Eclipse glasses are a hot item in central Indiana as Hoosiers gear up for the April 8 total eclipse.
To help protect everyone’s eyes and to celebrate the celestial event, the Greater Lawrence Chamber of Commerce ordered 10,000 pairs of custom ISO-certified eclipse glasses.
“They feature the City of Lawrence Total Eclipse 2024 official logo on the front, with the Greater Lawrence Chamber on one side and Purple Ribbon Office Solutions on the other,” Chamber President Brad Klopfenstein said. “The logo was designed by Jarod Hooten and Daniel Beyers of the City of Lawrence, and the Chamber’s own Jodi Petty did the layout for the glasses. They are definitely a nice keepsake of the event, but unless you plan on traveling the world over the next two decades chasing eclipses, you won’t get much of an opportunity to use them again in the continental U.S. until 2045. I guess that if you have a desire to occasionally stare at the sun, they can offer some eye protection, but I wouldn’t make it a habit.”
The glasses are available for purchase at Saltire Toys & Games, Porter Books & Bread, The Groovy Cat Cafe and the Greater Lawrence Chamber office. The City of Lawrence will have 1,000 pairs to distribute for free during the city’s April 8 eclipse celebration, Klopfenstein said.
“However, I wouldn’t count on glasses being available that day, because when they are gone, they’re gone,” he said. “It’s been interesting — we’ve been fielding calls from people upwards of 50 miles away wanting to buy glasses in bulk from us. We keep telling them to come to Lawrence and we’ll direct them to where to find them.”
Klopfenstein said they started planning for the eclipse, including the glasses, as far back as 2022 during a national Chamber of Commerce conference.
“The executives who had been in the path of the 2017 eclipse were very emphatic that you can’t start planning early enough, you can’t over-estimate the influx of visitors that you will have in your city and even if you think that you’ve covered all of your bases, you will still be overwhelmed,” he said. “Given the sense of urgency from my colleagues, I met with officials from the Lawrence mayor’s office the following week and told them that we needed to start planning now. While skeptical at first, they indulged my sense of urgency and we formed a planning committee that included the mayor’s office, public safety, Fort Harrison State Park management, key community organizations and, of course, the Greater Lawrence Chamber.”
