ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601110131
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY JO SHANNON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: NOTE: Also ran in January 16, 1996 Current.
SEVERAL Roanoke Valley Lions Club members earned the organization's top award - Melvin Jones Fellow - during 1995, but John T. Rice went to extreme lengths to fulfill a requirement of the award.
The award honors Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International, and includes a requirement that recipients demonstrate their commitment to serve the world community.
Last April, Rice, a member of the Troutville Lions Club for six years, traveled more than 3,000 miles to ``serve the world.'' He helped distribute 25,000 pairs of recycled eyeglasses in Lotta and Coronel, two remote and impoverished towns in Chile. He represented his own club and the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Inc. center in Roanoke.
Rice, who retired from an airline but now works part time with a travel agency, combined the trip with a vacation to Santiago and used airline bonuses to accompany a 25-member mission team that carried 20,000 pairs of glasses recycled by the Lions Clubs and another 5,000 pairs from Lenscrafters, an optical retailer. Thirteen thousand patients received the glasses.
Rice, who has logged 2,200 volunteer hours at the center since it opened, sorts, washes, refracts and labels eyeglasses that would otherwise be discarded.
"When I heard about the trip [to Chile], I volunteered to go along," he said. "It was great to see the operation from the other end.''
During their four-day stay, the team lived in a primitive hotel.
Team members worked 12-hour days, using a refractory machine to examine and fit patients. Rice said volunteers only need minimal training for the equipment. "You simply focus on the pupil and click three times."
One of the seven optometrists on the team checked the patients, then volunteers matched the prescriptions as close as possible. Through trial and error, the volunteers selected the eyeglasses that worked best, Rice said.
"Many who traveled seven hours by bus ... then stood in line six hours to be examined were legally blind," Rice said.
"The glasses they received opened a new world for them," he said, adding that the average daily income in Chile is $4, and an eye exam costs $80.
"Without help from many volunteers, [the Chileans] would have continued to live in darkness."
An unpretentious building at Elm Avenue and Fifth Street houses the Lions eyeglass recycling center.
Used eyeglasses collected by Lions Clubs throughout a 10-state area are shipped to the Roanoke center, one of five in the United States. Others are in Indiana, California, Wisconsin and Texas.
Volunteers, mostly Lions and Lioness club members, recycle the glasses in the basement. The only paid employee is Merle Hash, the secretary.
Carl Whitaker, who volunteers 40 hours a week as manager, diligently keeps a record of how many pairs of glasses pass through. Since opening in June 1993, the center has processed more than 143,350 pairs of used eyeglasses.
The process includes weighing and sorting the glasses by frame type. Eyeglasses with metal frames are sold by weight to a gold recycler in Mexico, and the proceeds support the recycling program. Metal sales generated $22,000 in 1994 and $11,000 in 1995.
"Gold-plated frames bring $1.50 per pound," Whitaker said. "Those marked 10 karat sell for $22, and `granny glasses' bring $40.''
If the center had the equipment and more volunteers to remove lenses from the frames, it would receive a higher rate per pound for the frames, Whitaker said.
After the plastic frames are weighed and sorted, they are carefully washed by hand with hot water and dish detergent. They are then dipped in a hot bleach solution, followed by a rinse in a white vinegar solution.
After draining on towels, they are dried by hand and packaged in special plastic pouches that are labeled according to type: women's, men's or children's; single or bifocal lenses.
At this stage, they are ready for refraction on one of the center's three automatic lensometers. This vital, but expensive, equipment - $7,000 new or $4,000 used - reads each lens and lets volunteers with minimal training record and label the prescription.
The center's first lensometer was a gift from Lions International.
"We bought another one," Whitaker said, "and the Woodbridge Lions Club contributed $2,500 toward a used machine, our third."
Each additional lensometer increases the number of eyeglasses volunteers can process. Once read and labeled, the eyeglasses are again sorted, this time according to strength of prescription.
They then are arranged in numerical order by the first three digits of the right lens. Packed 50 pairs to a shipping box, eight boxes to a crate, they are ready for shipment when requests arrive.
Rice's mission group included 23 Lenscrafters employees, whose motto is to "Give the gift of sight to those who have the least and need us the most."
Lenscrafters started its mission effort in 1993 when the Cincinnati-based company celebrated its 10th anniversary, said company spokeswoman Leanne Wiseman.
Asked by their president to focus on a goal for the company, 1,200 Lenscrafters employees agreed that helping those in need of eye care was a priority.
"The president challenged them to serve 1 million needy persons by the year 2003, when Lenscrafters will celebrate its 20th year in business," Wiseman said.
To date, she estimates the company has reached approximately 200,000 - about 100,000 a year. This is accomplished by sending teams of doctors and opticians to third-world countries and by donating eyeglasses.
Once each year, on Hometown Day, all Lenscrafters stores open early and provide examinations and eyeglasses for those who cannot afford the services. A Vision Van also serves areas that do not have a Lenscrafters store. The most recent Hometown Day was Dec. 7, when 16,350 persons were helped.
Lenscrafters also sent a refractory machine with the team that Rice accompanied to Chile.
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. John Rice of the Troutville Lions Clubby CNBdisplays some of the donated eyeglasses that will be recycled and
distributed to those in need. Rice recently was named a Melvin Jones
Fellow, the highest award presented by the club.