Photo by Jean Falbo-Sosnovich
Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis, surrounded by members of the Seymour Lions, cuts a ribbon at a new drop box outside town hall.
SEYMOUR — Before you toss out those old eyeglasses, sunglasses, readers or hearing aids, the Seymour Lions Club would like you to donate them instead to help people around the globe with vision and hearing problems.
Thanks to a brand new collection box prominently located right in front of Seymour Town Hall at 1 First St., dropping off those items is a breeze.
According to Club Treasurer Melissa Smith, the Seymour Lions have been collecting eyeglasses for more than 35 years. There has been small collection boxes scattered around several Valley locations, including at the Seymour Library, Seybridge Pharmacy and the senior center. But the new collection box, brightly painted in yellow, is hard to miss.
Smith, along with several club members and Leos’ members (the club’s branch for younger members ages 13 – 18), were joined outside Seymour Town Hall Thursday (Nov. 4) by First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis to cut the ribbon on the brand new collection box.
Club President Jovanni Ortiz thanked Drugonis for affording the Lions a perfect location for collections.
“We’re so happy the town and Annmarie worked with us and gave us a centralized location for people to donate their glasses and hearing aids, so we can do as much good as we can to help,” Ortiz said.
Helping people improve their vision is one of the Lions’ five global causes, Smith said, and anything the Seymour members can do to help, they will.
“Refractive errors can be easily corrected with eyeglasses, yet millions living in low and middle income countries lack access to basic eye care services,” Smith said. “Lions have recognized the urgent need for corrective lenses and collect usable glasses in their communities to support the Lions’ ‘Recycle for Sight’ program. We love that we can keep these eyeglasses out of our landfills and help people see.”
Smith said glasses and hearing aids in any condition can be donated. Once collected, the items are shipped off to a recycling center in New Jersey, where they are refurbished and made like new again. The items are then ready for distribution to those in need in underprivileged countries, and also given to organizations like Doctors without Borders to hand out to people.
Smith estimated that Seymour Lions have personally collected more than 15,000 pairs of glasses over the years. On a worldwide level, Smith estimated that Lions Clubs across the globe collect more than 20 million pairs of glasses each year.
Seymour resident Irene Najda stopped by the collection box Thursday afternoon with a bag full of old glasses that’d been piling up in her home over the years. She read about the new drop-off site in a local newspaper, and was happy to make a donation.
“It’s a wonderful cause,” Najda said.
The Seymour Lions, charted in 1952, is involved in many community betterment projects, aside from the glasses and hearing aid collections, including giving out Christmas gifts to patients at local convalescent homes, calling children on Halloween night and if the child is home, awarding them a silver dollar, awarding annual scholarships and donating clothing and other essentials to military personnel.
The club meets the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Seymour Land Trust building, located at 13 Chatfield St. New members are always welcome. For more information, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit them on Facebook.
Lions Clubs International is the largest service club organization in the world. Its 1.4 million members in more than 47,000 clubs are serving communities in over 200 countries and geographical areas around the globe. Since 1917, Lions clubs have aided the blind and visually impaired, championed youth initiatives and strengthened local communities through hands-on service and humanitarian projects. For more information about Lions Clubs International, visit www.lionsclubs.org.
