ABFFE to Benefit from Sale of Reading Glasses

On May 21, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression announced that 2020 Vision USA, a Sarasota, Florida, direct importer of reading glasses and sunglasses, has agreed to contribute $1 to ABFFE for every pair of glasses it sells to independent bookstores.

"We are very excited to have the support of 2020 Vision USA," ABFFE President Chris Finan said. "We hope that contributions from 2020 Vision and other sideline vendors will provide an important new source of the money we need to protect the First Amendment rights of booksellers and their customers."

Representatives of 2020 Vision will display their products and answer questions during BookExpo America. They will be located next to ABFFE in the ABA Lounge, Room 1E07-1E08, in the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

A family business founded in 1996, 2020 Vision offers a huge inventory of high fashion Italian designs. Its customers include bookstores across the country, including Books & Books in Miami, which sells several thousand pairs of 2020 Vision's designs annually.

It was Mitchell Kaplan, the owner of Books & Books and a member of the ABFFE board, who came up with the idea of approaching sideline vendors to see if they might be interested in contributing to ABFFE. He received an enthusiastic response from Phil Meyer, the founder of 2020 Vision, and his daughter, Denise Foster.