Westport Lions Roar
By Lion Bob Reddick
Lions Recycle for Sight
Visiting Lions to Westport, from left to right, Lion Jean Lauziere from Russell, and Lions Alan Simpson, Karen Simpson, Jen Tidman (new member), Marg Brooker (Pres.), Wilma Dixon, Donna Serson, Jeffrey Cardiff, Joanne Lyons and Al Stewart all from Seeley’s Bay Lions Club.
I would bet that in most homes in the Westport area, one could find a pair of eyeglasses that are no longer being used. That same pair of eyeglasses could change another person’s life.
World Health Organization estimates 253 million people live with vision impairment. Over 80 percent of all vision problems can be prevented or cured. This organization also estimates that 53% or 134.09 million people have moderate to severe vision impairment due to uncorrected refractive errors (far and near sightedness and astigmatism). This organization also estimates that one of the major causes of blindness is uncorrected refractive error, which affects 53.3 million people. Refractive errors can easily be diagnosed, measured and corrected with eyeglasses. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, there are millions of people that could have the gift of sight simply by people donating their used eyeglasses. Imagine if you could help a child to read, an adult be employable or reach their full potential, or a senior to be independent.
The Westport Lions Club has been, and is currently collecting eyeglasses of all types for the people of Guyana located on the east coast of South America. You can drop off your glasses at Westport’s drug store, liquor store, medical centre and Dr. Radford’s office. We will take reading, prescription glasses and sunglasses, and regular sunglasses. Cases are not required and are not shipped to Guyana because of cost. From Westport, glasses are transported to Kemptville Lions Club where they are cleaned, inspected and some minor repairs are made. The glasses are then neutralized to determine the prescription of the glasses by using a lensometer. Finally the glasses are catalogued numerically, filed accordingly and sent to Guyana. As Helen Keller said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Please help the Westport Lions Club to change a life, one pair at a time.
Westport Lions Club 