The Flyin’ Lion

Most people fear falling. Lori Bennett paid for the privilege.

Sitting in a small propeller plane at 14,000 feet, she watched — with the last sliver of her vision — as her friend vanished out the door. “Scariest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said. But there was no time for fear. Moments later, with her tandem instructor clipped in behind her, she shuffled to the edge. One leap, one scream, one minute of freefall at 125 miles per hour.

“They say if you’ve never done it, you can’t explain it — and if you have, you can’t stop doing it,” she laughed. “Best fun-fair ride ever.”

Seeing differently

Skydiving is an extraordinary rush for anyone. It’s even more so for someone who can barely see the ground she’s racing toward. Lori, a member of the Paris Lions Club in Illinois and a past district governor (2017–2018), is legally blind. She lives with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic condition that slowly erases sight from the outside in.

“It’s like a doughnut of blindness,” she explained. “It starts by taking your peripheral vision, creating tunnel vision, and eventually, you have no vision at all.”

Lori first noticed something was wrong at age five, when she couldn’t see in the dark. By her forties, she had to give up her driver’s license. She passed the vision test “by one point” but decided it wasn’t worth the risk. That choice came with a cost. “When you lose your driver’s license in east central Illinois, you lose your independence.”

An eye doctor once predicted her vision would be completely gone by the time she reached 50. But today, at 62, her vision is a grayscale shimmer. “What I see looks like glitter,” she said. “The edges sparkle because more photoreceptors are dying all the time. I can see just enough to think I know what I’m doing — but not enough to prove it.”

Still, Lori finds beauty in what remains. During a recent solar eclipse, she borrowed her husband’s protective glasses but couldn’t see anything. So, she took them off. “And there it was — the white ring around the black moon. I saw it with my own eyes. And I thought, if staring at the sun is going to burn what’s left, who cares? What am I really giving up?”

That moment sealed her philosophy: use what you have, while you have it.

A Lion’s confidence

Lori’s courage didn’t start in the sky. It started at a Lions district convention. She wasn’t yet a member, just there to support her father, the 2005-2006 district governor. But what she found changed her life.

“I met the nicest, most generous, most dedicated people in the world.” She joined the Paris Lions Club soon after.

Since then, her club has been her second family — and her lifeline. “It was a Lion who took me to get my first smartphone and taught me how to use its accessibility settings. A Lion who talked me into signing up for paratransit so I could go where I want, when I want. And a Lion who convinced me to get my white cane training.”

The people around Lori never saw limits; they saw potential. “Being a Lion gave me 100% of my confidence back,” she said. “When I’m with Lions, I realize I am never alone.”

Lori’s renewed confidence hasn’t just sent her skydiving — it’s inspired her to take on every challenge her club brings her way. She’s committed to saying yes, doing her best and asking for help when needed. Now serving as her district’s Global Leadership Team coordinator, she’s embracing the challenge with enthusiasm.

Her husband, Steve, is her biggest supporter — and her Lions club sponsor. “I’ll bet he had no idea that invitation would take us so far. In truth, I haven’t made it easy for him, and his dedication to each step of this journey has become one of the greatest acts of kindness I have ever known.

The courage to step forward

Ask Lori Bennett what fear feels like, and she’ll tell you it’s universal. “If you can’t see, there’s fear about putting one foot in front of the other. But fear’s not special — it’s just part of being alive. What’s special is what you do next.”

“People call me brave because I keep stepping even when I can’t see where my foot will land,” she said. “That’s not a metaphor for me — that’s my life.”

When asked what’s next, Lori said she’s not trying to check off a bucket list. “I’ve already been more places and done more things than I ever thought I would because of Lions.”

Lori may not see the world the way she once did, but she’s experiencing it more fully than ever before. She’s teaching everyone around her to recognize something even more powerful: when vision fades, everything else still works.

And sometimes, that’s all the reason you need to jump.