Palmer Lions Club hits 200 mark 10 days into eyeglasses collection campaign

WASILLA — The Palmer Lions Club reached over 200 donations 10 days into their eyeglasses collection campaign.

“It’s going really well,” cub secretary Bert Verrall said.

Like all the other chapters across the world, the Palmer Lions collect and distribute free eyeglasses, provide free exams, and fundraise for local vision treatments throughout the year. Verrall said the service club’s dedication to community eye health has been ingrained in their core values for a very long time.

“Ever since 1925, the lions have been knights for the blind,” Verrall said.

The Lions support Palmer residents of all ages, taking on numerous fundraising campaigns a year. While a majority of their clients are elderly, they regularly support local students, offering services like vision screenings at the beginning of the school year.

That’s different this year due to COVID-19. They were still able to fund a local high school girl’s eye surgery, and plan to keep providing support whenever a need arises.

“It’s pretty cool to be part of a group of people who don’t ask questions,” Verrall said. “When there’s a need, there’s a lion.”

Verrall has been with the Lions for about eight years and currently serves as the second vice district governor for one of Alaska’s two districts. He said there’s about 60 clubs across the state.

“If you need help and the lions can help we will help you. Anything we get from the community goes right back to the community and I’m really proud of that too,” Verrall said.

All the donated eyeglasses from chapters across the state eventually make their way to the North Pole Lions Club to be sorted, refit, repaired, and repurposed to be distributed to people in need all over the world, according to Verrall. He said the North Pole Lions recently hit their 5,000 mark.

Verrall said there are three collection bins in Palmer, including the Valley Hotel and Palmer Vision Clinic. He said the Vision Clinic has been a great partner over the years, offering them generous rates for their cause.

Verrall said they normally just collect eyeglasses throughout the year, but they wanted to make a special push since the pandemic has limited their operations and forced them to cancel major fundraising events like their annual raffle and gun show at the fairgrounds.

Verralls aid this eyeglasses campaign serves a test for upcoming endeavors that need to work around the ongoing situation. He said most of their efforts for this campaign and others will be social media and word of mouth driven.

“It keeps our hands warm,” Verrall said.

The next big fundraising campaign will be for the Salvation Army’s food bank. Verrall noted that those interested in supporting the food bank should consider donating $10 donations which go further than food donations.

The eyeglass campaign ends Oct. 8 in conjunction with World Sight Day, an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment.

Verrall said the community fuels their efforts year round, making these campaigns possible.

“We couldn’t do it without the community support,” Verrall said.

For more information, visit the Palmer Lions’ Facebook page, or call 907-354-3798.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com