Valley gives gift of sight

While ghosts and goblins ruled Halloween, the Palmer Lions Club turned its attention to charitable causes on Oct. 31.

Interationally, Sight Night is held in conjunction with Halloween. Lions Clubs from around the world collect used glasses to distribute to those in need, and this year's campaign by the Palmer Lions Club was a huge success.

According to Dee Hilbert, the Palmer Lions Club collected 1,643 sets of glasses -- as compared to only 110 last year as part of the same drive.

"I've got boxes and boxes of glasses packed and ready to ship," Hilbert said. "It was a great success this year."

There were two collection boxes, one at the Palmer Carrs and one at the Wasilla Carrs. In Palmer, 91 pairs were received, and at the Wasilla location, 19 sets of glasses were donated. The biggest reason the drive was so much better this year, however, was the effect young people had.

"Going into the schools worked out great," Hilbert said. "The kids really got behind the idea."

The Palmer Lions Club, through donations from local pizza companies, gave out pizza parties to the classes that collected the most glasses.

Finger Lake Elementary, Cottonwood Creek Elementary, Goose Bay Elementary, Pioneer Peak Elementary, Snowshoe Elementary, Larson Elementary, Sherrod Elementary and the Yah Ne Da Ah school all contributed to the big increase in glasses donations.

"The Yah Ne Da Ah school had eight students and they collected 78 pairs of glasses," Hilbert said. "That's wonderful. You don't have to be a huge school to have a big impact."

The biggest school donation came from Sherrod Elementary School.

There, 13 classes teamed with the front office staff to get 594 pairs of glasses for the drive. Leading the way was Teri Richards' class, which got 231 pairs.

"Mrs. Richards was pretty involved. She told me that she met people she never would have met, in dark Anchorage parking lots, looking for pairs of glasses," Faith Hundley, the Sherrod nurse, said with a chuckle.

"Everyone really got into it. We had 13 of the 16 classes participating. The front office started collecting glasses just to give some of the classes competition. We ended up with 102 ourselves," Hundley said.

Sherrod just held off Pioneer Peak Elementary School as the top collecting school. Pioneer Peak got 561 pairs of glasses, while Cottonwood Creek Elementary was third with 162 pairs of glasses. In all, 11 schools collected at least four pairs of glasses, with seven collecting 40 or more pairs.

"Every single pair is important," Hilbert said. "Because it means someone who would go without will get a pair of glasses."

The donations come at a time of desperate need, Hilbert said. The Lions' eyesight recycling center in Napa, Calif., recently fell victim to a large fire (not the California wildfires), and a large number of glasses were destroyed.

"They lost 600,000 pairs of glasses in the fire," Hilbert said. "And 30,000 were already cleaned and packaged and ready to go."