Lake Orion Lions Club president, Jack Patton, takes the motto he chose for last year, ‘serving with passion? very seriously.
The club extended a helping hand to many individual families throughout the past year. It provided baskets for 100 needy families this past Christmas.
And also last year, in collaboration with Orion Neighborhood Television, it began providing an important programming service to cable television subscribers in Orion Township and the Village of Lake Orion.
The Lions are underwriting the cost of a live feed from the Detroit Radio Information Service. DRIS is now the audio portion for cable channel 20, ONTV’s government access channel.
The message board will continue to provide computer generated notices and meeting agendas for the township and village. The message board and DRIS are available simultaneously, 24 hours per day on channel 20, except when local meetings are cablecast.
DRIS is southeastern Michigan’s only radio reading service. Founded in 1978, DRIS is a self supporting, closed-circuit broadcast service of WDET-FM at Wayne State University, providing information to blind and other print-impaired people.
Volunteer readers deliver information verbatim from more than 100 current publications each week, including dozens of newspapers such as The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Oakland Press and Macomb Daily.
‘Our unique programs give hope and provide a measure of independence for people who can’t see, hold or comprehend conventional print,? Kim Walsh, director of DRIS said.
She added that the most popular programs are The Detroit News and Free Press and also the weekly readings of the grocery and department store ads.
There is also a fitness program at 9 a.m. weekdays for seniors and a block of live call in programs on Fridays at 11 a.m. including ‘Past Forward? on third Fridays. During this program seniors and other listeners reminisce together.
A complete schedule can be found at www.dris.org.
In the past, Lions clubs have purchased specially designed radios for individual households with sight impaired residents.
This partnership with ONTV brings DRIS to approximately 8,000 homes with just a single commercial receiver.
The Orion communities join other communities such as Lathrup Village, Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi, Wyandotte, Oxford and Addison Township in providing DRIS through a community access cable television channel
For more information, contact Walsh at 313-577-7684; DRIS Outreach/24-hour Program Hotline at 313-577-4207; Patton at 248-588-2705; Griffiths at 248-693-3377.