Old eyeglasses are lot like old books — you don't really need them but the thought of throwing them away just feels wrong. So they become a problem without a solution.

Until now.

The North Raleigh Lions Club is accepting eyewear donations — sunglasses, reading glasses, prescription glasses and even empty frames — at its booth in the back of the Commercial Building.

"We haven't been getting too many," said Leonard C. Wilburn. "It's not because they're not willing, they just don't know we're here. They say, 'If only I knew, I've got 14 pair at home that I need to get rid of.'"

Wilburn said the donated glasses are sent to one of the Lions Club's 16 eyeglass recycling centers where they are refurbished and then given to poor people around the world.

"For some people getting a pair of glasses means that they can finally see their grandchildren or they can get a job," Wilburn says.

For more information, visit the Lions' Commercial Building booth or go online at www.lionsclubs.org/EN/content/vision_eyeglass_sight.shtml.