The Rotary Club of Poona Downtown, Netradan Jagruti Mandal & Pune District Blindness Control Society jointly organized their annual programme “Remembering Eye Donors” on 8th September 2013 at Nehru Memorial Hall to honour the families of 1050 people who donated corneas during the period 1st July 2012 to 30th June 2013. Our Club has been actively & consistently pursuing the Eye Donation Awareness movement and this was the 12th year of the programme. In the initial years the total number of persons donating Eyes was only 75 in the Pune district. With the efforts of the club members and other active organizations this figure has reached more than 1000 eye donors last year. RCPD volunteers efficiently led by Rtn Jitu Mehta managed the registration of all donor families, beneficiaries, doctors, VIPS and guests of honour. The guests were served tea/coffee after which they took their seats in the auditorium. Ms Chhaya Hole and Dr MS Oswal, were the comperes of the program. Rtn Pradeep Munot managed the stage and Rtn Kirti and Arun were in-charge of the backstage. President Biman of RCPD welcomed all the guests and handed over a Tulsi Plant as a memento to guests of honour. The programme was interspersed with recital of poems written by some of the guests. This program began with screening a documentary “Drishti” which deeply touched the members in the audienceaudience. The function commenced with an ‘Oath Taking’ ceremony where took pledge to donate their eyes. President of Bhoi Pratishtan, Dr. Milind Bhoi and Mr. Girish Kulkarni were the chief guest of the programme. While Dr. Bhoi appealed to the audience to come forward and support the Eye Donation awareness, Mr. Girish Kulkarni expressed his willingness to become the brand ambassador of the eye donation movement. Rotary District Governor Deepak Shikarapur, also shared his views with the audience. A ‘Question and Answer session’ was conducted by Rtn Pradeep Munot to bring about greater awareness of the importance of eye donation. Thereafter, the family members of eye donors were felicitated with Tulsi saplings. Some family members related emotional stories on how they took the decision about pledging the eyes of their loved ones. The audience received the stories with applause. Citations, having a colour photograph of the donor, were presented to the donor families by DG Deepak and Dr Milind Bhoi. The programme ended with a vote of thanks by Rtn Balkrishna Karva and recital of bhajan “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram….” led by Rtn Oni Kakajiwala. The programme received overwhelming response with more than 500 people attending it. The grand success of the programme was possible due to the team efforts of the entire club.