The Glasses Drive, which was held primarily for the month of February and ended on Feb. 25, had a successful turn out.

Key Club, the student club that held the fundraiser, was able to collect 55 glasses of all different types and styles, ranging from your typical reading glasses to the funky and stylish.

Casey Hynes, a senior who has been a part of Key Club since her sophomore year, was in charge of the glasses drive. “I was [in charge], but we all kind of worked together,” Hynes said.

There should be more glasses being sent in since Key Club sent out more flyers to retirement homes and places of the like. Any additional glasses collected, Key Club will just use them next year, according to Hynes.

“The glasses are collected from various locations around the community. Then they’re brought to College Place Optical, and one of our members works on repairing them a little bit, cleaning them up and then packing them up to be shipped to Mercy Ships. (The glasses) go to third world countries and help provide medical care and vision aid for people who have probably never had that opportunity. It gives them a chance to see when in the past, you know, they may not have been able to,” Larry Merwin, the adviser to the Key Club from Lynnwood Kiwanis, said.

Kiwanis’ mission is “to serve children of the world” through feeding the hungry, providing shelter for the homeless, and various other volunteer projects, as stated on KiwanisOne, the Kiwanis’ Organization homepage.

According to Merwin, this is Kiwanis’ second or third year having the glasses drive which they plan on keeping as an “on-going project.”

“We love it! It helps because obviously that’s what we’re about is trying to instil some community service and leadership skills for the students and by participating in projects. Hopefully, this gets them thinking in the future (about) being involved in service to their communities,” Merwin said.

Some of the future fundraisers Key Club plans on holding this school year are a Stuffed Toy Drive and a Toiletry Drive.

Key Club will be collecting gently used stuffed animals through March 22 and donating them to local police and fire stations. The Toiletry Drive will be held shortly after from March 27 until April 21 and the items collected will be donated to Cocoon Houses and Kiwanis Houses.

If you have any gently used stuffed animals or unused toiletries, then feel free to drop them off in room 135.