By Angie Thompson

angie.thompson@gaflnews.com



TIFTON — A dozen local men will put their insecurities aside, step into evening gowns and high heals and hope to win the Tifton Lions Club’s “VISION” pageant fundraiser to be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Tift Theatre downtown. All of the proceeds from the event, and from the sales of a pinup featuring all of the contestants, will benefit the club’s Lighthouse Vision Clinic and the Lions Camp for the Blind.

“One hundred and fifty people have made appointments for vision services that we haven’t been able to serve,” said Billy Weldon, the club’s president.

The vision clinics are currently held every other month at the Tift Regional Medical Center Clinic on South Central Avenue. Weldon said people with the Georgia Lions Lighthouse bring equipment to be used and Dr. Bret Wagenhorst, a local ophthalmologist, performs the examinations for patients without financial resources. The Lions provide necessary glasses at no cost to the patient.

The backlog of patients is growing during tough economic times, Weldon said.

“We need to hold the vision clinic once per month instead of once every other month,” Weldon said.

Lions also sponsor the Lions Camp for the Blind in Waycross and the Lions Lighthouse Foundation in Atlanta that helps provide hearing aids and hearing and vision services for Georgians in need.

Clay Newton, the club’s program chairman, is or ganizing the “beauty pageant” and will also be a contestant. He is sponsored by BJ Smith Events and ERA Coleman Overstreet Realty.

“The outfits are outrageous,” Newton said.

Other contestants and their sponsors include Colt Anderson (Cottongim Heating and Cooling and the Courtyard by Marriott); Jim Carter (Jason K. Hoffman and The Big Store); Jamie Cater (The Fun Channel and WTIF); Ray Foxworth (Derma Correction and Fairfield Inns and Suites); Robert Harbin (Tifton Banking Company and Harper’s in the Myon); Brandon Jones (Dr. Bret Wagenhorst and Turner Furniture); David Soto (Agonizo Health Club and Bowen-Donaldson); Mike Vollmer (Planttel and Herff Jones); Frankie Westberry (Tift Regional Medical Center and Murray’s Flower Gallery); Steve Wood (Bell Plantation and Colony Bank); and Brian York (Allstate Insurance and The Tifton Gazette).

Judges for the event will include Syd Blackmarr, Carla Miles, Marianne Hill, Wayne Jones and Bill Wells.

“The judges will be on-stage and the contestants will play off them,” Newton said.

Newton said some of the men’s wives are helping their husbands with makeup. Those who attend the pageant will be allowed to take photographs.

“This will be good clean fun,” Weldon said.

The contestants will be judged in three categories — evening gown, talent and a question and answer.

Admission to the pageant is $10. Tickets can be purchased from any Tifton Lion Club member, from the contestants and from Derma Correction, Agonizo Health Club, Western Auto, Tifton Banking Company and Additions.

Calendars featuring each of the contestants will be on sale for $10 during the pageant and available for purchase at Additions after the pageant.



To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.