In September 2013
Leatherhead
Harvested
Spectacles

for Vision Aid Overseas
. . . so did Bookham and Fetcham

Area total:
868 pairs

Please check us out on facebook
(our target
was 250)
So how did the different collection points do?

Bookham
95 at Donner Optometrists


Fetcham
44 Fetcham Parish Church
35 Fetcham Village Infants School
69 Symphony World Travel

= 148 from Fetcham

Leatherhead
27 B@titude Christian charity shop
53 Christ Church United Reformed
103 Donner Optometrists
16 Leatherhead Catholic Church
24 Letherhead Institute
55 Leatherhead Methodist Church
170 Leatherhead Parish Church
141 Patricia Morgan Optician
36 Truelove Funerals

= 625 from Leatherhead
That’s an impressive 868 pairs of donated spectacles for Vision Aid Overseas. 
This works out at almost one in 12 local spectacle wearers donating a pair of old glasses.

You can still donate your old spectacles by handing them in at
any opticians or at
B@titude, Kingston Road, Leatherhead, or
Symphony World Travel in Fetcham.
The main campaign finished at the end of September, around the time the churches hold their Harvest Festival services. We'll add to the list below for a little while to see how many more donations have been prompted by this campaign:

Bookham
95 at Donner Optometrists

Fetcham
53 Fetcham Parish Church
38 Fetcham Village Infants School
131 Symphony World Travel

= 222 from Fetcham

Leatherhead
27 B@titude Christian charity shop
53 Christ Church United Reformed
103 Donner Optometrists
16 Leatherhead Catholic Church
24 Letherhead Institute
64 Leatherhead Methodist Church
170 Leatherhead Parish Church
57 Oxfam Shop 
146 Patricia Morgan Optician
36 Truelove Funerals

= 716 from Leatherhead

Grand Total since September 1st 2013 = 1013

How it all started :


In this post-industrial age it is difficult for the average town-dweller to take something from our working lives to present at Harvest Festival.  Sitting at a checkout till, driving a bus, keeping a bank’s computer’s whirring, raising a family – these are our 21st century preoccupations. Few of us are gardeners, fewer still farmers or market-gardeners.

So we buy a tin or a packet and we donate that. It’s a genuinely useful act that will help a local person. But can we add something into this year’s Harvest Festival that gives more of us a sense of “here’s something I’ve harvested”?

Harvest Spectacles! It’s a command – go and harvest some spectacles. It’s a description – we’re harvesting spectacles from the crop hidden all over the town. It’s a useful act – Vision Aid Overseas really can recycle the spectacles we’ve grown out of. Least important… it rhymes a bit – Harvest Festival, Harvest Spectacles.

Most important, it’s something we can almost all do. A lot of us have them. Spectacles lurking about the home. Our old pair. Granny’s old ones. That pair we found when we cleared Auntie’s house. Little Dylan’s or Marigold’s first specs. Even those old NHS ones? Yes, those too.

There’s nothing new in handing back our old specs, it’s just that some of us need a nudge to do it. It’s always possible to recycle your glasses. You can hand them in at opticians’, and Lions Clubs recycle spectacles all the time.

Volunteers at Vision Aid Overseas sort our old spectacles and raise money by recovering the metals in them. That cash funds Vision Centres in eight African countries - Botswana, Burkino Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Uganda & Zambia. Proper eye-care can prevent blindness and even save lives. Bespoke spectacles help a child fulfil their potential.

All through September we want Leatherhead, Bookham and Fetcham to find those old specs and hand them in. It’s easier than ever because the opticians, the churches, and some local shops will all accept the glasses you bring.

So this month, please have a good look through your cupboards and drawers and then hand in your used spectacles at your Church or at one of the Harvest Spectacles Collection Points listed on the first poster below.

Let’s find 250 pairs
in September. 

There are two Harvest Spectacles posters. The first one lists the collection points. Use this one if you are not collecting but want to tell people the places where they can donate - eg, by displaying it on your notice-board or in your window. A 2.3Mb version of this jpeg file is also available. Please email harvestspectacles (AT) yahoo (DOT) com to request a copy.

If your workplace, school, church, or club would like to have your own collection point just for your colleagues and community, please use the second poster.


The Letherhead Institute
Leatherhead Catholic Church of Our Lady & St Peter
Leatherhead Methodist Church
Christ Church United Reformed
Fetcham Parish Church
Fetcham Village Infants School Parents,
 have also joined in as
Collection Points
If you are making a workplace or school collection please print the poster below to promote the campaign. At the end of September please deliver your collection to Patricia Morgan Optician, 19 Bridge Street, Leatherhead (Tuesday to Friday and Saturday mornings).

If you are in postcodes KT21, KT22 or KT23 and you have at least 20 pairs of glasses to donate, you may ask for a collection by emailing: harvestspectacles (AT) yahoo.com

You are welcome to use the poster and then donate through another opticians. If you do that please drop us a line at harvestspectacles (AT) yahoo.com saying which organisation collected and how many pairs of specs you were able to donate.

We plan to publish a total for Leatherhead, Fetcham, & Bookham in early October.