Optometrists recommend a yearly eye exam to keep your eyeglass prescription up-to-date, and for some people, this means buying new glasses once a year. If you live in Arizona and are wondering what to do with your old eyeglasses once you’ve bought new ones, then consider donating them. There are several local Arizona charities that will take your old glasses and give them a second life with someone who needs eyeglasses but can’t afford them.
Instructions
things you’ll need:
Used eyeglasses
Donate Your Old Eyeglasses
1 The Lions Club provides used eyeglasses to the poor in developing nations. By donating your glasses, you can help a child learn to read, enable an adult get back into the workforce or lessen the dependency of an elder. You can drop your used eyeglasses off at the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center (LERC) in Tucson, Arizona, or if Tucson is too far of a drive for you, you can also mail the glasses.
Arizona Lions Eyeglass Recycling Terminal, Inc.
3767 E. Grant Road
Tucson, AZ 85716
(520) 954-0411
2 Pima Council on Aging (PCOA), based in Tucson, Arizona, also accepts used eyeglasses and donates them to the less fortunate. To drop off your old eyeglasses, call or send an e-mail to PCOA.
PCOA helpline: (520)790-7262
e-mail: help@pcoa.org
3 Those who need eyeglasses but don’t have the hundreds of dollars to spend on a new pair can benefit from your old eyeglasses by buying them at your local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Consider donating your gently used glasses to one of these charities to help someone save money and correct his vision.
Goodwill Industries
North 1st Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85705
(520) 882-5152
Salvation Army
East Fort Lowell
Tucson, AZ 85719
(520) 888-9719
4 If you can’t drive to Tucson to donate your old eyeglasses, but would like to donate your glasses by mailing them, then consider donating to New Eyes for the Needy. The charity accepts donations of the following types of glasses: plastic, reading, sun and prescription. The eyeglasses are sent to medical missions and developing nations abroad to help those needing glasses who can’t afford them. In addition, New Eyes for the Needy also helps poor Americans of all ages get much-needed prescription eyeglasses. If you don’t have old eyeglasses, you can also make a monetary donation to New Eyes for the Needy to help someone get his or her vision corrected. Each $60 tax-deductible contribution helps to purchase a pair of eyeglasses for a fellow American. You can make a donation online, or you can mail or ship your contributions (monetary or eyeglasses) in padded envelopes or boxes.
New Eyes for the Needy
549 Millburn Avenue
P.O. Box 332
Short Hills, NJ 07078