Projects
Recycling used and unwanted Spectacles
We collect used,unwanted glasses from local opticians and businesses in Exeter,where we place a special bin( See picture above) for people to put them in.Our club of Exeter West Lions local collection points are :-
ANDREW LAIRD OPTICIAN IN ST.THOMAS SHOPPING PRECINCT and
VISION SAVERS, DEVON HOUSE,TAN LANE EXETER EX2 8EG
Volunteers in our Club collect them,remove them from their cases(as these are not required), pack them in boxes and they are then collected by Parcel force for delivery to Chichester Lions free of charge.
A volunteer workforce then sort the ones suitable for recycling,and send them to Medico France,where they have the necessary equipment to clean and grade the spectacles for use in Eye Camp projects in Africa.India and Eastern Europe.
Since July this year,(2016) our club have posted 7,325 pairs to Chichester,and the UK send 300.000 pairs a year to Medico centre in France, and now this year (October 2019) we have collected 23,586 pairs
Visit to the Memory Cafe,Strawberry Hill, Dunsford July 26th 2018
We were invited to visit the cafe to see the wooden bench that we had donated to and they also wanted a waist height Planter. This was made by Lion Neil Moxey,free of charge from his father's old kitchen table.This was just what they wanted.We also talked to the dementia people present,and their carers.A professional lady was massaging hands,and painting finger nails. Advice was given about having library books delivered to them,if they couldn't get to a library.One of our Lions,Keith Worters is a volunteer who does this worth-while task.
One of the projects of Lions District 105SW,(to which Exeter West club belong).is collecting blue milk bottle tops. At present,District has collected 750,000. These are sent to a special centre in Portsmouth where they are ground down to a powder.This is made into utensils such as buckets and spades and similar items.The money made from the sale of these of these items is donated to the Multiple sclerosis society,so a worthwhile project
