Closing clinic and heading home

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. 

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."

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.

Clinic leader Scott Lawrence emerges from EyeVan to deliver a freshly made pair of glasses to the dispense station inside the Camacho Center.

Our biggest day so far

Yesterday we saw more than 250 students from many different San Diego schools. So far every day more than 90% of the students have needed vision correction and we continue to see kids who are either legally blind or close to it. We KNOW we’ve made a big impact in San Diego this week.

Eddie...
Our team has shown incredible compassion and patience to make sure every child is well taken care of, no matter how difficult it may be for some kids to get through the screenings due to physical, mental or emotional barriers. At the Visual Acuity testing station for example, Mary Sharma and a day volunteer from Oakley spent about 25 minutes with little Eduardo, who struggled to focus on anything for even a few seconds. They sat down with “Eddie” on the floor and made creative games to get enough of a response for some idea of his visual acuity. Almost every team member has done this type of thing at some point to make sure they could help get the proper screening and exam, and therefore the right eyeglasses in the end.

Our doctor team, led by Dr. David Brew, has also been amazing. Their compassion AND passion for helping these kids has also been inspiring and amazing. We are all so grateful for the time and professionalism they have given to OneSight. Without them, the rest of the team would not be able to be here having this experience. Big hugs to the docs!

And speaking of going the extra mile, we’ve seen everyone jump in to do whatever is needed, wherever it’s needed – even sweeping the floors at the end of the day! No doubt the stores, practices and offices where our teammates usually work are missing their drive and contribution very much. Their supervisors would be so proud!

Our inventory and production team has also been rock solid and incredibly persistent. They’ve been somewhat isolated from the rest of the team and clinic by being in the lab/lens room or out on the lab vehicle, EyeVan. They just keep on powering through and finding creative new solutions to problems that arise. By the end of the clinic they will have made hundreds of pairs of high quality, accurate glasses in just 4+ days. A shout out to you guys! (Here's a pic of the SD EyeVan lab crew!).


Speaking of shout-outs, we have some more messages from our team members to share with you:

Stacey Boudreau (Lenscrafters) – Edmonton, Alberta Canada:
Wow! Palm trees! San Diego is great and what a team we have for this clinic. The children are samazing with all they have to go through. They always have smiling faces! See you soon. Miss you.

Mary Sharma (Cincinnati Service Center)

Hello from the beautiful and sunny San Diego to my family, friends and co-workers. Thank you very much for your support in helping the world see. It has been a very rewarding experience!


Anthony Ramos (ILORI) – San Francisco

Truly there are no words eloquent enough to describe the experience on my first mission. The passion and dedication I have been part of truly inspires me. We are all so fortunate to work for a company that encompasses so many brands to share in this. Looking forward to hopefully many more missions!

Tara Marlett (Sears Optical) - Chicago

Hello from sunny San Diego to all my family and friends. Thank you for all your support. I’m having such a great experience. The kiddos are awesome and to my Chicago teammates reading this, you guys still ROCK too! Much love!

Holly Weber (Cincinnati Service Center) 
A special shout out to my family, friends and the Pearle Pod! I’m having a fantastic experience here in San Diego. The kids we’ve seen have been so fun to work with. See you soon!

(Pictured from the CSC, counterclockwise from bottom: Holly Weber, Keith Hackle, Holly Ingram, Michele Allen, Mary Sharma).

Wendy Bencik (LensCrafters) – Detroit
Hi everyone back in Detroit! I’m having a great time with all the children at our OneSight clinic in San Diego. The need is great here, so we came just in time. See you when I get home!

Holly Ingram (Cincinnati Service Center)
Hello Cincinnati! I have so many more great OneSight memories and stories to add to my collection now that our week of clinic in San Diego is almost over. Thank you to all my friends and family who have supported my OneSight involvement. To the Corporate Communications team – thanks for the cool sendoff and covering my work while I’m here. I hope the blog has lived up to your high standards! Todd, Rachel and Andrew – miss you and love you! Ciao ciao – see you soon.

Crystal Nickerson (Sears) – Detroit
Hello from beautiful San Diego. I miss you all from back home. A special shout out to everyone holding down the fort @ Sears. I cannot tell you how wonderful the OneSight team is here in San Diego. We have helped so many kids see in the few days we have been here. Thank you to everyone who has helped me and supported me for this OneSight clinic. See you all soon.

Our last clinic day is almost here...we're sad to see it come to a close so soon.

Day 3: We're on a roll!

