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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!