Dec 26, 2014 2 min read

CARMICHAELS – The 2014 King Coal Lions Club Boys Christmas Basketball Tournament is under way in the Carmichaels Area High School gymnasium.

Varsity high school teams competing include Mapletown, Carmichaels Area, Jefferson-Morgan and Beth-Center. The consolation game starts at 6 p.m. today, followed by the championship game at 7:30 p.m.

Games will be broadcast on Greenesports.net with host Doug Wilson of WANB Radio.

Prizes will be awarded during the tournament for correctly answered trivia questions, foul shots and three-point shots. The traditional half-court shot competition will also take place with an opportunity for one attendee to shoot for a free two-year lease on a 2015 Volkswagen Golf donated by 3 Rivers Volkswagen.

Cost is $5 with all proceeds going to the Lions Club’s mission to help prevent blindness, restore eyesight and improve eye health and care for millions of people worldwide.

Among the work done by Lions Club International:

• Saved the sight of more than 15 million children by providing eye screenings, glasses and other treatments through Sight for Kids.

•Established or strengthened pediatric eye care centers that have helped more than 120 million children.

• Helped halt the spread of trachoma in Ethiopia by providing 10 million doses of the sight-saving drug azithromycin annually.

• Prevented serious vision loss for more than 30 million people worldwide.

• Improved eye care for 100 million people by training more than 650,000 eye care professionals and building 315 eye hospitals.

• Distributed more than 147 million treatments for river blindness.

• Provided nearly 8 million cataract surgeries.

• Vaccinated 41 million children in Africa against measles – a leading cause of childhood blindness.

Since 1990, Lions in the United States have raised $415 million through two Sight First fundraising campaigns.