Needy people in Whatcom County will have access to free eye exams and free eyeglasses at a new clinic that will open soon in the Lighthouse Mission's drop-in center on Holly Street.

For people without insurance or a wad of spare cash, having bad glasses or no glasses can make it difficult to read, apply for jobs and cope with day-to-day life.

"Can you imagine living without those?" asked Brian Koning, a Bellingham optometrist on the committee that organized the clinic. "The benefit to the community is going to be just tremendous, as well as to the individual."

The clinic, a joint effort by Lighthouse Mission Ministries and Bellingham Central Lions Club, is named after Frank Haskell, a Bellingham businessman who was active in the club until he died in 1982.

Like other Lions clubs, Bellingham Central already subsidizes eye exams and glasses for low-income people. That program serves up to five people a month, on average.

The new clinic, which initially will be open three hours a week, is expected to serve up to two dozen people a month.

Exams and eyeglasses at the clinic will be free because Lighthouse Mission is providing the space, utilities and staff oversight; eight optometrists and three opticians from Whatcom and Skagit counties will take turns donating their time; and Lions Club members will volunteer to help run the clinic office.

"You can see a lot more people for a lot less money," said Ron Dickerson, a club member who chaired the clinic committee.

With new and used eyeglass frames already on hand, the only out-of-pocket expense will be lenses. The club will have an ongoing committee to help oversee the clinic and to raise money when needed.

The idea of an eye clinic came into focus early this year when the club was asked to help at a one-day social service fair in March organized by Homeless Connect. Dickerson said the club wasn't able to participate, but he and Ron Buchinski, executive director of Lighthouse Mission, began talking about creating a permanent clinic.

"That was the spark that got us going," Dickerson said.

The mission remodeled part of the upper-floor space at the rear of the drop-in center, 1013 W. Holly St. The clinic space is next to a room where Sea Mar Community Health Center already provides medical checkups for about 50 low-income people a week.

The clinic committee included three club members who are active or retired optometrists: Koning, Denis Holmes and Ken Henderson.

Holmes, who is president-elect of Optometric Physicians of Washington, emailed eye doctors throughout the state asking for donated equipment for the clinic. Doctors and businesses from several parts of the state contributed, and a mission in Seattle provided an exam chair. Altogether, about $10,000 worth of equipment has been donated.

Some equipment had to be purchased, a task made much easier by a $30,000 grant from St. Luke's Foundation, which lately has focused on improving health care access for poor people.

"It's consistent with the priorities we have right now," said Sue Sharpe, the foundation's executive director. "It was a good partnership for us."

Another grant, one for $3,000, came from a Frank Haskell memorial fund to support club programs to help the community.

Bellingham Central Lions Club will continue its own eye-care program, and might refer some people to the new clinic.

At the Haskell clinic, people won't have to be homeless clients of the mission to receive exams and glasses, but people will have to apply and be screened for eligibility.

A ceremony to mark the opening of the clinic is planned for Jan. 12, but the clinic might have a "soft opening" sooner.

Koning, who moved to Bellingham about a year ago, helped start a charity eye clinic while practicing in Olympia. That clinic, too, had major support from a mission, Lions club members, and optometrists who donate their time. He's aware of perhaps five or six such clinics in Washington.

"There's not too many of these around," he said.

MORE INFORMATION

• For details about Frank Haskell Lions Eye Clinic, call the Lighthouse Mission, 360-671-1562, or see thelighthousemission.org.

• For details about the eye care program at Bellingham Central Lions Club, see bellinghamcentrallions.org.