Lions to collect used eyeglasses Saturday in Hilo, Hawi, Kona

Hawaii’s fifth-annual “Lions in Sight” Statewide Eyeglass &Hearing Aid Collection is set for Saturday. Big Island collections will be done in Kailua-Kona, Hawi and Hilo.

Hawaii’s fifth-annual “Lions in Sight” Statewide Eyeglass &Hearing Aid Collection is set for Saturday. Big Island collections will be done in Kailua-Kona, Hawi and Hilo.

Lions clubs worldwide will perform community service projects as part of the “Lions In Sight” initiative to raise public awareness of the role Lions clubs play in their communities.

As spring cleaning gets underway, the Hawaii Lions are asking people to look through dresser drawers and closets for used eyeglasses and hearing aids and donate them to the Lions Recycle For Sight program.

The glasses will be distributed to those in need within developing countries where eye care is often unaffordable and inaccessible. Most recently, 5,000 pairs of eyeglasses were distributed to villagers throughout the mountainous terrain of war-torn Afghanistan by Hawaii Lions Club members. In most developing countries, an eye exam can cost as much as one month’s wages, and a single eye doctor might serve a community of hundreds of thousands of people.

The glasses will be cleaned, categorized by prescription and prepared for distribution by Lions, Leos and other groups. According to the World Health Organization, the eyesight of approximately one-fourth of the world’s population can be improved through the use of a corrective lens.

In addition to the eyeglasses, hearing aids will be also collected, cleaned and tested for local distribution.

Lions are known for their commitment to being “Knights of the Blind in the Crusade against Darkness,” a challenging statement made by Helen Keller in 1925. Eyeglass collection is a year round program.