Don Dunning chosen for Lions Citizen of the Year

NOTE: In the March 19 print edition of the Reporter, the date to honor Don Dunning was incorrect. The Citizen of the Year award will be presented at the Lions dinner on Thursday, May 21 at the Gardiner’s Bay Country Club.

The Shelter Island Lions Club has selected Don Dunning to be its Citizen of the Year, a recognition to be celebrated at a dinner later this spring. 

The choice of Mr. Dunning was a natural fit with the mission of the Lions, a service organization founded in Chicago in 1917 to engage members of the business community to help those who are less fortunate, said Citizenship Committee Chairman Dr. Frank Adipietro. The club’s motto is “We Serve” and here on Shelter Island, it’s been exemplified by the many activities the Lions have undertaken to help the community for 75 years.

In choosing to honor someone as Citizen of the Year, Dr. Adipietro explained, the club seeks not only to honor an individual, but to shine a light on the value that volunteers bring to the community each year, hopefully inspiring more Islanders to follow suit.

One of the top priorities of Lions International is “improving the lives of the visually impaired and preventing avoidable blindness.”

Embracing that calling, Don Dunning has served as a volunteer for more than three decades with the Visions Center on Blindness, a 35-acre residential camp and recreation center for the blind in Rockland County, which is now one of the largest and most comprehensive overnight training and vision rehabilitation facilities in the United States. “It was a pretty interesting place,” Don told feature writer Charity Robey in a profile for the Reporter. “It had an elaborate system of railings, marked in Braille for the blind. I went up there and built and repaired buildings. My construction experience was exactly what they needed, and I enjoyed it.”

Eventually he was named to the Executive Committee of the camp and to the Board of Directors for Visions. After retiring from the Visions board in 2010, he was called back to the board in May 2014.

In 2009 the Shelter Island Lions gave him the “Knight of the Blind” award in recognition of his work for the blind. In 1996, the Seaford Lions Club honored Don with the Melvin Jones Award in recognition of his humanitarian work, and in 2002, Newsday featured Don in its series “Everyday Hero” with a profile entitled, “A Ray of Light for the Blind.”

The Citizen of the Year award will be presented at the Lions dinner on Thursday, May 21 at the Gardiner’s Bay Country Club. Tickets will go on sale the first week of May at the Shelter Island Public Library and online from the Lions website, shelterislandlions.org