We have prepared a short YouTube video describing our service project and offering advice to groups who may be considering a similar activity. This video was recorded during Reunions 2008.
Eyeglass Donation at Reunions
Sponsored by APGA
in coordination with PIA (Princeton in Asia)
and the Lions Club
Looking for a simple and easy way to make a big impact at this year’s Reunions? Why not toss any prescription eyeglasses you no longer need into your suitcase and let them see the light of day again? This simple act can have a profound impact on a student's life in rural China and helps to support the innovative work of Princeton undergraduates in Princeton in Asia’s Summer of Service project.
Summer of Service is a unique student-run service program, providing 12 Princeton students with the opportunity to live and teach in an English-immersion language program in Jishou City, China. Held in one of the most underdeveloped regions of China, the program reaches over 120 Tu Jia and Miao minority students annually, many of whom will be interacting with a native English speaker for the first time in their lives. Donating your old prescription eyeglasses will provide access to corrective lens so these needy Chinese students in Jishou can see well enough to succeed in the program and beyond, literally enabling many of them to see their chalkboards or textbooks clearly for the first time.
During Reunions, APGA will be collecting used prescription eyeglasses of all types as part of a unique recycling program through PIA. The collected glasses will be cleaned, catalogued for prescription strength, and prepared for distribution by the Lions Club who will then provide the needed glasses to the PIA Summer of Service Program to benefit members of this community in rural Hunan province. “We need everyone to donate eyeglasses they no longer need or want,” said Dan Abramowicz *84, APGA Project Chair. “In most developing countries, eyeglasses can easily cost more than one month’s wages, making sight a luxury many can’t afford.”
Donation boxes will be conveniently placed around campus during Reunions, including at the APGA tent adjacent to Whig Hall (see the map below). The complete list of drop-off locations includes:
APGA Reunions HQ - the APGA tent near Whig Hall
Frist CampusCenter 100 Level - on the table to the right of the Welcome Desk
Frist CampusCenter 100 Level - by the cashier in the Witherspoon Café
Princeton U-Store on University Place - at the check-out counter on the third floor
Princeton U-Store on Nassau Street - on the right side of the check-out counter
If you don’t have spare glasses available, please consider purchasing corrective reading glasses which can be obtained inexpensively at one of many retail outlets (e.g., drug stores, discount stores) for donation. If you would like to learn more about the APGA drive to collect eyeglasses, please contact Dan Abramowicz *84 at daniel.abramowicz@crowncork.com or 215.698.5143.
If you would like to learn more about PIA’s Summer of Service program and other ways to help this worthwhile cause, please contact Leslie Medema, SOS Program Director, at pia@princeton.edu or at 609.258.5358, or visit the Princeton in Asia homepage here.
Help to support this great cause with eyeglass donations as we celebrate together this June. Please take a brief moment right now to find those eyeglasses you no longer need, as Reunions is just around the corner and this campaign cannot work if you forget to pack them!
It is hard to imagine a small gesture like the donation of unused eyeglasses in Princeton can have such a tremendous ripple effect for children in Jishou, China. But seeing is believing.
