The Federated Women's Club of Hershey recently partnered with the Hershey Lions Club to heighten awareness about vision impairment and to collect used eyeglasses. The joint effort began with a recent $250 contribution by the Federated Women's Club of Hershey to the Hershey Lions Club to help people who are visually impaired.

Carol Foley, local and state vision impairment awareness project chair and member of the Federated Women's Club of Hershey, explained that vision impairment awareness is the General Federation of Women's Clubs Pennsylvania's (GFWC Pennsylvania) current two-year President's Project. The initiative began due to a projected significant increase in the four most common eye problems over the next three decades, she noted. This projection came from the National Eye Institute.

The monetary donation from the Federated Women's Club of Hershey was used by the Hershey Lions to help an uninsured resident to obtain an eye exam and eyeglasses. The Hershey Lions have been helping the visually impaired since the club's founding in 1944 with eye exams and glasses and through used eyeglass collections. Used eyeglasses are collected to be matched up with people in need around the world. The Hershey Lions have also provided camp sponsorships for people with visual impairments, large-print books for the Hershey Library, and more.

Other GFWC Pennsylvania member clubs are also partnering with Lions clubs and other organizations in similar ways. Collectively, the Federated Women's Clubs set a goal of gathering over 2,020 pairs of used eyeglasses for donation by May 2022. The clubs swiftly exceeded their goal with a recent total of 2,045 used eyeglasses collected. In addition to assisting the visually impaired through her President's Project, 2020-22 GFWC Pennsylvania president Sandy Hauenstein volunteers at Vision Resources of Central Pennsylvania and hosts a two-hour weekly live radio broadcast, including current weather, news, opinion pieces, and articles, that is broadcast online and is available to the vision-impaired.

General information about the state project is available at http://www.gfwcpennsylvania.org. Residents can learn more about the Federated Women's Club of Hershey by searching for @FedWomensClubHershey on Facebook. For more information about the Hershey Lions Club, readers may visit http://www.hersheylions.org.