An old pair of your eyeglasses could help a child in rural Mexico get a better education.
As part of an annual tradition, the Franklin Lions Club has put up their two Christmas trees where residents can drop off used, unneeded eyeglasses and hearing aids.
Donated items will then be sent to Mexico to help residents who may have never had an eye exam or received glasses before, said Macie Martin, program coordinator.
Lions Club members have found that most households in the area have at least one pair of eyeglasses that aren’t being used, Martin said.
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“That pair could change someone’s life,” she said.
For people living in rural parts of Mexico, a pair of glasses could help change their lives, Martin said. Often students who need glasses but don’t have them will fall behind on their education, she said.
“Personally, when I didn’t have glasses, I ended up in the front row and still couldn’t read the chalkboard,” she said.
The Franklin Lions Club also has about 25 eyeglass donation sites across Franklin, in addition to the two Christmas trees. Lions clubs in Greenwood and Edinburgh have dozens more sites too, Martin said.
Any eyeglasses donated here will be added to about 72,000 pairs of eyeglasses expected to be collected across the state.
Donated goods go to Indiana prisons, where inmates will clean and sort the eyeglass by prescription. Lions Club members will then travel to Mexico, where some of the country’s poorest residents will get eye exams and free glasses that match their prescription. Some residents don’t have access to an optometrist, Martin said.
On a trip a few years ago, Lions Club members remember giving a pair of donated eyeglasses to an 80-year-old man who needed them. The grateful man refused to take them off, Martin said.
“It was the first time he had seen in years. He refused to take them off to go downstairs,” she said. “He insisted he was going to wear those glasses; he wasn’t going to part with them.”
Martin and other local organizers hope to collect about 300 pairs of eye wear, up from the 220 that were donated last year, she said.
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The Franklin Lions Club has set up two trees where people can donate prescription, nonprescription and reading eyeglasses and sunglasses. Donations will be accepted until the first week of January.
- Johnson County Courthouse, 5 E. Jefferson St., Franklin
- Courthouse annex, 86 W. Court St., Franklin
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