Tom and I have taken on recycling eyeglasses as our mission at church.  Our church has had a box to collect eyeglasses for as long as we have been attending.  One day I noticed that the box was overflowing, so I asked who collected them.  No one at church could tell me, including the members of the Missions committee.  Tom and I asked Pastor Jessica if it would be okay for us to take it on and she gave us the nod.

Recycling the eyeglasses is something that we can do when we are in town.  It usually takes three months for the box at church to fill up, which is about how long we are gone at any one time.  We collect the eyeglasses from the box and take them to our optometrist, Optimal Eye Care.

When we got back to Ohio this month, I noticed that the box was full again.  The church secretary also had another box of eyeglasses in her office waiting for us.  We emptied the box in November and this was another good donation.  We dropped off about 100 pairs of eyeglasses between the two collections.

A member of the Lions picks up the eyeglasses from our optometrist and drops them off or sends them to a Lions recycling eyeglasses center.  There they are sorted into usable and unusable piles.  The usable eyeglasses are labeled with their prescription strength.  The unusable glasses are sent to recycling centers for glass, plastic, and metals.

The usable glasses travel all over the world to developing countries where millions of people do not have access to eyeglasses.  Vision clinics provide eyeglasses, remove cataracts, and do eye surgeries that restore vision to thousands each year.  Vision assistance is also available in the United States through the Lions.  Lions International began their mission to help the visually impaired in 1925 when they partnered with Helen Keller.  This is the 100th anniversary of their vision program.

The Lions recently added hearing aid recycling, and the hearing aids can be dropped off wherever eyeglasses are collected.  Walmart partners with Lions International for eyeglass recycling, and you can drop off eyeglasses or hearing aids at any Walmart Vision Center.

Recycling eyeglasses through the Lions International is a good mission for us.  We can do it when we are in town and still be a regular help to our church and to people in need.