Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity spoke to Lions and guests at their September 18th dinner meeting.

Pat Herrity Speaks to Fairfax Lions Club

He discussed trends in county population (increasingly, seniors and young grads are moving out), wages and employment, the unsustainable county pension system, and transportation improvements.  Pat leads a county initiative to improve “sports tourism” in the county, and is excited about the prospect of an indoor down-hill skiing venue likely to be located near the Lorton Workhouse Arts Center.  Pat also talked about riding with local police during arrest of a MS13 gang member.  Pat was accompanied by Bill McCabe, Legislative Aide from his office.

Legislative Aide Speaks with Lion Jeff Root

Club President Karen Parker presented Supervisor Herrity a small gift in appreciation for his visit.

Our Club collects eyeglasses donated by members of our community; we help process those eyeglass at the Northern VA Lions Eyeglasses Recycling Center, and the fruits of that work – recycled eyeglasses – are distributed to help needy persons around the world see better.

Twice monthly, several members of our Club take donated eyeglasses to, and work a few hours at, the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center.  In Arlington, the center is  in a Virginia Hospital Center building.  Lions have their own entrance to the building.

In the recycling center, the first  step is washing and inspecting the eyeglasses.  The clean and serviceable eyeglasses are stored in “Washed” bins until volunteers can “process” them.

Teams from several local area Clubs process the eyeglasses using sophisticated machines in the Center that read the correction of each lens.  The volunteers mark that correction factor on the plastic bag they put the eyeglass into.  The product of this volunteer effort are eyeglasses that have been through the complete process, packaged and then shipped around the world to help others.

Lions Read Eyeglass Lens Correction

So, what are the measures of Fairfax Lions Club’s service at the recycling center?  We track the number of Lions, and the hours they work at the Center each month, and the number of donated eyeglasses and hearing aids we collect and deliver to the center.

Service Delivered by Fairfax Lions to NoVA Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center

Volunteers         Hours        Glasses          Hearing Aids

(For 12 months, Lions year 2017-2018)

90              193         7415                18

(And so far this year July-August, 2018)

11               22          2217                  0