Helping people around the world to see better
Lions Club, New Britain team up to recycle glasses
You might miss the boxes around town, at the post office, in front of city halls.
One also can be seen at the New Britain-berlin YMCA, adorned with a Lions Club logo.
The boxes are part of Lions Clubs International’s nationwide Eyeglass Recycling Program that collects eyeglasses and sunglasses for both adults and children and distributes them to less developed countries through optical missions and local Lions Clubs.
Lions Clubs International has been working to combat vision impairment and blindness since 1925, according to the organization. To do that, local clubs place collection boxes at locations in their communities, in which people can place old, or unused eyeglasses and sunglasses.
“This is a program that continues to grow because the need continues to grow,” said Doug Bray, a 39-year New Britain Lions Club member and club secretary.
The Lions Club has clubs in 204 countries and sends glasses to those countries considered to be developing.
They work with nations in the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Central America.
“It feels good to be part of this. A lot of the charitable work we do helps other people,” Bray said. “The Lions club motto is ‘We serve.’ What makes the Lions Club unique is each club does what is most important in their community.”
Lions Clubs International was established as a service-centered organization in 1917 by Melvin Jones, a Chicago businessman, with a goal of helping communities through humanitarian services and encouraging peace and international understanding through Lions Clubs.
Most of the boxes have been handmade by a member and clearly identified with the recognizable Lions Club logo of two lion heads and marked with, “deposit used eyeglasses here.” One exception is the box at the New Britain City Hall. It’s a refurbished post office collection box. Each box holds up to 400 pairs of glasses.
Each year, the New Britain Lions Club collects about 100,000 pairs and from that, over 60,000 have to be thrown out because they’re broken or unusable, according to the club. Usually, about 40,000 are deemed usable. New Britain is also the collection site for Hartford and Litchfield counties.
There’s a massive sorting process before the glasses reach their final destination overseas.
The Lions Club has partnered with Siracusa Moving & Storage of New Britain, a professional moving company, that provides a collection space.
“A member of our club had approached Dan Siracusa, the president, and in his community spiritedness offered this very large space where all the glasses are stored. We’re thankful to them. They have such generosity and the community spirit at heart,” said Bray.
In March, the glasses are transported by truck to a Siracusa facility where volunteers come together to sort the thousands upon thousands of glasses.
“For three weekends, the Lions’ spouses, local teachers and students from New Britain schools, members of the Boys and Girls Club, and community members cull through the eyeglasses and discard the broken ones. For the people who do the glass packing and screening, there’s a lot of reward for a little effort,” he said.
Broken glasses are recycled.
From there, the glasses are sealed in a box and sent to their next location for further evaluation and processing at a state prison in Avalon, New Jersey that serves Lions Clubs across the northeast. The inmates are specially trained to use equipment to inspect, clean, and identify the prescription strengths of each eyeglass.
The eyeglass recycling program began in 1925 as a result of a request from Helen Keller, an advocate for people with disabilities, who spoke at a Lions Club International Convention and asked them to foster the work of the American Foundation for the Blind and challenged them to become “Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness.” Keller lived for a time in Connecticut, according to the Connecticut Historical Society. The Lions accepted her challenge and have worked to help people with visual impairments and create sight programs aimed at preventable blindness.
For anyone who has old eyeglasses or sunglasses they are ready to throw out, the Lions suggest looking for the boxes and tossing them in. “When glasses are no longer good for you, they can help others,” said Bray.
“When word spreads in the villages that the Lions are coming to town, villagers line up and it’s a wonderful thing.”