
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 20, 1993                   TAG: 9305200492
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-10   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: By CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LIONS TO RECYCLE EYEGLASSES FOR USE AROUND THE WORLD

The establishment of a new eyeglass recycling center in Roanoke means greater responsibilities for Virginia Lions Club members who aim to bring sight to people around the world.

Members from across District 24 C, E and F - which includes Virginia localities except Tidewater and Northern Virginia - will learn how to run a high-tech machine called a lensometer that provides computerized readings of eyeglass prescriptions.

Tuesday, Lions Club members demonstrated the machine for the public and showed how thousands of eyeglasses will be washed and polished and their prescriptions read and recorded in preparation for shipment overseas.

"We are one of three locations in the country getting started with recycling of used eyeglasses," said Carl Whitaker, a past District 24 E Lions governor and unpaid director of the new Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center Inc. at 501 Elm Ave. S.W. The center will share the building that currently houses the Lions Sight Foundation.

The other two new eyeglass recycling locations are in Texas and Wisconsin. Lions Clubs International, which oversees the volunteer projects, already recycles glasses in California and Indiana, he said.

By the time the project gets into full swing, the Roanoke recycling center will receive eyeglasses from 10 East Coast states. Whitaker said he hopes the Roanoke center will recycle 5,000 pairs of glasses in the next six months.

Under federal law, the Lions cannot distribute used glasses in the United States. So while the clubs help indigent Americans with new prescriptions, they turn to foreign shores to distribute the used prescriptions to those in need.

"There are more than 5 million people that can't see because they don't have a pair of eyeglasses," said Whitaker.

Already, the center has a stockpile of 30,000 to 40,000 pairs of used glasses that have been collected by clubs and shipped here.

This weekend, Whitaker said the lensometer will be taken to Virginia Beach for demonstrations at the Lions Club state convention.

Eventually, Whitaker said, the Lions hope to have three or four lensometers to speed up the processing. One lensometer can process about 125 pairs of glasses in an hour.

Anyone wishing to drop off or mail used eyeglasses should send them to Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center Inc., 501 Elm Ave. S.W., Roanoke 24016.

by CNB