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Much of Susanna Zaraysky’s life has been defined by two things: Her vision problems and her ease at picking up new languages.

Her eyesight was an issue from the beginning.

Zaraysky was born in Leningrad and diagnosed with such severe strabismus (crossed eyes) that at the age of two she was placed in a school for developmentally disabled children. Her parents, both engineers, immigrated to the United States with their two daughters in search of better jobs and by 1985 they were living in San Jose, California.

Zaraysky, then 9 and in fifth grade, had a wandering eye and astigmatism and wore round, thick, Coke-bottle glasses. “All the kids made fun of me,” she says. When her parents were between jobs and she needed new glasses, they asked her school, Eisenhower Elementary, for help and Zaraysky received a voucher from her local Lions club for a new pair of glasses with an updated prescription. “It was so important that I got them,” she says.

Zaraysky’s father was not fluent in English and as a child she was often asked to serve as their interpreter. She picked up languages quickly, capable of copying accents well enough to sound like a native speaker. “I felt like the unwilling guide in the Tower of Babel,” she says. “I found myself interpreting for others and often being the only person who could understand almost everybody.”

As a teen she had surgery to correct her wandering eye and traded in her glasses for contacts. She graduated from college, worked and traveled. Along the way, Zaraysky became fluent in seven languages, never fully understanding why languages came so easily to her. Then at the age of 29 she discovered the answer. Zaraysky realized that could only see in 2D not 3D, and her limited vision made her hearing very sensitive. That sensitivity, coupled with the realization that she heard language as music not as words, was the source of her talent. “It’s as though my ears are the third dimension that I don’t have with my vision,” explains Zaraysky.

She has made peace with her imperfect vision and no longer sees it as a disability. Just recently she wrote and published a book, Language is Music (Kaleidomundi, 2009) , in which she offers advice on learning foreign languages. “I have this ability to listen and to communicate that most people don’t have,” Zaraysky says. “It’s as though I’ve turned lemons into lemonade.”

The Lions Club has a huge eyeglass recycling program, collecting more than 5 million pairs of eyeglasses annually and distributing them to more than 3 million people in developing nations. Donating your old or unused glasses provides life-changing vision services for needy people all around the world. You can make a difference in the life of a vision-impaired person. Donate your glasses today!

Contribute to our Campaign for 1,000 Pairs today!

Paul Brads never thought he was poor. Sure there were five kids in his family and his father’s work as a Baptist preacher didn’t pay much. But growing up in Germantown, Ohio, there was always food on the table, clothes and shoes to wear, library books to read.

On a warm May afternoon in 1961, the last day of third grade, Brads’ father picked the 8-year-old up early from school and drove him 12 miles to Dayton to get his First pair of glasses. The retired phone company manager remembers how exotic it felt to ride the elevator to the optician’s office on the 15th floor. And he recalls how sharp and clear the world looked through his new lenses. “It was so cool,” he says. “Colors were brighter. The trees weren’t just big circles. I noticed the shapes of the leaves. Even the fabric in my Dad’s car seemed different.”

Brads never asked where his glasses came from: He just assumed that his parents bought them. It wasn’t until he was in his 20s that his sister Zola told him that the Lions were behind the purchase. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Brads remembers asking his father. “Well, I guess it’s just because you liked for things to be better than they were,” he was told.

He considered what his father said for a minute and realized that he was right. “I was a happy kid but more than anything I always wanted to fit in,” says Brads, now 58 and the father of two grown children. “I would have been chagrined if anyone had perceived me as poor and I think that’s why Dad never said anything. He didn’t want me to be embarrassed.”

Brads worked for the phone company for 30 years, taught school and now works in finance for a nationwide car dealership. As an adult, he’s not embarrassed to be the recipient of glasses from the Lions. In fact, he’s so comfortable with the fact that he freely shares it with people he meets and with those who read his blog (www.rednecklatte. com).

“Getting glasses as an 8-year-old changed my life completely because I don’t think anyone realized how badly I couldn’t see until I went to the eye doctor,” he says. “I’m humbled to think that someone cared enough to do something that good for me."

The Lions Club has a huge eyeglass recycling program, collecting more than 5 million pairs of eyeglasses annually and distributing them to more than 3 million people in developing nations. Donating your old or unused glasses provides life-changing vision services for needy people all around the world. You can make a difference in the life of a vision-impaired person. Donate your glasses today!

Contribute to our Campaign for 1,000 Pairs today!

Dale Bowman’s work as a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times has him combing fields, streams and mountains for good stories. One week might find the award-winning outdoors writer hiking through woods to write about fishing in Monster Lake, another week he’s chronicling the tale of a forager’s massive morel.

