In a case of one service club helping another, the Okanagan Falls Lions Club is pitching in to help with a Rotary project to send used eyeglasses to a developing country.

Lion Colin Van Berk dropped off 715 pairs of used eyeglasses to the Dr. Spec’s Optical in Penticton Plaza recently, helping out the drive to collect glasses for Kelowna optician Catherine Goheen’s trip to Vietnam at the end of the month.

Once there, Goheen will deliver the glasses to a local Rotary club, who will then distribute them people in need, restoring their ability to work or go to school along with their vision.

“Eyesight is very important to me,” said Van Blerk, who has also coordinated blood drives for the club. “I feel both these things are important in life. Even when I worked for B.C. Transit, I collected eyeglasses at one time.”

Over the last three years, Van Blerk said he’s collected 12,000 pairs of used glasses. Most go to the Lions own eyeglass charity, but Van Blerk also donates some to the annual Dr. Specs drive.

“It’s all pretty much the same cause,” said Van Blerk. “My goal was to get 20,000 pairs in five years, but I’ve already sent 12,000 pairs to Calgary (for the Lions).”

Van Blerk said that the work couldn’t happen without the support of all the local opticians — he makes regular rounds to collect used glasses at opticians and optometrists throughout Penticton and surrounding areas. He also gets donations from the Sweet Adelines, other Lions Club members, even people on the street.

“Complete strangers stop and say ‘you’re the eyeglass man, I’ve got some eyeglasses,’” he said. “It’s a good cause, I don’t mind doing it. I don’t want any award in life but I enjoy doing it. I’ve met a lot of nice people.”

The Lion’s work with the eyeglasses traces back almost a century, to 1925 when Helen Keller, blind advocate, addressed a Lions Club International convention, challenging them to aid her fledgling foundation for the blind and become “knights in the crusade against darkness.”

The Lions accepted that challenge and ever since, their community service has included sight programs aimed at preventable blindness.

“If you haven’t got your eyesight, you can’t read properly and get educated, A lot of these countries where they go to, the people have never had a proper chance in life,” said Van Blerk. “And if a pair of eyeglasses gets to one of these kids, possibly they’ll get educated and make a better life for themselves.”