It's that time of year folks! 'Tis the season to give back! All around the United States, Americans are taking the time this holiday season to give back to their communities. While some people give back by donating old clothing to the Salvation Army or by donating their time to soup kitchens, others are giving back in a more unique manner. Millions of Americans are "recycling" their old eyeglasses. How do you recycle old frames? It's easy! You throw them into donation boxes in your area serviced by the local Lion's clubs. The glasses are then taken to a sorting plant where the old lenses are taken out, the frames are sanitized and ready for new lenses. Prescription lenses are produced to fit the vision needs of the person receiving their new, recycled eyeglasses. The frames are distributed to people who cannot afford vision care on their own.

In the Washington D.C. area, the Arlington County Sheriff's office teamed up with Northern Virginia's Lion's Club Eyeglass Recycling Center in an effort to help prepare eyeglasses that were turned in by area residents. Distribution of the eyeglasses will go to churches, non-profit groups, and even to medical facilities. How does this differ from the norm? Arlington County Detention Facility inmates use a three-step process to wash the prescription glasses by hand. Then they check the prescription in each lens through a lens analyzer device. Each pair is labeled, bagged, and sorted by prescription. Once it's completed, the glasses are returned to the Lion's Club by the Sheriff's Office for distribution. How cool is that? The inmates have processed more than 1,500 pairs of eyeglasses this year alone! This program gives the inmates a chance to give back to their community and the Lion's Club receives recycled frames!

In an interesting twist of stories, the Charlotte Lion's Club donated used eyeglasses to incarcerated inmates located at the Eaton County Jail in Michigan. According the Sheriff Mike Raines, inmates who participate in the Jail's School and Motivational Dormitory Programs have a lower rate of return to jail. Inmates involved in those programs receive the eyeglasses because they were either incarcerated and left their eyeglass frames behind when they were taken away or because they simply cannot afford them. With the help of these donated frames, inmates are able to read the newspaper or a book - making their time in jail more productive and subsequently making them more productive when they are released from prison.

The Lion's Club International has helped thousands of individuals with the gift of sight. GlassesUSA is proud to partake in their program by donating all returned eyeglasses to various Lion's Clubs around the United States.