Recycle Your Old Eyeglasses at the Lamar Lions Pancake Breakfast!

PRESS RELEASE For immediate release: 5/4/2012

Lamar Lions Club

Contact Information: April Faull, President (719) 336-9795 (H)

(Lamar, CO) As spring cleaning season gets underway, the Lamar Lions Club is asking people to look through drawers and closets for old, unwanted eyeglasses and donate them to the Lions Recycle for Sight program at their Annual Pancake Breakfast on the morning of Lamar Days!

This year, the Lamar Lions will be serving pancakes and collecting glasses during the pancake breakfast on Saturday, May, 12 from 6-9 a.m. at the Lamar Masonic Lodge, entrance just south of the Lamar Theatre. Tickets for the pancake breakfast are available from any Lamar Lion or at the door.

The Lamar Lions collect used prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses as part of a unique recycling program throughout the United States and Canada. The Lamar Lions Club recently collected over 450 donated eyeglasses and sunglasses. The glasses will be distributed to those in need in developing countries where eye care is often unaffordable and inaccessible.

“We need everyone to donate their old glasses,” said April Faull, Lamar Lions Club president. “In most developing countries, an eye exam can cost as much as one month’s wages, and a single eye doctor may serve a community of hundreds of thousands of people.”

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

To donate used eyeglasses, place them in specially marked Lions Recycle for Sight collection box at the pancake breakfast or any of the following locations: Ark Valley Optometry, 310 E Olive, Lamar; Dr Gaila J. Austin, 206 S 4th St., Lamar; Colorado Eye Associates, 1500 S Main St., Lamar; Lamar Public Library, 102 E Parmenter, Lamar; High Plains Community Health Center, 201 Kendall Dr., Lamar; Lamar Senior Citizen Center, 407 E Olive, Lamar; Holly Senior and Community Center, 129 S Main St., Holly; and Granada Community Complex, 105 S Main St., Granada.

The Lamar Lions Pancake Breakfast held every Lamar Days is the clubs major fundraising activity and helps to assist the community with sight programs and community needs. In 2007, the Lamar Lions, Colorado Lions Clubs, and Lions Club International raised nearly $14,000 for the residents affected by the Holly Tornado. In 2011, the Lamar Lions in cooperation with Lions Clubs in Wiley, Springfield and Las Animas raised over $8,000 to purchase a special eye screening device for screening eye problems in children in Southeast Colorado.

If you would like more information on the Lamar Lions, go to their website at lamarlions.org or contact any club member during the pancake breakfast.

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