The gift of being able to see, and read, writ small..

[nolatom]

Article in last Sunday's NYTimes (Nicholas Kristof), "Columns and Commentary" section, "A time for Gifts of Meaning" page 3, says significant numbers of young kids who need glasses for school and life, don't have them.

Got a dollar store nearby? At our local Dollar Tree store, I was amazed a few years ago to see eyeglasses on sale in most magnifications from 1.5 up to 3.75, for, yes, one Dollar (now with inflation it's just risen to $1.25). How do they do that so cheap? I don't know. No bifocals, but perfectly good new eyeglasses.

I haven't had the experience of how to get the cheap glasses to needy kids (to be honest I haven't looked, I just read the paper today), but you may know, or know someone who knows.

What I do know is that many down-and-out adults are in the same boat. At church early on Sunday mornings, we have been serving hot breakfasts to all comers, ever since Katrina in the early frontier days when there were almost no restaurants or food stores open, so we started feeding walk-ins, people with flooded houses not ready to live in yet (like mine), and the volunteers who came from everywhere to help gut and rebuild the town. We're still doing it 17 years later, nowadays mostly homeless or under-housed men and women in our area of uptown New Orleans.

Eventually I "discovered" Dollar Tree, and began buying a big handful and giving them out to our diners, every few months, it was, and is, an unmet need for a lot of them.

If you're in a situation where you've got a dollar store, and could connect with needy kids, or needy adults, consider giving it a try? I still can't believe they sell them this cheap.

And oh, yeah, Joyeaux Noel.

 

[Mrleft8]

Bon Chance!
I find glasses in parking lots almost everywhere I go. I bring them in, the person behind the counter looks disinterested, but says they'll put them behind the counter to see if anyone comes looking for them.
Just out of curiosity I went back in to one store a few minutes after shift change, and asked the cashier if anyone had fund any glasses. W/O even looking she said "Nope. We usually put them in a basket by the register, but there's none there today." I asked her to check. She looked in the area where the previous cashier had put the glasses. "Nope no glasses.... Sorry" I know no one went in there looking for lost glasses, I watched. They got put in the garbage can right under the basket....
Yes do what you can, but don't think that anyone is going to be grateful for your actions. A wallet full of twenties, yeah, a diamond ring, yeah (maybe) but a $1.25 pair of glasses?....

 

[Ishmael]

All my old frames and lenses are returned to the optician, who sends them in to a central location from where they can be given out. AFAIK they are going to destitute people in Africa, but I'm sure there is, or should be, a local organization who will take them. My glasses are about $1200/pr, so someone is getting some fine Nikon technology.

 

[nolatom]

Actually, the fellas are quite, and vocally, grateful for the hot breakfast (eggs, grits, sausage, baked biscuit, juice, coffee), and the glasses too when we’ve got them. A good lesson for the young kids who sometimes help serve, while they may look a bit rough, year in year out they are way more polite than the average restaurant crowd.

 

[Cal20sailor]

My eyes took a shit a few years ago. Since the age 12, I've been nearsighted. Until contacts, I was blind. Wore them until maybe 7 years ago. With age(65), my eyes now have great far sight, but shit for reading. I'll take it without bitching. I did the drug store thing and bought six pairs on eBay (a pair is always within reach). Later, I had an eye exam and two pairs for $80. Even at that price, they're a decent quality and I received an update on my cataract situation. Spend the $80 is my advice.

 

[boomer]

An old work mate was struggling with reading while wearing readers, plus he'd get headaches from struggling to read. I mentioned that he get's an exam and new glasses through his supplemental insurer Kaiser. He did within a week, and is delighted to read and see much better with trifocals, and not get headaches.

 

[Blue Crab]

I'm always surprised at the number of adults who apparently cannot read without "readers" ... yet don't carry their own.

 

[Goodvibes]

W/O even looking she said "Nope. We usually put them in a basket by the register, but there's none there today." I asked her to check. She looked in the area where the previous cashier had put the glasses. "Nope no glasses.... Sorry" I know no one went in there looking for lost glasses, I watched. They got put in the garbage can right under the basket....

Left a pair of Maui Jims on the counter at the oversized baggage desk at a City airport. On the aircraft I spoke to the hostess and she called the airport. Came back to me and said they have them and to pick them up when I return on two days time.

I returned, went to the desk and the guy also looked disinterested, but when I told him the hostess had made contact for me, he got a large cardboard box half full of sunglasses and said "feel free to have a look, maybe you can find them of even a pair like them!

None of he sunnies were worth more than $15 and mine were not there. The guy told me that if mine were a known brand that they would never have made it to the box. Would have gone home with one of the baggage handlers.

 

[Goodvibes]

I'm always surprised at the number of adults who apparently cannot read without "readers" ... yet don't carry their own.

They usually have literacy problems.

 

[Blue Crab]

Those $1.25 glasses are 12.95 at CVS.

 

[Goodvibes]

Yes do what you can, but don't think that anyone is going to be grateful for your actions. A wallet full of twenties, yeah, a diamond ring, yeah (maybe) but a $1.25 pair of glasses?....

Totally agree.

Sitting in a park near the railway station having lunch in the city one day and there was an elderly busker nearby. I watched him, he couldn't play for shit. He watched me and nodded a greeting. I asked him if he had had lunch, he said no. I offered him half of mine. He said "No, thanks, but do you have a few $'s to spare?" He looked like an alcoholic and I should have given him some change to buy more to help him blank out whatever it was he was running from, but I didn't.

Instead, I put the rest of my lunch in the nearby bin and walked off back to work.

 

[10thTonner]

I remember when I had my LASIK surgery. They had a biiiig bin where patients would ritually throw in their now useless eyeglasses right before the OP. It was - of course - made of glass and was labelled „Glasses for Africa.“