Monmouth County Workforce Investment Board and its predecessor Private Industry Council. He served three terms as Chairman of the WIB and chaired the County Private Industry Council during the transition. He served four years as a Director of the National Association of Workforce Boards. Mr. Lillvik is a recipient of the Garden State Employment and Training Association’s Public Service Award.
He is 44-year member of Lions Club International, past president of the local Eatontown Lions Club, coordinator of the club’s vision screening project and the recipient of Lions Club International Melvin Jones award for humanitarian services. He served as a volunteer, past Vice President, and Development Chair for Family Promise formerly the Interfaith Hospitality Network of Monmouth County a nonprofit organization assisting homeless families. Mr. Lillvik served seven years as a Red Cross disaster volunteer and instructor of disaster services and Humanitarian Law. He also served as a Director of the Citadel Alumni Association and served as recruiting representative for The Citadel at college fairs and for high school guidance counselors.
He was a non-profit management instructor at Brookdale Community College for fifteen years. Carl has B.S. and master’s degrees in business administration from The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and Northeastern University. He also has a Non-profit Governance Certificate from the Harvard Business School Executive Development Program.
Currently retired, he lives at Seabrook Village, Tinton Falls with his wife of 62 years. They have four children and five grandchildren scattered throughout the United States and England.
Steve Lubetkin is the news director for StateBroadcastNews.com. Steve’s journalism background includes print and broadcast reporting for NJ news organizations. He refocused on multimedia journalism and podcast production after a long career in corporate branded journalism and public relations.
He has won numerous awards for his audio and video news reporting from the Garden State Journalists Association, and he has also been recognized for video by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has produced a wide range of audio and video podcasts in his other role as managing partner of State Broadcast News’s parent, The Lubetkin Media Companies.
Steve is co-author, with Toronto-based podcasting pioneer Donna Papacosta, of the book, The Business of Podcasting: How to Take Your Podcasting Passion from the Personal to the Professional.
In March 2021, he was elected to the board of directors of the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and in July 2021 he was named secretary of the chapter. In August 2021, he was honored by SPJ with one of the organization’s 2021 Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Awards, given to regular members of an SPJ chapter who go above and beyond in serving their chapter.
Steve has been the computer columnist for the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey, since 1996.
Steve also has reported on-camera and produces virtual conferences for NJSpotlightNews.org, a public policy news coverage website focused on New Jersey government and industry; and for clients of StateBroadcastNews.com, a division of The Lubetkin Media Companies LLC.
From May-November 2019, he produced and reported a weekly podcast, The CRE News Hour, a news and features program focusing on the commercial real estate industry.
From 2014 to 2019 he was New Jersey and Philadelphia editor for GlobeSt.com and filled in covering Chicago/Midwest and Atlanta.
Steve has also served (from August 2017 to March 2018) as national broadcast news correspondent for CEOReport.com, a news website focused on practical advice for senior executives in small- and medium-sized companies.
Earlier in his career, Steve reported on rock music at the Jersey Shore for the Asbury Park Press, and was a broadcast news anchor and production engineer for WJLK-AM & FM, then owned by the Press. He also worked as a general assignment reporter for the Red Bank Register, Shrewsbury, NJ.
You can email Steve at steve@statebroadcastnews.com.
