The Franklin Lions Club member recalled the feeling she had when, as a young girl, she saw things clearly for the first time.
Growing up, Macie Martin struggled with her eyesight. She remembers peering from the third floor of her school when she got her new glasses and marveling that she was finally able to see the traffic outside and the blackboard inside her classroom, she recalled.
"That’s a personal reason glasses are important to me," Martin said. "Jobs, many of them, depend on you seeing things well."
Now, she is spearheading an annual effort to get eyeglasses to poor and middle-class people in Mexico.
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The Franklin Lions Club is asking you to clean out your junk drawers and attics and donate any eyeglasses, sunglasses or hearing aids that you no longer need. The donated items will be sent to a village in Mexico and given, for free, to residents there.
For more than 30 years, the Franklin Lions Club has erected Christmas trees at the Johnson County courthouse and courthouse annex in Franklin for its Lions Recycle for Sight Program. Residents are encouraged to place eyeglasses and hearing aids they no longer wear on the tree. Donation boxes are also set up at various sites around Franklin and Whiteland.
Lions Club members have donation boxes year round, but erecting and decorating Christmas trees during the holidays is a way to bring awareness to its mission and give the community a decorated tree that everyone can enjoy, said Martin, who organized the effort.
The number of eyeglasses they have collected in recent years has dwindled, and organizers hope they can get as many as possible to help with the effort, although a specific goal has not been set, said Paul Cote, a Lions Club member.
"As many as we can get our hands on" he said. "There is no specific target. The more, the better."
Organizers are using social media to drive donations, and hope that good weather throughout the season will drive more people to the club’s donation boxes, Martin said.Â
A focus on eyesight has been a main tenet of the global philanthropic club for more than 100 years, according to the International Lions Club. Lions Club members around the world have made eyesight a priority since the early 1900s, when Helen Keller challenged the philanthropic club to take up helping others see as a main charity, Martin said.
Indiana prison inmates will clean and sort the glasses by prescription. Lions Club members from the region will travel in February to Mexico where some of the country’s poorest residents will get free eye exams and glasses that match their prescription.
"They are given those glasses that day," Martin said.
Some of the people who need eyeglasses in Mexico cannot work without an aide to help them see, and in a mountainous region north of Mexico City, a pair of eyeglasses can cost as much as a months worth of wages, with an eye exam requiring a larger chunk, she said.
The Franklin Lion’s Club is celebrating 75 years next year and has just under 30 members.
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The Franklin Lions Club has set up two trees where people can donate prescription, nonprescription and reading eyeglasses and sunglasses. Donations will be accepted until the first week of January.
- Johnson County Courthouse, 5 E. Jefferson St., Franklin
- Courthouse annex, 86 W. Court St., Franklin
- Franklin Parks and Recreation, 396 Branigin Blvd.
- Johnson Memorial Hospital, 1125 W. Jefferson St., Franklin.
- Clark-Pleasant library, 530 Tracy Road, Whiteland
- Franklin Active Adult Center, 160 E. Adams St.
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