“Last year I got glasses for the first time,” said Lucas. “This happened after I was complaining that it was becoming difficult to see things that were far away when I was at school.” 

Lucas knew that having glasses would make a positive difference in his life and that it was easy for him to get a pair. All it took was a visit to the optical store and pick them up two weeks later.

Son of Jodi and Mark Blucher of Olivette, Lucas realized that for others, though, getting prescription glasses wasn’t so easy. To help them out, he collected used glasses and donated them to ReSpectacle, a nonprofit that uses the power of the Internet to facilitate redistribution of quality, used eyeglasses, at no charge, to underserved communities worldwide. 

All patients need are their sphere/cyl/axis values and ReSpectacle takes care of the rest. 

Lucas set up a small collection box at Congregation Shaare Emeth shortly before his bar mitzvah. So far, he has collected close to 100 pairs of glasses. When the box gets full he takes them to Mercy Eye Care, one of the ReSpectacle collection sites in St. Louis. 

In addition to his collection, Lucas volunteered during ReSpectacle’s processing day, where he worked alongside the physicians and medical students who read the prescriptions and cataloged each pair. “It was really cool and I am looking forward to helping out the next time they have a processing day, Lucas said.”

A student at Ladue Middle School, Lucas really enjoyed seeing everyone’s response to his project. He received a lot of positive feedback from his family and friends and especially liked it when he received packages of glasses from out of town. “I know that glasses made a difference in my life so I can only  imagine how much of a difference they will make to someone who has not been seeing clearly for very long. And I was happy to be a part of that.”