New recycling options for eye drop containers and contact lens cases!

We are into our fifth year of recycling contact lenses and contact lens packaging as a Terra Cycle partner! A common concern for our potential daily wear contact lens wearers was the amount of waste the daily disposable contacts would generate. We’re excited to have this solution available and we’ve now shipped over 460 pounds of contact lens waste that has been dropped off by you Bellingham for proper recycling. Yes – I calculated that twice to make sure. Municipal recycle pick up would sort out these little pieces of plastic from the recycle and now we’ve diverted the equivalent weight of a tiger out of the landfill!

We’ve worked hard to get the word out about our contact lens recycling program and these results show it has been successful! Now we’re excited to introduce a new recycling program available for more eyecare products. Binyon Vision Center is now also a drop off point for recycling the following items:

• All brands of contact lens cases
• All brands of contact lens solution bottle caps (bottles can be recycled through the city recycling program- but caps are too small!)
• Eye drop single dose vials
• Eye drop packaging

Hard to remember? Here’s a little image to help. If it has to do with your eye care or eye wear and it seems too small to go into the City Recycle… we will probably be able to recycle it!

With the addition of eye drop packaging, this spreads to non-contact lens wearers! We’d appreciate helping us get the word out- if you can share this image above with your friends, family members and social media followers we can get more people recycling these items. As with the contact lens packaging, anyone can drop by a container of these products, we’ll take the goods and return your container if you’d like. You can drop it through our mail slot (if it fits!) during our closed hours.

Recycling around the office with Ridwell

Our optical business receives many boxes via courier service and various package delivery outfits every day. Yes, this is so fun- new frames for our showroom floor, our patient’s completed prescription glasses, office supplies, and more to keep us going! After the thrill of opening the boxes of new glasses, the let down was the amount of unrecyclable waste. Over a year ago, Dr. LeClaire opened an account with Ridwell, a unique pick up service for hard to recycle items. Check out here if they are available in your area.

Recently, we upgraded our Ridwell service to the unlimited plan. This allows us to recycle:

• Plastic film (many frame companies send their frames to us in plastic film bags for protection)
• Batteries
• Threads
• Light bulbs
• Multi-layered plastic (food storage bags for example)
• Clear plastic clamshells
• Styrofoam
• Latex paint and fluorescent lights for a minimal extra fee

We received a bin to fill for monthly pick up but with our unlimited plan, we can add extra bags (and we always do!) outside of the bin and they will take those also. We love the knowledge the extra waste that comes in the door can be recycled and what is especially cool about Ridwell is they will tell us where it’s going! They are transparent and accountable for how and where the recycled materials are used. See more details here.

With Terra Cycle and Ridwell, small recycling steps add up!

You can help us with our mission to divert small eye care waste from landfills – reference the image above and drop by these new items along with your contact lens waste to Binyon Vision Center. If you haven’t started using Ridwell yet, we’d encourage you to give it a try! The service can be canceled any time if it’s not a good fit. For the Binyon Vision Center team, the peace of mind all of us get from not throwing these previously unrecyclable items into the garbage can is priceless!

The ENTIRE Lafont Collection on display

There was no doubt on July 12, 2023- Lafont Paris was in the Binyon house in Bellingham, WA. One of the pioneers of the independent eyewear movement and family owned for 100 years – we are always so excited to welcome this company to take over the store and show their extensive and unique line of frames.

Cheetah, cheetah and more cheetah

A long time signature of the Lafont line is the cheetah print that has graced many a frame style in the last 100 years. One table was dedicated to all of the current frames that come in cheetah print. There are over 18 frames that incorporate cheetah into their color scheme!

My mission – finding my next frame to compliment my current collection!

When I became presbyopic a few years ago and needed progressive lenses to see the fine print- my glasses collection severely reduced in size! I was so excited to peruse the latest Lafont line to find the perfect pair. There were two that stood out immediately- both recommended by the Lafont rep for the Pacific Northwest, Ciara.

The “Maud” features a metal polka dot motif in an amazing cut out bronze color accented by the bottom light blue. I love the delicacy of the cut outs- I had a previous Lafont frame with a filigree cut out and it looked like a piece of jewelry. Jordan pointed out the bronze color might not wear well in winter without the summer glow, and I had to agree! Maybe next time, Maud.

Oh hello “Jeanne” … this is the magic of a trunk show. Jeanne has been at the Binyon store before but in a different color combination. This pop of color combined with lightness and my favorite shape was exactly what I needed. I put these on, and knew I’d found the perfect pair.

