Lions Club, Sheriff’s office to redistribute prescription glasses

December 7, 2009

In Arlington, Virginia, the Sheriff's office recently teamed up with the county's local Lions Club Eyeglasses recycling Center to ready nearly 1,500 pairs of glasses for redistribution.

How do they process such high volumes of spectacles? Inmates at the Arlington County Detention Facility are enlisted to perform a three-step process on each pair of glasses, according to the Sun Gazette.
The glasses are washed by hand before the prescription of the lenses is determined, and then the glasses are labeled and sorted.

"It was a win-win proposition for everyone," Sheriff Beth Arthur told the news source. "The Lions Club gets their donated glasses processed, and it provides a job opportunity for incarcerated inmates and allows them an opportunity to give something back to the community."

The Lions Club has Eyeglasses Recycling Centers located all around the country, and they accept prescription and reading glasses as well as sunglasses in both plastic and metal frames. Their website states that children's glasses in particular are needed. If you have an unused pair of prescription glasses, the Lions Club will see that they get to someone in need.