When Yonina Weinberg, a Yeshivat Noam middle schooler, turned 3, she had to pay a visit to an ophthalmologist, Dr. Brian Campolatarro aka “Dr. Brian,” who told her and her mother that Yonina needed to start wearing glasses every day.
For the past nine years, Yonina visits Dr. Campolattaro annually and every year receives a new prescription. In turn, that means new glasses. Yonina has been fortunate to go and pick out beautiful new frames and get new lenses whenever needed.
When it came time to thinking of meaningful chesed ideas for her Bat Mitzvah, collecting used eyeglasses seemed like a great cause. Bearing in mind that Yonina and her mother, Aliza Weinberg, were planning a Bat Mitzvah trip to Israel in August, Aliza set out to find an organization in Israel that collects used frames. With a few clicks on the Internet, Aliza found an organization based in Rana’ana called RE-SPECS for the Needy. She contacted the founder, Chana Simon, and set up a drive for Yonina to collect the frames. To date, Yonina has collected dozens and dozens of gently used frames and hopes to collect many more before heading off to Israel.
If you have frames in good condition, please contact Aliza Weinberg to drop them off at her house. For more information on this wonderful organization, please visit their website, www.respecsframes.org.
