White Hill Students Focus on Glasses

It took a few weeks for the Philanthropy Club at to decide on a project to focus their efforts on. First, they wanted to do a clothes drive.

But, with Ms. Crow, their advisor, teaching English and History in an already-crowded classroom, where exactly are all those gathered sweatshirts going to go?

Eyeglasses were just as important and much smaller.

The group of students posted signs around school, gave presentations in classes, encouraged their fellow students and teachers to bring in glasses, and donated some of their own pairs, which would be donated to the Lions Club Lions in Sight program. 

The 207 pairs the students gathered in just a few weeks will be cleaned, repaired, tested and distributed to those who need, but can't afford, the expensive eyewear.

As the six students who gathered to count and organize their collection Monday night noted, there were some interesting glasses mixed in with the boring ones -- including a pair of red magnetic spectacles.

"Some have pretty cool patterns," said Ashley Sundquist, an eighth-grader.

Two of the students involved in the new Philanthropy Club had put on their own eyeglasses drive two years ago on their own. 

Avani Bahl's brother's friend asked her to organize a drive for her organization, Eyesight for All, and Avani turned to her friend, Annabel Vernon. Avani and Annabel, as sixth-graders, talked to Principal David Finnane, put out bins for a longer period of time, and collected even more glasses, which were donated to the World Health Organization.

This year's effort is part of a number of new clubs, including the Future Fundraisers club at White Hill, which decides what organizations the students want to support and sells stuff to raise money for those nonprofits.

Students at the school are also participating in a coin collection drive right now as part of Unicef's Trick-or-Treat fundraising program.