Lions Club will accept old glasses for Christmas

VICTOR — Victor Lions hope to collect 100 or more pairs of eyeglasses to give to people in need the gift of sight this Christmas.

Starting Nov. 1, there will be a Christmas tree in Victor Public Library decorated with eyeglasses. People can add old prescription glasses, prescription sunglasses, or reading glasses to the tree.

The glasses will be matched people who need those prescriptions.

With those glasses, a woman may get to see her child’s face again, or a man may be able to hold a job that requires being able to read clearly, the Victor Lions said in a press release.

Glasses can be taken to the Victor Public Library or to the year-round collection boxes in Big G in Marengo, Victor’s Market in Victor and Brooklyn Hardware in Brooklyn.

The earliest Lions Club members promised Helen Keller that they would be knights for the blind. Since then, Lions Clubs all over the world have kept the promise, doing what they can to help those with vision problems.

Victor Lions Club goes into area schools and tests children who are about to enter Kindergarten, taking pictures of their eyes using a very special camera. The image is sent to Iowa City where an eye specialist reads the pictures and lets families know if their children show a need for further testing.

Lions collect used glasses year-round and get them to a center where they are matched to the prescription someone needs.