HANDING-DOWN YOUR OLD BINOCULARS

Is there a retired pair of gently used binoculars in your family? Is it a premium priced make and model of binocular that still has a lot of life left? If so, consider donating them to a group that specializes in getting binoculars in the hands of those who really need them. These two groups will accept them gratefully and put them to good use: First, the American Birding Association’s Birder’s Exchange program accepts gently used premium optics for distribution to biologists in Latin America and the Caribbean. You can contact the American Birding Association directly at aba.org. The second is Optics for the Tropics who also gets those gently used binoculars into the hands of conservationists and biologists in the Caribbean and Latin America. You can find them on the web at opticsforthetropics.org A final option that’s close to your home would be to contact your nearest nature center or park headquarters to inquire if they have a loaner binocular program for visitors, especially school children spending the day observing nature. In all of these options, please do not send binoculars that are old, worn out, or in need of repair. Those will do better on your shelf as a book end or just as an interesting conversation piece of history. In summary, don’t let that good pair of binoculars go to waste where all they’re doing is collecting dust. Get them back outside by handing-them-down so they’ll have a second life. Do it for the owls.

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