The collection of used eyeglasses has been a long time project of Lions Clubs all over the world. The Lions in Virginia had been collecting and shipping eyeglasses to an organization in New Jersey for a number of years. They were processed there and sent to developing nations according their own particular process.
The Lions of Virginia Districts 24-C, E and F in the early 1970's formed and developed the Lions Eyebank of Virginia. In 1971,
a large building was constructed at 501 Elm Avenue, SW in Roanoke, VA to house this organization. In 1991, this Eye bank
merged with the Old Dominion Eye Bank in Richmond, Virginia. Branch offices are maintained in Roanoke, Charlottesville, and Abingdon, Virginia.
Several name changes occurred during these twenty years, with the most recent and final change being to the Lions Sight Foundation of Virginia Inc.
The Lions Sight Foundation building also hosts the main offices of Lions Eyeglass Recycling, Inc. of Virginia, and recycled glasses are housed in the basement portion of the
Lions Sight Foundation Building. The basement consists of 9 large rooms and is completely occupied by the recycling center.
The Sight Foundation has provided Titmus Machines for schools in the Districts for vision
screening for school children. The state of Virginia requires this for all the schools in Virginia. There is
a rather high demand for the use of these machines.
The Sight Foundation provides Photo screeners to be used to screen the vision of children of
kindergarten age and below. These machines are extremely valuable in detecting vision problems in
the very early stages.