HORSHAM’S Ella Officer’s latest project has rallied the community behind yet another worthy cause.
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Just last year in October, Ella chopped off her long locks after spending eight weeks raising more than $4000 for children with cancer and illness.
Now, she has her sight set on a new project called recycle for sight.
Ella asked people to donate their old glasses at Horsham’s Specsavers. The collection would be given to the Lions club who will recycle them to third world countries.
“I recently got glasses for the first time and my mum got stronger ones. I could see her collection of old frames growing bigger, but they were just sitting there,” she said. “It got me thinking, what can we do with them and what can we do for the people who aren’t fortunate enough to afford glasses.”
Ella’s project started in May and within the month people filled a fish tank at Specsavers with their old glasses.
She said there were 695 pairs donated within the month.
“People who donated were able to take a guess at how many glasses would fill the tank. The winner gets a free pair of glass,” she said. “The winner for this round was William Woods who guessed 740.”
Horsham Specsavers’ retail manager Kate Perkin said the business always collected old glasses, but once Ella started promoting her project a lot more people started donating.
She said the average retail value for 695 pairs of glasses was $138,305.
The project would continue for one more month. Ella encouraged more people to donated their old glasses and take a guess at how many pairs will fill up the tank during this round.