Being a good reporter isn’t just about writing, it’s about listening. The idea is to make a connection with people so they share their stories. Sometimes when they do, the writer has an opportunity to share his, too.

That’s what happened 20 years ago when Bowman was working on a profile of Paul Martin, a well-known wrestler and TV personality.

The men met over breakfast and during the interview Martin told the reporter he was writing a book about the history of Lions Clubs International. The two started talking about the Lions and the conversation sparked a memory of Bowman’s about something meaningful the Lions had done for him a number of decades before.

Bowman was a country kid growing up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the fifth of six children. He had just started first grade and was in tears every day at school. “Nobody could figure out why,” he says. “Then my best friend Johnny King figured it out. I’m not sure how. I was crying because couldn’t read the blackboard.”

The 6-year-old needed glasses. But his family had no money to buy them. “My father worked in a stone quarry and probably wasn’t bringing home much more than $100 a week at the time,” says Bowman, 52. “The cost of glasses was so much there was absolutely no chance we were going to be able to afford them.”

The school nurse referred the boy to the Salisbury Township Lions Club and before too long, Bowman had his glasses. They were thick with heavy, black rectangular frames. Kids at school made fun of the way he looked, but he didn’t care. He could see.

Soon after he got his glasses, his dad was made foreman of the quarry and Bowman no longer needed help from the Lions. He grew up, finished school and forgot all about his Lion’s glasses until his meeting with Martin 16 years later. “He reminded me of where I came from,” he says. “It made me realize that I had reached a point in my life where maybe I should probably start thinking about giving something back.”

Since then, whenever Bowman encounters Lions selling candy, he searches his pockets for money. Instead of tossing in coins, he tosses in paper bills. And whenever he has one, he’ll contribute a $20. “They always look twice when I drop a $20 in, but that’s my way to pay back."

The Lions Club has a huge eyeglass recycling program, collecting more than 5 million pairs of eyeglasses annually and distributing them to more than 3 million people in developing nations. Donating your old or unused glasses provides life-changing vision services for needy people all around the world. You can make a difference in the life of a vision-impaired person. Donate your glasses today!

Contribute to our Campaign for 1,000 Pairs today!

As a lifelong resident of Naperville, George Pradel has watched his community blossom from a sleepy country town with 4,500 residents to a bustling city of 147,000 people that regularly ranks as one of the best places to live in the United States.

Pradel is proud of his city, its walkable downtown and excellent schools, and since he became mayor 15 years ago, he’s had ample opportunity to share Naperville with people he meets. What truly makes his city special, he Likes to say, is the people who live there. That’s something he learned more than 60 years ago.

Back in 1947 Pradel was one of 30 students in Naperville’s Bronsonville Elementary, a one-room red brick school house. The fifth grader’s “lazy eye” vision made the words in his schoolbooks run together, and when his teacher Irene Kocher noticed he was struggling, she told his mother she thought he might need glasses.

The news was troubling. “Times were tough and my dad was not making very much money, maybe only $45 a week,” he says. The family of six was growing quickly and Pradel knew they didn’t have an extra $15 for glasses.

But Miss Kocher knew what to do. “I have a friend who is a Lion and we’re going to submit your name for glasses,” she told him. Within a few weeks, Pradel was wearing his first pair of glasses nonstop. “They weren’t real pretty but they were practical,” he says of the thick brown and clear plastic frames. “I was so tickled I wore them every chance I got.” Shortly after Pradel joined the town’s police force in 1966, his friend Everett Gregory invited him to join the Naperville Noon Lions Club. He didn’t need to think twice. “Because of what the Lions have done for me I wanted to give back in a big way.” During the last forty years, he’s raised money for the Lions and participated actively in the club. He has a special affinity for the annual 5K road race the Lions sponsor in Naperville, which drew almost 5,000 runners last year.

While writing about the upcoming race in the city newsletter a few years ago, Pradel shared that the Lions had bought him his first pair of glasses. “I have no shame about that,” he confessed. “The Lions club is so friendly to everyone and has done so much for our city, I just wanted people to know how much the Lions mean to me.”

The Lions Club has a huge eyeglass recycling program, collecting more than 5 million pairs of eyeglasses annually and distributing them to more than 3 million people in developing nations. Donating your old or unused glasses provides life-changing vision services for needy people all around the world. You can make a difference in the life of a vision-impaired person. Donate your glasses today!

Click here to download:

Lions - Local Service, Worldwide Influence.pdf (2.18 MB)

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Click here to download:

Lions - Local Service, Worldwide Influence.pdf (2.18 MB)

Here's an overview of what being a LION is all about...Local Service, Worldwide Impact. Want more information about becoming a Lion? Send email to information@azusalions.org.