Friday was the last day of our clinic in San Diego. The night before we packed our bags and shared our thoughts on this incredible week in a closing celebration hosted by the National City Lions. The Lions Club and our hosts from the public schools, represented by the awesome Katie Filsenger, shared their thanks and presented very generous donations to OneSight.
Above -- Keith Hackle (Cincinnati home office) and Crystal Nickerson (Sears Optical) sort the finished glasses by school district so they can be delivered.
Below -- Yamile reads with her new glasses!
On Friday we saw our final recipients and continued to make glasses and dispense them. One nice story captured the essence of what this week was all about. We helped 7-year-old Yamile Sanchez, who never had glasses but both her teachers and mom had noticed she had trouble reading, straining to see her books and make out the letters and words on her homework. They were all concerned that her vision problems were going to derail her learning and handicap her ability to achieve what she was otherwise capable of. When Yamile received her glasses from our team member Danny De La Rosa, she had a big smile and said, "my teacher is going to be really happy with me because I can see the blackboard now!" Yamile's mother was so grateful to OneSight and said that without these glasses Yamile would "lose her sight little by little and fail in school. This took a big weight off my shoulders."
Another young student we helped, Dajayna, age 12, had gotten glasses when she was 10 from a local optician. She very frankly told us that the glasses were not working well and she was getting "Fs" in math. Then, she came to our OneSight clinic in San Diego last year, had her eyes examined again, and received a new pair of glasses. Dajayna said she immediately began getting "A's" in math because she could see the board at the front of the classroom. This beautiful and shy young lady is looking forward to getting another pair of glasses today to accommodate her changing Rx needs and continuing to excel in math and science. Maybe some day she will be an eye doctor and serve on a OneSight clinic!
Above right - Dan Roberts from the Memphis manufacturing facility with Dajana after she received her new glasses from OneSight.
Left - Tara Marlett from Sears Optical in Chicago, with cutie pie Bing, who has serious vision deficit including a detached retina that was recently repaired.
All our team members agreed the week went very fast and it was a life changing experience. Here are a few more pictures of some team members this week, enjoying their work to deliver the gift of sight.
Left - Cinthya Moreno, Sunglass Hut Miami FL, became an expert at running the edger in the EyeVan lab this week.
On right -- Dan Roberts from the Memphis TN Luxottica manufacturing facility, and Kellie Usitalo, a retail manager from LensCrafters, make sure the correct lenses are pulled and staged for final production.
On left -- Sue Rees from Oakley with Christian and his father after she helped to capture Christian's initial Rx reading at the auto refractor.
Above -- birthday boy and lens lab expert Victor Covarrubias, surfaces lenses to prep them for finishing out on EyeVan.
On left -- finding ways to improve our tracking of recipient records for the clinic --Wendi Bencik, a LensCrafters lab manager and fundraising captain extraordinaire, with Michele Allen, finance manager for the Luxury Retail brands based at the Cincinnati home office.
On right -- students arrive at the clinic by bus each day.
Below right -- glasses bagged up and ready to go to their new owners.
Below -- Yamile reads with her new glasses!
On Friday we saw our final recipients and continued to make glasses and dispense them. One nice story captured the essence of what this week was all about. We helped 7-year-old Yamile Sanchez, who never had glasses but both her teachers and mom had noticed she had trouble reading, straining to see her books and make out the letters and words on her homework. They were all concerned that her vision problems were going to derail her learning and handicap her ability to achieve what she was otherwise capable of. When Yamile received her glasses from our team member Danny De La Rosa, she had a big smile and said, "my teacher is going to be really happy with me because I can see the blackboard now!" Yamile's mother was so grateful to OneSight and said that without these glasses Yamile would "lose her sight little by little and fail in school. This took a big weight off my shoulders."
Above right - Dan Roberts from the Memphis manufacturing facility with Dajana after she received her new glasses from OneSight.
All our team members agreed the week went very fast and it was a life changing experience. Here are a few more pictures of some team members this week, enjoying their work to deliver the gift of sight.
On right -- Dan Roberts from the Memphis TN Luxottica manufacturing facility, and Kellie Usitalo, a retail manager from LensCrafters, make sure the correct lenses are pulled and staged for final production.
Above -- birthday boy and lens lab expert Victor Covarrubias, surfaces lenses to prep them for finishing out on EyeVan.
Clinic leader Scott Lawrence emerges from EyeVan to deliver a freshly made pair of glasses to the dispense station inside the Camacho Center.
Victor!!!! Victor taught me how to do most everything on EyeVan last year at the Chicago April clinic! Thanks Victor! Good to see you again rocking on EyeVan!
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