MADISON, Wis.—The Great Glasses Play Day, a volunteer event founded in 2012, will hold its fourth annual initiative on Saturday, May 2 through Sunday, May 3, 2015. The event celebrates and supports children who wear glasses or are otherwise visually impaired, and also educates families and raises awareness about preventable blindness.

“We are really moving forward and continuing to grow,” Kristin Ellsworth, co-founder of the Great Glasses Play Day told VMail. “As the event has evolved, it has taken on a community-specific atmosphere where we now have more parents involved who are excited to create play days with their own communities. The events tend to differ from region to region. However, the theme of optical stores and local vision retailers being involved has remained the same.”

The joint venture that emerged between Peeps Eyewear owner Kristin Ellsworth and Ann Zawistoski, who blogs for the site Little Four Eyes, provides many ways for families to celebrate outside of the in-person meet-up. Participants partake in a variety of online activities as well as enter contests and giveaways.

Great Glasses Play Day has also recently been approved as a nonprofit 5-1c3 organization and became retroactive as of March 2014. They have also started a Razoo account to help fund the event. All of the funds go toward the cost of materials and renting locations for the event, Ellsworth said.

Locations for meet-ups can be found on the Great Glasses Play Day website and there are ways to plan your own Great Glasses Play Day if there isn’t one in a city nearby.

“There are over 30 confirmed cities participating, and more being added every day,” Jessica Butler, Great Glass Play Day board member said. Organizations and stores such as the Casey Eye Institute, The Oregon Foundation for Vision Awareness, Prevent Blindness Wisconsin, ClearVision Optical and Optiwow in Miami, Fla. have all gotten involved in this year’s event.

For more information, visit greatglassesplayday.com or Facebook.com/greatglassesplayday and if you would like to donate toward materials and mailing costs of volunteer organizer kits, click here.