CAESAREA by Eleanor Colwell

Due to Covid 19 many of our Lions activities have been cancelled, including our District Convention in Peterborough, our Multiple District Convention in Muskoka, and our International Convention in Singapore. We are not meeting in our conventional manner, although we are in touch with each other. One activity that is ongoing is our collection of used eyeglasses. The Canadian Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centre (CLERC) in Calgary receives the glasses that our Lions collect where they are cleaned and categorized, ready for shipment to a 3rd world country along with eye care professionals and volunteers. According to the World Health Organization, 153 million people have uncorrected refractive errors (near sightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism). Most of these vision impairments are quickly diagnosed and easy to treat with corrective lenses. In 1925 Helen Keller challenged our Lions to become “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness”. We accepted. Today, sight programs remain one of our defining causes. So, save up your used eyeglasses for us and we’ll be collecting them, just as soon as they lift social boundaries, from Sunnyside Market in Caesarea, Nestleton Store, Blackstock United Church, Wellness Shield Pharmacy in Blackstock and Blackstock Rec Centre. Stay safe everyone ….. stay home.