For the first time in 57 years, Henry Metzler won't be reaching for the nightstand when he wakes up.
In two weeks, the Squamish resident will undergo cataract surgery, a procedure he says will give him new eyes.
My wife doesn't like it because she only knows me with glasses, Metzler said with a chuckle.
The change renders the 20 pairs of glasses Metzler accumulated over a lifetime of prescriptions obsolete. But he's already got plans for them. In the corner of Precision Optical's store sit two boxes. On the boxes are the logo for Third World Eye Care Society.
You always have a drawer full of glasses you don't use, the 63-year-old said. They could change people's lives.
Pete Heinrich saw firsthand the impact unused glasses can have at their newfound homes. In 2007, the Precision Optical optician sat on a plane loaded with 28,000 pairs of glasses headed for northern Mexico.
I have 100 stories, he said of the two-week experience.
In Mexicali, Heinrich helped the non-profit agency The Gift of Sight which administers aid similar to that offered by the Third World Eye Care Society conduct free eye examinations and pair people with glasses.
The last day of the event touched him forever. Heinrich served an 80-year-old woman with poor vision. After a lifetime of never having seen clearly, she put on the glasses and looked at her grandchildren.
To this day, I still remember the look on her face, Heinrich said.
Heinrich plans to do another trip, this time with Third World Eye Care Society. Both men encourage people to drop off unused glasses at Precision Optical at 1362 Pemberton St. They are regularly collected by the Squamish Lions Club.
The vision charity and stories of changed lives have inspired Metzler.
I went to garage sales and I got some glasses and threw them in there, he said.