After making my final selection, I was excited to be measured by the new tool in the office, the Shamir Spark hands-free measuring tool. Heather sat me down to look in the mirror and showed me how the machine took all the necessary measurements for the progressive lenses, even calculating how far the glasses were from the front of my eyes and the angle from the top to the bottom of the lenses. I’m so excited to get the Autograph Intelligence lenses with these new frames- the best in progressive lens technology.

What is a trunk show?

A trunk show is an opportunity for a manufacturer to bring in their entire collection to a retail partner. As much as an optical boutique like ours would love to carry every frame in every color, we get to choose our inventory carefully (PS – stay tuned for an upcoming blog interview with our office manager on how she chooses which frames to bring in the store)!

During a trunk show, we get a limited opportunity to bring in every frame from one of our manufacturers in every color and it is SO fun. This summer, we’re bringing one of our longtime favorites, Lafont Paris who is also celebrating their 100th year in business!

Who is Lafont?

Here is a snippet from the Lafont website about their rich history in eyewear:

“Lafont’s story begins with Louis Lafont in 1923 and the opening of his optical boutique at 11 rue Vignon Paris. The Maison took a pivotal turn in the 1980’s with Laurence and Philippe Lafont introducing their iconic frame – GENIE. Today Thomas and Matthieu, fourth generation the of Lafont family, head Maison Lafont, where independence remains a pillar of the brand.

Together they are committed to the future ensuring eco-responsibility in their products and services.

Lafont is full of color and Parisian style. Signature colors and patterns are combined with seasonal shading forming unique and exclusive designs. Evidence of the authenticity of French eyewear expertise and French manufacturing found in the unique combination of artisanal craftsmanship and technology that is fundamental to the House.
One passion guides our collections: a beautiful product made with care and attention to detail.”

With over 500 additional frames in stock, we hope that you join us for return of the annual Lafont Trunk show!

Your Invitation!

Dear Patients,

We are extremely excited to announce the addition of a new optometrist to the team at Binyon Vision Center.  Dr. Patrick Squires will start seeing patients on April 24th and have availability on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  

Dr. Squires grew up in St. Louis and graduated from the University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Optometry with honors.  He has spent most of his career working in community health clinics in Seattle.  Dr. Squires helped establish a diabetic clinic for the Puget Sound Neighborhood Health Clinics, where he did retinal screenings.  He volunteered with UW Faculty and medical students, “Sight Savers”, and local health fairs including Seamar’s Latina Health Fair. He was also a past director and a volunteer at the Millionair Club Eye Clinic in Seattle. 

Dr. Squires’ wife is from Glasgow.  While pursuing her, he spent four years working abroad in Germany and Scotland.  During his time in Germany, Dr. Squires set up contact lens clinics as a civilian for the Department of Defense.

Dr. Squires’ son attends Fairhaven Middle School, and his wife is an Occupational Therapist for the Opportunity Council.  In his free time, Dr. Squires travels the I-5 corridor driving his son to his next soccer match.  Being an avid baseball fan, he is a season ticket holder to the Everett Aquasox, and frequently attends Bellingham Bells games.  Dr. Squires considers himself fortunate to have worked with many exceptional clinicians, and caring individuals, throughout his career. He has great respect for Dr. McEathron and is excited to join Dr. LeClaire and Binyon Vision Center.

Dr. McEathron will be working two days a week in June and on Wednesdays in July until he hangs up his ophthalmoscope- except for occasional vacation fill-in for the other doctors!  We wish him all the best in his retirement.

Sincerely,

Dr. Heather LeClaire and the Binyon team

Each of you who trusts us with your eye health and glasses needs are invaluable to our business. For patient appreciation month we celebrate YOU. Thank you for your support.

Our community’s support of local, independent businesses is above and beyond. Inspired by the “Think Local” campaign – we’ve put together a drawing with prizes from some of our favorite local businesses and multiple ways for our patients to enter! This year we’re going bigger – more prizes and more ways to win!

Here are the ways you can earn entries to the patient appreciation drawing:

• Stop by the office and request an entry!
• Bring by your spray bottle for a refill for two entries!
• Bring in used contact lenses and packaging for recycling for two entries
• Purchase a 3, 6 or 9 month supply of contacts = three entries
• Purchase new lenses for your frame = three entries
• Purchase a plano (non-prescription) pair of sunglasses = three entries
• Purchase a year supply of contacts = five entries
• Order a new complete pair of glasses = five entries

And now the best part! The prizes!

