Lions Club eyeglasses project a vision for South America
By Romi Herron For The Courier-News January 3, 2012 11:32AM
South Elgin Lions Club members Paul Groth, left, and Allan Shelton, right, pose with glasses collected in South Elgin, Ill., on Saturday, December 31, 2011. | Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
How to help
What: Sorting eyeglasses
Where: South Elgin Lions Club, 500 Fulton St., South Elgin
When: 10 a.m. Sunday
Call: 847-888-9575
Article Extras
Updated: February 5, 2012 8:06AM
SOUTH ELGIN — With a new pair of eyeglasses costing up to several hundred dollars, corrective eyewear is a significant investment, even before the doctor’s bill is considered. But to those without access to healthcare — or incomes — the cost of eyeglasses is even more insurmountable.
“People walk up to 100 miles when they hear the Lions Club is coming in (with eyeglass donations),” said Paul Groth, past president of the South Elgin Lion’s Club and a volunteer in his fourth year with the eyeglasses collection project. Through the effort, the nonprofit organization matches up old, discarded eyeglasses with people who need them.
Groth said the eyeglasses will be taken to South America, but before that, he needs help sorting the thousands of pairs collected from across the state.
Groth anticipates the South Elgin High School National Honor Society and Boy and Girl Scouts might volunteer, but he’s also recruiting more helpers. A sorting event is planned for 10 a.m. Sunday Jan. 8 at the South Elgin Lion’s Club branch, 500 Fulton Street in South Elgin.
“Volunteers can be as young as 7 years old because all they have to do is sort the wire-rimmed from the plastic,” said Groth, who added he is pleased with the amount of donations collected in the Fox Valley area.
“I went to Sycamore (Lions Club) and they had so many eyeglasses that they were actually getting complaints from the fire marshall, because the boxes of eyeglasses were obstructing the hallways,” said Groth, who said 100,000 pair were collected through the Sycamore site that garners donations from all over Illinois. About half of those will be sorted in South Elgin.
After that, the eyewear will head to a correctional facility in Indiana, where inmates will disinfect each pair. When it’s time for the glasses to be given to recipients, optometrists from the United States will go to South America and volunteer to give free eye exams, Groth said.
The condition of eyeglasses sometimes prompts people to think their glasses are not suitable for donation. But Groth says all donations are welcome.
“We can work with anything,” he said. “If something is completely unrepairable, we determine that, but we can fix a lot of things.”
Jessica Schuman of Gilberts was shopping at Jewel-Osco in Wood Dale, where one of the Lions Club eyeglass collection boxes is located. The receptacle had been compromised and some donated eyeglasses were on the floor, with others still inside the box, she said. Her concern prompted her to contact the Lions Club so they could gather the donations and repair the box.
“I donated four pairs, and it felt good,” Schuman said. “What can feel better than donating the gift of sight?”
Groth can be reached at 847-888-9575 to coordinate volunteer shifts.
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