Did you know your old glasses could have a new life anywhere in the world? Since 1974, Nan Stearman has been collecting glasses for the Lions Club Recycle for Sight program so that they can be recycled and sent to people who need them around the world. Recognising the effort that Nan has put in over the last 47 years helping others, she was awarded the Lions Medical Research Foundation Professor Ian Frazer Humanitarian Award.
‘When I received the award, I got a tear in my eye’, said Nan.
Nan started contributing to the Lions Club charity work when her husband Ted was a member, and long before they even allowed women to join. The Lions Club allowed women to join from the 1980s, and Nan has been a long-term member of the Brunswick-Mullumbimby Lions Club.
Nan said she has been collecting over 1,000 pairs of glasses a year and said it was a great way to get to know people in the community and that all sorts of people have turned up on her doorstep to donate glasses.
‘Marge Storer, president of the Brunswick Heads Red Cross, once turned up with over 100 pairs of glasses for her in her gopher’, said Nan with a smile.
‘You can donate glasses at the The Red Cross in Brunswick Heads and St Vincent’s de Paul in Mullumbimby and Brunswick Heads’, said Nan.
Even though Nan has now retired from collecting glasses, she’s still having the occasional bag of glasses turn up at her place in Brunswick Heads.
‘I can still pass them on’, she said with a smile.
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