• A pair of Ovvo frames- your pick- and a free set of lenses = one complete pair of glasses!!
• Gift certificate to Binyon Vision Center
• Custom 5 x 7 painting by local artist Ben Mann
• Gift certificate to Lockbreaker Escape Rooms
• Gift certificate to Pure Bliss
• Local artist Phoebe Wahl gifts
• Cute but Crazy Socks
• Gift certificate for Village Books
• Aslan Brewing Co swag
• And more!

All qualifying purchases will be automatically added to the drawing throughout the month of April and the winner will be notified the first week of May! One prize per entrant. No limit to number of entries.

Thank you again for your incredible support of our business! We appreciate you!

Also! Keep a look out on our Instagram page for a special social media giveaway this month!

Last month we published a popular blog post interweaving our company’s long history in downtown Bellingham with its newspaper advertisements in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Thanks again to the comprehensive resource, newspapers.com, we have more to share from the 1950’s through the 2000’s.

Bellingham Herald Advertisements from the 1950’s

As Bellingham and the rest of the country moved on from the war, we observed many changes in communities. The baby boom was in full swing and more people were moving to the suburbs and out of the big cities. For this reason and the decline of many of Bellingham’s industries including fishing, lumber and canneries, the local government pushed hard for the new multilane highway (I-5) to run right through downtown and along the waterfront. The hope was to promote new factories and industry into the heart of Bellingham. As we see now, the state road planners had different ideas (Reference: Bellingham – Thumbnail History). There is no record of what the Binyon Optometrists thought of this idea, but it’s safe to say our current downtown would look much different if I-5 had been routed this way!

We find the newspaper advertisements for the 1950’s continue to highlight eye exams as scientific, glasses as precise tools. This particular advertisement catches one’s eye with the line – “Glasses become obsolete too!” Reading further, you see it’s one’s eyes that would change to cause glasses to no longer work well- cleverly emphasizing the need for yearly eye exams:

There is no question that glasses fashion took off in the 1950’s – thank you Buddy Holly. While men’s frames were mostly basic horn-rims, the ladies discovered the cat-eye. Colors became more available in women’s frames and the additions of set-in gems was common.

The following lifestyle ads connect good vision to optimal eye health- presenting a problem that can be solved with a quality eye exam and glasses:

A few ads highlighted new, specialty products available from Binyon:

And finally, the newspaper remained the best forum to keep the public updated on store news and events:

One ad that stands out to the current Binyon staff is this one that details the “Binyon Rules of Practice.” We still have this poster hanging in our office today:

Bellingham Herald Advertisements from the 1960’s

This decade started with the loss of Dr. J.R. Binyon, the founder of Binyon Optometrists on June 17th, 1960. At this time, Binyon was operating twelve offices in Washington and Oregon, each with separate managers. After his passing, each office sold and the Bellingham office began running under the ownership of Dr. Leroy Freeman, Dr. Binyon’s nephew who had managed the practice since 1950. With the independent ownership, each company began marketing itself. The inclusion of other cities with Binyon offices dropped from each ad, and the number of ads dramatically reduced. In fact, we only found two from this decade. Highlighting the message that your vision affects your daily life and routine eye exams are important – the advertisement is more simple than past years. Note in this decade and the last ad of the 1950’s, the contact phone number changed from 3 digits to 5 digits.

The office posted an announcement with the Bellingham Herald about a new doctor addition, a Bellingham High School graduate who also served in the Army Medical Corp, Dr. Donald Jones.

Bellingham Herald Advertisements from the 1970’s

The above heading (advertisements) misleads, as we only found one Bellingham Herald advertisement run by Binyon Optometrists during the 1970’s! This ad promoted the third office move to Magnolia Street, a space Binyon occupied for about 20 years. Now the phone number is a full seven digits:

Binyon Optometrists earned a brief mention in the Local News section after a burglary:

In a Lifestyle article on glasses style, Binyon optician Rae Ann Baunach was quoted as agreeing that the “middle-age” population doesn’t like seeing themselves in bifocal glasses. The article makes the assertion that most people don’t find glasses attractive. We’re all really glad that perception has changed. Note in the photo of Marilyn Monroe the glasses were added with the question – would you ask this woman for a date? Things have definitely changed.

Bellingham Herald Advertising in the 1980’s

Activity picked up on the Binyon advertising front in the 1980’s. Dr. Mark McEathron joined the staff of doctors in 1980, announced in advertising space.

