Bounty of donated used spectacles make Doyle's effort successful

Micheala Doyle began collecting donated eyeglasses on Jan. 2, and after the first month-long session of her project, has successfully collected 161 pairs of glasses. Doyle is running her project in two sessions, the second that began on Feb. 2.

During the month of January, Doyle put donation boxes for the eyeglasses in the Ritzville Drug Company, Harvest Foods and Jim’s Market. At the end of the first week, Doyle emptied the boxes and had 33 pairs of glasses.

From Jan. 13 until Jan. 20, community members donated a total of 68 pairs of eyeglasses. Doyle had to empty the donation box in Jim’s Market twice that week because of how many glasses were donated.

“I wasn’t expecting to get this many. I couldn’t believe when I got called and asked to pick up the glasses,” said Doyle. “I want to hit 200, that’s my final goal.”

The majority of eyeglasses donated have come from the Lind community, with an outstanding total of 93 pairs of glasses. All of the eyeglasses donated have prescription lenses and many of them have been donated with the eyeglasses in cases.

The Lind Lions Club is sponsoring Doyle’s senior project, and the eyeglasses donated in the first session are to be sent to another Lions Club in Olympia. The group there distributes the eyeglasses based on need throughout the state of Washington.

While Doyle would like to help those in the community that need prescription lenses, it is hard because each individual has to have an eye exam and the eyeglasses have to be tested for their prescription strength. The group in Olympia has the means of testing the lenses and distributing them to the appropriate people.

Doyle hopes that members from both the Lind and Ritzville communities continue to donate, and she is overwhelmed by the generous donations so far. The second session of donations runs until Friday, March 2, and those glasses are also sent to Olympia.

“I have more adult glasses than kids, so more variety would be nice. But I don’t want to just focus on collecting kids glasses, I want people to keep donating any type of glasses that they have,” said Doyle.

The collection boxes can be found next to the door in Jim’s Market, next to the drinks in the Ritzville Drug Company and by the movie section in Harvest Foods. The box in Harvest Foods is on the counter, beside the pole that separates the counter from the movie section.