Spec Trek

 SpecTrek 2010 takes place on 25 April.  As always we are hoping for a record year to get us started on that 3rd million!

The 25th Anniversary run of Spectrek  (April, 2007) was another great success.  The total collection fell just short of the 100000 mark.  A superb effort by the Lions of District 105D (i.e. largely mid southern England).  In addition sufficient funds were raised for the Club to sponsor at least one and possibly two eye camps in the developing world.  In the previous year's effort a similar number of specs were collected. In the 2006 Spec trek we collected 99800 pairs of specs for reuse in the Third World.

Like many good ideas Spectrek started with a chat over a beer. In the early 1980's Petersfield Lions Club had collected several thousand pairs of spectacles as part of Lions on going sight campaigns. The problem was that the central storage point was in Weymouth in Dorset. In conversation someone said "Oh, throw them in a wheel barrow and we'll push them there!" (and then went off to get another round in). But that is, indeed, what we did. That first Spectrek, over four days, was largely on foot with a couple of wheel barrows and a van full of specs. The rest , as they say, is history.

Today, we need four Transit style vans and a couple of support vehicles to collect specs from around 50 Lions Clubs spread over Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset. The Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands also contribute. These days we deliver our collection to our fellow Lions in Midhurst for onwards transport to Chichester Lions and France for dispatch to the Third World. In the Third World that unwanted pair of glasses can make the difference between supporting a family or starving. Our one day collection brings in around 80-85 thousand pairs of specs per year. The numbers show no sign of diminishing and we are well on the way to our two millionth pair.

Petersfield Lions are very grateful for the support that they have received locally over the years from businesses who have supplied at little or indeed no charge the very necessary transport. Also, the event could not take place without the wholehearted and good humoured help and hospitality of the Lions of the region.

Spectrek is a hard day out. Handling 80000 pairs of specs two times and driving over two hundred miles is no picnic. But it is extremely rewarding and the proof of the pudding is that it is a Club activity where every Lion turns out if they are able.

The picture shows the Club receiving a pile of specs (in boxes) from another Club.

SpecTrek25

We are hoping for big things in our 2007 collection.  It will be our 25th year and we are making it part of Lions International's Campaign Sight First II.  More news will appear here as matters progress but just to give things a bit of a send off is a picture of the end of that first long trek to Weymouth.  Our apologies to those whose identities we can't recall.

All smiles at Weymouth (1982)

Back Row (L to R) : Mayor of Weymouth, David Lancaster Mayor of Petersfield (hidden), Valerie Lancaster Mayoress of Petersfield, Jill Harvey, Dai Davis , President of Weymouth Lions, Les Jarman, Clive Midson, David Chitty, Terry Tidd, Albert Winterbottom

Front Row (L to R) : Ian Burt, Ian Harvey, Dave Platts, David Barnard, Dean Wynne