The sun came out full force today and so did our volunteers! We had incredible support from many day volunteers and the UEI medical students that helped our team keep up a very quick and efficient pace today.  There were a lot of great moments on our third day serving in San Diego...

Christian!

One great moment was when little Christian returned (see yesterday’s entry) to receive his eyeglasses. He was so happy to be able to see the ground in front of him. He immediately tested his new glasses by gleefully dashing back and forth under the rope lines for the visual acuity area - something his father said was difficult for Christian before. He was also able to pick up a small piece of paper from his own hand with perfect aim on the first try, which he was unable to easily do without his new glasses.




A “Lost Boy”

Another amazing recipient today was David, one of the original Sudanese “Lost Boys” who now lives in San Diego. David was brought to the clinic by Dr. Renee White (Chula Vista Sears Optical). One of Dr. White’s patients introduced her to David,and she thought OneSight would be the perfect way to help him see clearly again.


The Thrill of the Dispense

We had more great moments delivering glasses made here on EyeVan to the schools. Yesterday Bayside School visited the clinic and today our team visited Bayside with a large bag of new eyeglasses. Crystal Nickerson (Sears Optical) and Kellie Usitalo (LensCrafters) enjoyed the “thrill of the dispense” at Bayside. One Bayside student, 10-year-old Carolyn Del Valle (pictured here with Crystal) received her first pair of glasses ever. She was thrilled to finally be able to easily read a paper that was sitting in front of her.

And now...a Word from our Team Members:
There are so many amazing stories happening here – too many to tell them all – but here’s what some of our hard working and devoted OneSight team members have to say to you, dear readers:

Mike Craighead - Virginia (Sears Optical):
“Hello everyone…we are having a great time and helping so many kids. Thanks to everyone who helps this great organization allowing us the opportunity to do such enriching work.” (Lance and Mike are pictured here with a boy whose frames they helped choose.)

Lance Partin, Knoxville TN (Sunglass Hut):
“To my friends & family – ya just can’t imagine this experience! It’s incredible! Long days, hard work, but worth it all! I miss & love ya – thanks for being part of helping me help these kids. (Go Vols!)

Keith Hackle (Luxottica Retail Cincinnati Service Center):
Today I got participate in dispensing glasses to a 3 year old little boy who had become used to allowing one eye to supplement for the other and truly seeing straight. As a father of two, there was a joy that I felt through this experience that can’t be explained. The blessings that OneSight provides are an honor to be part of. (Keith is pictured on the right).
Linda Beattie- Wilmington, Delaware (Sunglass Hut):

To Region 52 – this has been such a wonderful experience. The kids are great. The people are fantastic. I have made so many new friends. Thank you Dottie and I miss all of you. Love to all. (Linda is pictured on the right with Stacey Boudreau.)




Danny De La Rosa – New Orleans (Sunglass Hut):
Hi everyone. We are all having a great time. So many kids are being helped. It is great to see and especially wonderful to be a part of OneSight.

Melanie Dinelli (LensCrafters):
Hello from beautiful sunny San Diego! What an experience! Many kids seeing the world for the first time! “EyeVan” debuted here and the van is incredible. What OneSight does is phenomenal and great to be a part of!

We're thinking of all our friends, family & co-workers back at home. Check back tomorrow for more news. We're expecting a very busy day tomorrow!

Celebrating our first eyewear deliveries in San Diego

One word sums up today’s clinic – awesome! EyeVan is working beautifully and the glasses are lining up for delivery. We got to sort and see the finished eyewear ready to go to the schools tomorrow. In some cases we got the privilege of placing the new glasses on the recipients today! It wasn’t just instant gratification for the kids, but also for our clinic team. Here is a photo of our team member Danny De La Rosa (Sunglass Hut) on one of the first dispensing runs out to the schools that came through our clinic yesterday.

Remember Andrew Sanchez, the 6th grader we mentioned yesterday, who had been trying to see at school by wearing his dad’s glasses? Today team members Michael Craighead (Sears Optical) and Danny De La Rosa went to Andrew’s school in National City to deliver his new glasses.

He told Michael and Danny that with his new glasses he can see very well and he believes his grades are going to get better. ”I will have better grades for the CST (California Standard Test)." Without glasses, I would get C's and D's in math. With the glasses I hope to get A's and B's".

His father (seen here) joked about Andrew using his glasses in the interim. "Every once in a whiles I would get a treat and put on my OWN glasses," he said. Andrew's mom, in the family picture, is happy he got nice Oakley frames that he will like to wear everyday.