Soon after his arrival, Dr. McEathron met Curtis Dye, president of Interconnect Systems, a company specializing in business phone systems. They still both remember cleverly changing Binyon’s phone number to the current 647-2020, seen in all advertisements after 1981.

Dr. McEathron’s welcome advertisement included his specialty in child eye care. A few ads during this decade showed Binyon’s creation of a free vision screening for children, not yet required in schools.

The other emphasis for Binyon Optometrists during this decade was the optical department. This was the first mention of “Binyon Optical” or “Binyon Optical Center.” Fashion, frames and sales made up the majority of the advertisements, definitely highlighting the large glasses style of the time.

The Binyon team mourned the loss of partner Dr. Leroy Freeman in 1985, Dr. Binyon’s nephew, optometrist and part-owner of Binyon Optometrists in Bellingham since 1951.

Bellingham Herald Advertisements from the 1990’s

It’s hard for many of us to think of including the 1990’s in a historical overview of Bellingham Herald advertisements, but again we get to see how the decade had a specific look. Binyon Optometrists, Binyon Optical rebrands as Binyon Vision Center. At this time, the Herald was the foremost source of local news and a feature in the Local section about the most recent move to the corner of Garden and E. Magnolia was a big deal. Even though the rebranded name is noted as “Binyon Vision Clinic” (not exactly), this is a great article to promote the new location.

Advertised opportunities hoped to bring patients in to see the new office location with a few special events in this decade. Don’t miss the mention of Terry’s lattes – Bellingham has been espresso lovers for longer than most of the country!

Bellingham Herald Advertising in the 2000’s

The 2000’s proved the last presence of Binyon Vision Center advertisements in the Bellingham Herald. Smaller vertical oriented ads highlighted the staff, new products and the services offered at Binyon:

There is no doubt clip art was popular in this decade, we see this in these horizontally oriented advertisements for the optical department:

The opportunity to record Binyon Vision Center’s journey in Downtown Bellingham through these newspaper articles has been a privilege to share with you all! If you haven’t, please check out the first blog in this series with the advertisements from the 1930’s and 1940’s. We love our community, are thankful for the rich history we have here and are excited to continue the tradition of excellence in eyewear and eyecare for many many more years!

“A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all virtues.” – Cicero

The Binyon staff took some time to pause and give thanks this month:

To all our patients brand new to our office or who have been coming for years- thank you! We appreciate how you trust us with your eye health and vision needs. We are so thankful.

Throughout the year, our gratitude to our local community inspires us to give back and donate a portion of our profits to local non-profits in our area focused on meeting the needs of our community in so many important ways. See our page here “We’re Thankful We’re Giving” for more information on our community donations.

Each of you who trusts us with your eye health and glasses needs are invaluable to our business. From each of us – thank you to our patients. This month we celebrate YOU.

Our community’s support of local, independent businesses is above and beyond. Inspired by the “think local” campaign – we’ve put together a drawing with prizes from some of our favorite local businesses and multiple ways for our patients to enter!

Here are the ways you can earn entries to the drawing:

• Purchase a year supply of contact = one entry
• Order a new complete pair of glasses = one entry
• Order multiple complete pairs of glasses – two pairs = three entries, three pairs = five tickets, four pairs = seven tickets
• Purchase non-prescription sunglasses = one entry

And now the best part! The prizes!

Our grand prize drawing winner will receive:

• $100 gift certificate to Binyon Vision Center
• 2 tickets to the Lockbreaker Escape Room
• $10 in Bellingham Farmers Market Bucks and a Farmer’s Market Tea Towel
• Pair of socks from Cute but Crazy Socks
• Gift Certificate for 2 orders of dumplings at Pel’meni
• $10 Gift Card to Pure Bliss Desserts
• $20 Gift Card to Village Books
• Aslan Brewery swag

Additional prizes will be drawn for:

• A Pair of Invu Sunglasses (2 available)
• Optical supply kit – spray, fog spray, kim wipes, key chain screwdriver, Zeiss lens wipes, cleaning cloth (3 available)
• 2 tickets to Lockbreaker Escape Rooms
• $10 in Farmers Market Bucks and Tea Towel
• $10 Gift Card to Pure Bliss
• Cute but Crazy Socks (4 available)
• Gift Certificate for 2 orders of Pelmeni Dumplings
• $20 Gift Certificate for Village Books
• And more!

All qualifying purchases will be automatically added to the drawing throughout the month of April and the winner will be notified the first week of May! Thank you again for your incredible support of our business! We appreciate you!

Also! Keep a look out on our Instagram page for a special social media giveaway this month!