Category: Reduce, reuse, recycle

Donate glasses, medical equipment for others to use

Remember the cardboard boxes in which people would drop old eyeglasses but didn't exactly know why they were doing it? Well, those boxes were from the Lions Club of America as part of a program to end preventable blindness. Much to my surprise they still support this campaign to reuse and give old glasses new life!

In 1925, Helen Keller challenged the Lions to crusade against blindness. To this day the Lions Eye Health Program works with a variety of organizations worldwide to promote healthy vision and raise awareness of the causes of preventable vision loss.

Here is your chance to be green in a totally different way. You can locate recycling centers in your area that will accept or mail items to their headquarters. Sometimes they even accept hearing aids and electric razors! Many locations also take old hospital equipment, such as walkers, wheelchairs, beds, etc., and loan them to others who may not have insurance or can't afford them.

Another organization is One Sight, which works with local charitable partners to provide free vision care and new eyewear to hundreds of thousands in need each year. One Sight also has an Eyewear Recycling Program where you can punch in your address and it will give you drop-off locations such as Pearle Vision.

Won't you donate and give the gift of sight?