Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation Donates Reading Glasses to MHA

SPRINGFIELD — During a recent presentation, more than 400 pairs of reading glasses were donated to MHA by the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation. Marcia Esson, chairperson for Hunger for Lions of Georgia, District 18-I, and a member of the Snellville Lions Club, traveled from Georgia on Feb. 13 to officially donate the glasses.

The glasses will benefit MHA’s Good To Go initiative, which enables MHA to supply individuals it serves with basic personal items. The glasses will also benefit members of the community not necessarily affiliated with MHA during a free eyeglass-distribution event scheduled for May 9 during Healthy Vision Month. In recognition of the contribution made by the Georgia Lions, MHA presented the foundation with a You Matter! award.

“Here in Georgia, the Lions run the Recycle Center, which renovates and tests glasses that are supplied to people going on missions with the Lions,” said Esson. “It is a very big operation, and I am one of the volunteers. Every year, we go through 100,000 pairs of glasses, which are a mixture of new stock, leftover stock from optical offices closing down, gently used stock, and stock being rotated as consumers change their minds about the styles they like. What’s popular in eyewear changes year to year, just like it does with clothing, and stores will send us stock that’s being replaced.”

Marva Douglas, program supervisor for MHA, explained that, when MHA launched Good to Go, she reached out to Esson, whom she knew as the past president of her local Lions Club chapter. “I knew she had retired and moved to the Atlanta area, where she got involved in the Georgia Lions Lighthouse Foundation. Marcia called me back and said ‘yes.’

The 400 pairs of glasses — 200 in styles for men and 200 for women — come in 10 levels of magnification, she added. “These are nicer-quality reading glasses than what you’d typically find in a dollar store. It feels great knowing these glasses will help people in our community who are homeless, in crisis, or facing other challenges.”