About the South Dakota Lions Eye Bank
A Lions task force was formed in the mid-sixties to get an Eye Bank started with the help of the South Dakota Lions Clubs. At that time, funeral directors, doctors and sometimes nurses removed the eyes from donors. Lions members transported tissue to the Minnesota or Nebraska border in relay fashion for use at their eye banks.

Dr. Thomas White started a part time eye bank in the early 80s in Sioux Falls at his office. He did this until 1991 when a full time eye bank opened in the former Sioux Valley hospitalby the Lions clubs of South Dakota.

The Eye Bank had 99 donors its first year. The second year we had over three hundred donors. We now average 400+ donors per year. In the spring of 1997, the SD Lions Eye Bank started training with the American Red Cross. We did this as a possible way of increasing all types of tissue donation, both for us and the Red Cross. The Eye Bank moved into its new facility August 16, 2010. A grant from Lions International helped fund the purchase of equipment for the new surgical recovery suites.

Lions Eye Bank International