Heritage Lions Club member Rick Boys, along with Rolando Yuja (pictured) of the Honduras Lions and Jim Brockmann, loaded some 7,000 eyeglasses on Saturday and delivered them to John Geller of the Arcola Lions Club. Gellar stores the eyeglasses in his barn until the Arcola Lions hold their semi-annual eyeglass sorting party in the spring. After the Arcola sort, the eyeglasses are sent to be cleaned by the Goshen Lions. They are then sorted by prescription strength, male/female, children’s and sunglasses, and placed in envelopes for easier distribution. They will be shipped to missions in Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and other countries that lack the resources to manufacture these necessary items.
All three men, along with Dr. Eric Purdy of the Bluffton Lions, recently loaded over 30,000 eyeglasses, as well as some 1,700 used shoes gathered by Changing Footprints in New Haven, into a 40 ft by 8 ft. shipping container. Also loaded were many microscopes and specialized machines for dental and eye surgeries which had been donated by doctors and dentists. Hospitals also provided several items. The container was trucked to Chicago, and will eventually move to New York and loaded onto a container ship bound for Honduras, arriving there on February 14th. Both Yuja and Brockmann are going to Honduras to assist in the distribution of shoes and glasses, and Dr, Purdy will be there to perform several eye surgeries.
Lions Clubs all over the world collect, sort, clean and prepare millions of glasses annually for distribution to those without access to eyeglasses. Changing Footprints, based in Indiana, has collected over 500,000 pairs of used shoes in the past 17 years. 80% or more of those are distributed to local social service agencies, local schools, and the homeless, all at no charge.
Please support these collection efforts. Lions Clubs eyeglasses donation boxes are located in nearly every library, optometrist’s office and locations throughout our area. Changing Footprints’ bins are in most local libraries, many YMCA and other athletic facilities, and all Indiana Therapy locations. Changingfootprints.org has a list of “shoe drops”.
