I wear Contact Lenses and have worked with them for almost 10 years. As relayed to me by my Optometrist - "Welding contact lenses to your eyeball via Arc Welding is complete Urban Legend." I am much better off wearing contact lenses in the workplace rather than prescription eyeglasses. If the UV and IR rays from a Welding Arc have fused the lens to your eye then you have many more serious problems to be concerned about. Contact Lens use in the workplace is and has been accepted in the workplace by OSHA in the US, WCB and CCOHS in Canada, and many more health governing bodies. Even the AWS condones the practice! Individual company policy is another matter though...
From a recent study at the University of Toronto:
"Current evidence indicates that the use of contact lenses in the workplace, on the whole, does not place the wearer at additional risk of eye injury. Situations in which the use of contact lenses have minimized or prevented injury far exceed those in which they might have increased or exacerbated injury. This has been attributed to some obvious advantages related to the use of contact lenses, including increased visual acuity and better fit of protective eyewear than with eyeglasses. Furthermore, concerns associated with an increased risk of eye injury due to chemical splash or the absorption and retention of gases and vapours by the contact lens materials have not been supported by scientific evidence or human experience. Although there are some chemicals which interact adversely with contact lens materials, there have been many more instances where the contact lenses have been shown to provide a barrier to chemicals.
Based on existing evidence, it is reasonable to allow the use of contact lenses in chemical work environments. Contact lenses are not protective devices, and must be used only in conjunction with appropriate protective eyewear in eye hazard areas."
From an Alberta Industry publication:
"Despite the popularity of contact lenses, there has been resistance to allowing their use in certain industrial settings. Perhaps some of this resistance can be attributed to not wanting to try anything new in high hazard settings. However, various scare stories about the hazards of contact lenses in the workplace have occurred from time to time. In one story, workers supposedly had their contact lenses "welded" to their corneas by electric or welding arcs, causing blindness. It is not possible for such an event to occur; it would require the violation of basic laws of physics, as experts in the field of vision care have shown."
From an OSHA publication:
"If properly protected in accordance with the OSHA Standards applicable to eye protection (ANSI Z87.1-1968) during the welding operation the use of contact lenses is acceptable."
http://files.aws.org/technical/facts/FACT-12.PDFhttp://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=19050http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/prevention/contact_len.htmlhttp://employment.alberta.ca/documents/WHS/WHS-PUB_mg001.pdfhttp://www.ehs.utoronto.ca/Assets/ehs3/documents/EyeandFacewearStd2004.pdf.pdfhttp://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/cornea.asp
How are the beaches up there in New England?
One thing to keep in mind about wearing contacts when welding...You still need PPE, but.... Stop and think on this for a minute, next time you have your hood down and you're welding, count how many times you blink your eyes (blinks per minute) and then time yourself during a time where you aren't welding. 
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