NATIONAL VISION DONATES OVER 500 PAIRS OF NEW GLASSES
The glasses will be sent to third-world countries
The Sterling Lions Club recently received over 500 pairs of new glasses, frames, and cases from National Vision when that company left Walmart Vision, which currently operates the store vision center. Making the presentation were vision store manager Rebecca Brush and Holly Foxhoven, assistant store manager.
Brush said, “We are so happy to be able to give the gift of sight to others.”
The glasses will be sent to third-world countries where there is a dire need for used glasses.
Lions Clubs International began its dedication to helping the visually impaired nearly 100 years ago. In 1925, as an ambassador for the newly formed American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller addressed the Lions Clubs International Convention in Cedar Point, Ohio. “Try to imagine how you would feel if you were suddenly stricken blind today,” Keller asked Lions members. “Picture yourself stumbling and groping at noonday as in the night; your work, your independence gone.”
Keller knew exactly what this was like. Blind and deaf since the age of 19 months, she had once lived in virtual isolation, unable to effectively communicate. Then, a teacher from the Perkins School for the Blind named Anne Sullivan came to live and work with Keller and taught her to connect with the world through sign language. Keller eventually learned to read and write, earned a bachelor’s degree and learned how to speak.
According to Lions Club International, most Lions at the time were familiar with her well-publicized story. Some Lions in the audience had already been involved with service projects to the blind. But witnessing Keller share her heart and soul for the plight of the blind brought the reality of being visually impaired crashing home for everyone present. The Lions and their guests were captivated. Keller saved her most stirring words for the end of her speech, hoping that the Lions would partner with the American Foundation for the Blind and lend their support as an organization to those who had lost their sight.
“Will you not help me hasten the day when there shall be no preventable blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided? I appeal to you, Lions, you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves knights of the blind in this crusade against darkness?”
She had no idea just how far the association would take her challenge. Before the convention was over, the association unreservedly dedicated itself to making Keller’s dream a reality. Lions would become Keller’s
Knights of the Blind.
Since 1925, hundreds of millions of lives have been changed through the vision-related work of Lions around the world, and today the association is as dedicated as ever to hastening the day when no one should suffer unnecessarily from vision problems. Through eye centers and hospitals, medicines and surgeries, eyeglasses and eye banks, Lions are working to end preventable blindness and aid the visually impaired.
Keller’s challenge and her dream live on.
Until recently, all used glasses collected by Lions in Colorado and Wyoming were sent to the Sterling club which had partnered with the Sterling Correctional Facility in 2004 to make these glasses available in the Third World. During the 20 years of that project, the club sent over one million pair of glasses to the needy abroad. Although the glasses are now processed by the Lions in Denver, the club will continue to collect used glasses to send to Denver.
In 2004, a US postal box was painted in Lions’ colors and placed at 116 West Main St near the State Farm Insurance Agency. Over the years it has been filled many times with donated glasses. If you have glasses you can no longer use, please drop them into that yellow and blue box or look for donation boxes at the hospital and at optometrists’ offices. In doing so, you will also become “a knight of the blind or visually impaired”.
Several years ago, the Sterling Lions added giving reconditioned hearing aids to local people who need them to their long list of community projects. Since the inception as a Sterling Lions Project, reconditioned hearing aids have been given to area residents with a small fee being required. Used hearing aids can also be put in the Used Glasses and Hearing Aids boxes. If you are interested in obtaining reconditioned hearing aids, please call Lion Diane Brungardt at 970-522-8389.
If you are seeking an opportunity to help people worldwide and make new friends locally, please consider membership in the Sterling Lions Club. Those interested can call Lion Bob Blach, membership chairman, at 970-580-9771.