The box was stuffed in a corner and covered in plastic, with her lunch box thrown on top of it. It just sat there by her feet, waiting to be recognized.

Then, Paige Biggs-Vanzo, the marketing communications director for Meadow Brook Theatre, took the small, cardboard box out and uncovered it.

Inside, there were a bunch of glasses and eyeglass cases, two things which Meadow Brook Theatre is currently collecting for their collection drive for New Eyes for the Needy, a nonprofit organization which gives eyeglasses to those who need, but cannot afford, them.

The organization also operates a resale shop, which sells things like old costume jewelry. The money is then used to gather new lenses, recycle old lenses, cases and frames and ship them to impoverished nations worldwide.

The large, Short Hills, New Jersey-based charity, which is supported by Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhal, solves this problem by encouraging people on their website to set up local collection drives for them. When such collection drives are finished, participants are told to bring or send their donations to the New Eyes offices in New Jersey.

Biggs-Vanzo, who currently chairs Meadow Brook’s drive for New Eyes, said she was doing research online on celebrities who give money to charity when she stumbled on the organization.

At the time, she was compiling information for a promotional poster for Meadow Brook’s last show, “Spreading It Around,” a comedy about members of a gated Florida community who decide to spend their children’s inheritances to set up a charity, which ran from March 14 to April 8.

Biggs-Vanzo said she decided on the drive as a marketing effort for Meadow Brook because she wanted a chance to give back to the community year-around.

“Partnering with other non-profit organizations gives us a chance to give back to the community around us,” said Cheryl Marshall, Meadow Brook’s managing director, according to a press release. “This is a great opportunity to make a difference by supporting the works of another organization. We are hoping for a great response.”

Meadow Brook is offering a “buy one, get one free” ticket discount for “Spreading it Around” and “From My Hometown” to those patrons who bring a donation item to Sunday evening performances. Tickets, however, must be purchased at the door with donations of eyeglasses, lenses, eyeglass cases, jewelry or hearing aids in hand.

“Our patrons are always great, but they are really responding to the drive,” Biggs-Vanzo said. “The community is so wonderful to us.”

So far, Biggs-Vanzo has collected 106 glasses, 60 lenses and 3 pieces of costume jewelry, which she keeps in her office and in Meadow Brook’s box office.

Meadow Brook, however, is not the only place to drop-off donations. Heather Klain, office manager for University Eye Care, P.C., an ophthalmologist’s office, also has a collection box sitting outside of her office.

She said Meadow Brook contacted her about six or seven weeks ago to ask permission to use University Eye Care, which also donates used glasses to the Lion’s Club, as a community collection site for their drive. Four weeks ago, she said they started accepting donations for New Eyes.

“It’s great to help the community,” Klain said, “just to give our patients a place where they can put something they may not use to good use for a cause.”

Donations can also be dropped off at the Meadow Brook box office or at University Eye Care on Squirrel Road at any time between March 30 and May 13. For more information, go to www.neweyesfortheneedy.org

 

 

—-Contact Staff Intern Jessica McLean via email at [email protected].