–Campaign Aims to Collect Eyeglasses and Enroll More Cornea Donors by the Year 2020–

Pittsburgh, March 23, 2016 – There’s no clearer way to improve someone’s sight than to give now … and give later. The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) is launching Project 20/20, a campaign to collect eyeglasses for the visually impaired and improve organ, tissue and cornea donor designations by the year 2020.

“At CORE, we see first-hand the difference vision improvement can make in the quality of a person’s life,” said Susan Stuart, president and CEO, CORE. “Through Project 20/20, we hope to help grant the precious gift of sight to as many individuals as possible, whether through corrective glasses or sight-restoring cornea transplants.”

Project 20/20 will accept donations in designated boxes located throughout the organization’s service area. Volunteers will prepare the glasses for shipment to humanitarian distribution teams, and supply clinics with an inventory of prepared glasses.

Most of the recycled glasses are distributed to people in need in developing countries, where they will have the greatest impact.

The campaign is also intended to inspire people to make A Pledge for Life and register as an organ, tissue and cornea donor. In 2015, CORE provided corneal transplants to 273 western Pennsylvania residents and 737 were exported outside the region. Project 20/20 aims to build off of these successes and increase the donor bank so that even more people can receive the cornea transplants they need.

With more than 95 percent of all cornea transplants being successful in restoring vision, cornea donors make the gift of sight a reality for the nearly 50,000 cornea transplants performed in the U.S. each year. At CORE’s onsite eye bank at its Pittsburgh headquarters, specialists work efficiently in evaluating and distributing corneas to meet the needs of cornea transplant surgeries regionally and nationally.

For more information about Project 20/20 and to sign up to become an organ, tissue and cornea donor, visit CORE’s website at core.org.

About CORE

The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) is one of 58 federally designated not-for-profit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) in the United States. CORE works closely with donor families and designated health care professionals to coordinate the surgical recovery of organs, tissues and corneas for transplantation. CORE also facilitates the computerized matching of donated organs and placement of corneas. With headquarters in Pittsburgh and an office in Charleston, West Virginia, CORE oversees a region that encompasses 155 hospitals and almost six million people throughout western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Chemung County, NY. For more information, visit core.org or call 1-800-DONORS-7.