Ramona Sangalli

Ramona Sangalli’s knowledge of Lions World Services for the Blind began in childhood: Both her parents were blind. Sangalli has spent most of her working life at LWSB.

One of her proudest achievements is becoming its leader more than seven years ago “because it makes the opportunity to be involved in the future of LWSB in a really active way possible. That, plus I think my parents, my mother particularly, would have been very proud.”

LWSB, which had 2007 revenue of about $4.4 million, has exceeded its fundraising goals by more than 100 percent for the last three years. It serves about 300 people.

Among Sangalli’s greatest challenges now is raising $30 million for LWSB’s new campus across from the Clinton Presidential Library in downtown Little Rock. It hopes to start construction by 2010. Another challenge? “Maintaining our focus at the same time, because up to this point we’ve really seriously focused on providing the services. It’s important that what we’ve always done and what we’re here for doesn’t suffer because of the shared focus,” she said.

Sangalli has learned from LWSB’s clients as they have learned from LWSB. She recalled a man who’d been referred by Johns Hopkins several years ago. The man, a lawyer who had lost his sight, left a message for Sangalli; she returned his call. “He told me that the reason he selected us, and it sounds like an odd thing for me to say, was because I responded to his inquiry, and it reminded me that the clients are our customers. And we should treat them the same way — with the same respect and the same approach — that any other customer deserves.” That lawyer went on to be elected a judge. “As a result of things he learned here, he was able to go back to his practice and go on to bigger and better things.” S

angalli stressed that LWSB only provides its clients the opportunity to regain their lives. As for the work: “They do it themselves.”