For years, the Vinton Lions Club members have helped collect used eyeglasses for distribution to some of the poor countries of the world.

On Wednesday, the local club saw what kind of impact that program is having on thousands of people in Mexico and several other countries.

Linus Winter, who leads the local club's Lions for Sight program, introduced a video made by a Burbank, Calif., magazine. This story showed what happens to the eyeglasses after Lions collect them, and how they help both children and adults in many countries.

The glasses are cleaned, and then their lenses are measured and labeled. Only glasses with plastic frames can be used. Metal frames are sold to raise money for the program. Winter said that in some countries, thieves target the metal frames because of the value of the metal.

Lions Club volunteers and others -- including some prisoners and school children -- help to sort and package the volunteers. Eye doctors, accompanied by volunteers, then go to areas of the world where people lack basic eye care. They provide free eye exams, then look through the boxes of thousands of glasses to find a match for the patient.

The video showed several people in Mexico, from very young children to the very old, wearing their glasses and seeing well for the first time in years.

In addition to the eyeglasses program, the local Lions are involved with the KidSight program, which provides free vision screening to children before they are old enough to read. Recently 44 area children received an free exam, and one child was referred to an eye doctor for further examination and treatment.

Winter told the Vinton Lions that it makes him happy to see the result of these efforts. He also showed them a recent magazine article showing how Iowa and ISU are working together on vision programs.