Each year the Brandermill-Midlothian-Woodlake (BMW) Lions Club delivers about 20,000 eyeglasses for reuse in multiple foreign countries!

Our community members generously donate their old eyeglasses, sunglasses, and hearing aids in Lions collection boxes. Every couple of weeks Lions volunteers collect the donated glasses from the Lions collection boxes and they are washed/sanitized and stored. Donated hearing aids are refurbished by another Lions organization and distributed to people in need in central Virginia.

When enough glasses have been collected, they are driven to the Lions Regional Processing Center in Virginia Beach where they are analyzed to determine the prescription, packaged and cataloged.

Lions, religious groups, service organizations, etc. organize service trips to underprivileged countries. These usually include volunteer medical doctors, eye doctors, dentists, etc., as well as many volunteers who support the doctors. These teams are supplied with the eyeglasses and sunglasses they request by the Lions center.

At remote villages, eye doctors give optical exams to local adults and children, many of whom walk for miles to get there. Once the required prescription is identified, the Lions’ database is used to find glasses that match the prescription and they are given to the villager on the spot at no cost.

Your donated eyeglasses make a difference in peoples’ lives!

Support Us!

LIONS CLUB IS THE LARGEST SERVICE ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD WITH MORE THAN 1.4 MILLION MEMBERS IN 49,000 CLUBS SERVING 200 COUNTRIES AND GEOGRAPHIC AREAS WORLDWIDE. WE FOCUS ON PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR VISION AND HEARING NEEDS.

WE SERVE! – Our Community, Our Country, and Our World

Most of the effort to support this eyeglass reuse in done by Lions members on a volunteer basis. However, there are costs of time and money to do this work. Please help your donated eyeglasses get to someone who really needs them.

100% of public donations to Lions clubs are used for charitable causes – none go for administrative expenses.

We also invite you to join your local Lions Club. 

Thank you for giving the Lions your used eyeglasses, sunglasses, and/or hearing aids!