Lions Club volunteers making clear difference around the world through eyeglasses program

The Canadian Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centre (CLERC) is located in northeast Calgary in a small, unassuming warehouse.

Stacks of boxes are piled high, each filled with donated eyeglasses from across Canada.

Volunteers touch every single pair that comes here to make sure they're good enough to donate to someone in need, just about anywhere in the world.

This is the 25th anniversary for the Calgary operation.

James Lee, CLERC chair, says close to 40 per cent of all donated glasses are good enough to be reused.

"To date, we have put 6.3 million pairs on faces," said Lee.

"That's excluding this year's totals, and we have sent glasses to 103 countries."

It's a hands-on process where volunteers constantly evaluate the glasses by sight after they're washed.

Tess Josue has volunteered for 10 years at the centre and has washed thousands of eyeglasses.

"When there's too much scratches and some of them are really too old and have pieces missing … or the glasses are just so flimsy they're just ready to come out, they get recycled," she said.

Bob Weller sits in a separate room with four others using lens metres to determine the strength of each pair of eyeglasses.

In an optometrist's office, such machines would typically evaluate around 150 pairs a month.

Here, they test hundreds daily.

"I average between 225 and 250," said Weller.

"I'm sitting at 135 right now and I'm going through a great big box here that has about 200 pairs in it."

If they don't make the grade, they're tossed into a bin that is sent to California for recycling.

Lee says they've kept roughly a million pounds of glasses out of Calgary landfills.

"The recycling plant crushes them," he said.

"They separate the metal out and then the glass becomes an additive to the reflective paint that they put on roads and the plastic is added to pavement.

"Every part of the glasses gets used."

During the last two pandemic years, CLERC managed to process close to 300,000 pairs a year.

It's always in need of donated glasses, but they also fundraise to pay for rent and equipment along with keeping the operation running smoothly.

According to Lee, it takes a minimum of $5,000 a month.

Lee has had the chance to travel with outreach teams to see glasses being prescribed by volunteer doctors, along with patients seeing clearly for the first time in years with their new eyeglasses.

"I've been to six countries including Indonesia, Central America and Mexico with Lions Club," said Lee.

"It's pretty phenomenal. It's a wow moment, for sure. It touches my heart, to be honest with you. I get goosebumps thinking about how much of a change it is that they can see again."

You can learn more about the Lions Club eyeglasses program at CLERC.ca.