Junee Lions launch glasses drive to help restore sight worldwide

The Junee Lions Club is asking locals to donate old prescription glasses as part of a long-running Lions initiative that refurbishes and redistributes spectacles to people who can’t access eye care or affordable glasses.

The collection drive links into Lions Recycle for Sight Australia, the local arm of Lions’ international eyeglass recycling effort.

Donated glasses are collected and forwarded to processing centres, where they are sorted, graded, cleaned and prepared for distribution through humanitarian programs.

The model aims to keep usable glasses out of landfill while directing them to communities where access to optometry services and eyewear is limited.

Lions says the program has been operating for more than 25 years and has delivered millions of pairs of refurbished spectacles to people of all ages across many countries.

In Australia, Lions reports close to 19 million pairs of spectacles have been received and processed through its “Recycle for Sight” pipeline for eye health and “Save Sight” initiatives.

For Junee Lions, the local collection drive is a practical way for residents to contribute to an established aid program with a clear, tangible outcome: helping someone see.

What Junee Lions are looking for

The club is seeking prescription glasses in good condition.

Lions advises that broken or heavily scratched glasses generally can’t be reused, as the program focuses on refurbishing suitable pairs for safe distribution.

“If you have updated your script and have older pairs, please consider donating them to us so we can forward to our national recycling centre,” the club said.

Locals can donate their prescription glasses at any of the following collection points:

• Ambience on Lord
• Junee Medical Centre
• Junee Shire Council
• Junee Capital Chemist

Junee Lions will then forward suitable donations through the Lions recycling network to be processed and redistributed.