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The Demopolis Lions Club recently donated 372 pairs of prescription eyeglasses to the Alabama Lions Eyeglass Recycle Center, an organization that sorts used prescription glasses and donates them to vision mission trips in other countries.

“The glasses came from the community,” Service Chair Kathi Wilson said.

Community members drop of their old glasses in the collection boxes throughout Demopolis located at Green Family Eye Care, the lobby of Whitfield Regional Hospital, and various banks in the city.

The center, located in Moody, Alabama, is staffed by Lion volunteers in the area who clean, sort, read prescriptions and package the glasses for the mission trips.

“Glasses are collected by the Lions Clubs all over Alabama. Your unwanted glasses can help bring the gift of sight to someone who has no other way of getting glasses,” Wilson said

The Demopolis Lions Club is a service organization which, among many other missions, has answered the call of Helen Keller to become “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness” that she presented the Lions Club International Convention in 1925. The organization has since been strong supporters of multiple vision-related missions. The Demopolis Lions Club meets every second and fourth Tuesday at First Christian Church in Demopolis, 6 p.m. Demopolis Lions may be contacted via email at demopolislions@gmail.com.

(This article originally appeared in the Wednesday, December 4 issue of the Demopolis Times.)