Meanwhile, back at the Camacho Center clinic site, one of our first onsite eyewear dispenses from today’s patients included 14-year-old Janeet Gonzalez from Hoover School, and 13-year-old Evelyn Flores from National Middle School. Both were smiling and very happy to receive their cool new glasses from OneSight! Here is Dottie Short (local clinic coordinator) with Janeet as she tries her new glasses.

We also fell in love with little Christian Chiroque, a precious 3-year-old boy from Las Palmas. Sue Rees (Oakley) was working at the autorefracting station today and was shocked to see an initial prescription reading of +8.75 / -3.00 and +9.25/-2.50 on this little cutie! He was happy and smiling, but had no idea what he was missing because of his vision deficit. Soon he will know! Dr. Anita Brew (seen below)  and Dr. Scott Williams, (an active duty optometrist from the Naval Medical Center San Diego) examined him and performed the eye health check, and they ordered two pairs of glasses. Having a back up pair of glasses will assure Christian will be able to see clearly in his critical developmental years. We know we’ve changed a young life!

It was also fun to host a reporter and photographer from the San Diego Union-Tribune today. We expect to see a story in Saturday’s paper all about OneSight!

Tonight the team will celebrate with dinner out -- rain or no rain. We’ll be back tomorrow!

Special thanks to Mark Lyons for the awesome photo support with several of these photos.

Clinic Day One: EyeVan debuts & our team bonds!

Our team members made it to beautiful (and sunny!) San Diego safely yesterday. While still learning each other's names, we jumped right into action early this morning in the gym at the Camacho Recreation Center in the National City area of town.  Thanks to our local organizer, Dottie, and her awesome local volunteers, everything was impeccably organized and ready for us to start.

Not only was the excitement high with EyeVan's first day ever producing glasses on site at a OneSight clinic, but of the 215 local school children our team tested and examined today, 210 kids needed eyeglasses! It was immediately obvious that there is great need for prescription eyeglasses for these children. We saw an unbeliveable amount of high prescriptions like +7.00s, +9.00s, +12.00s! This means so many of them are facing every day of their critical learning years with the disadvantage of being legally blind!

The kids had a beautiful selection of shiny new frames to choose from (Oakley, Ray-Ban and more!), so we know they will happily wear their COOL new glasses to school. The lenses and frames eventually went outside where EyeVan is parked, and our lab expert team members began creating complete new eyeglasses that we will deliver starting tomorrow. It was amazing to finally get to watch this happen after nearly a year and a half of planning and build out that it took for the OneSight team to bring EyeVan to life.

While we look forward to delivering all the new eyewear in the next couple of days, we're especially excited to visit 6th grader, Andrew Sanchez, to deliver his glasses. He has been trying to compensate for his inability to see at school by always sitting at the front of the class and wearing his dad's prescription glasses because Andrew wore his old ones until they fell apart a year ago. This week, he will have handsome, sturdy new glasses made just for his own vision needs, thanks to OneSight and EyeVan!

We also saw kids like brother and sister Martin, 11, and Jennifer Mojean, 8, whose parents lack insurance for exams and glasses. Like all the kids we saw today, they were so well mannered and grateful and in desperate need of help to see the world around them everyday. And soon, Martin will not have to rely on one "good" eye to make up for the -5 vision in his other eye!

Thank you to everyone who has donated to support OneSight and our clinic. This is what you have made possible. For anyone wishing to donate to support our team's work, just click on the link above to go to our  secure OneSight fund raising Web site. Stay tuned to our blog for more news, pics and stories this week!

Eye Van is ready to roll on to San Diego!

Our clinic team is not the only one making final preparations for the OneSight clinic in San Diego. EyeVan (pronounced "Ivan"), OneSight's new 40-foot state-of-the-art production vehicle, is rolling cross country toward San Diego after an unveiling celebration in Mason OH last week.

Team San Diego is excited to be the first North American OneSight clinic to put Eye Van into action on January 25. With this new approach most of our recipients will leave the clinic wearing their new glasses and seeing clearly! They won't have to wait for weeks to receive their glasses. 

Photo above right: Some Luxottica Retail home office-based members of Team San Diego at Eye Van's unveiling in Mason OH on January 15. From left, Mary Sharma, Michele Allen, Holly Ingram and Keith Hackle.

Eye Van will then travel to all of OneSight's North American Regional Clinics throughout the year to make nearly all the clinic eyewear onsite. 

A cool fact we learned about Eye Van is that it was designed to reduce the amount of waste generated during the clinic. A water filtration system lets us filter and re-use water used in lens production and cleaning. Also, a trash compactor means we will throw away a fraction of the waste typically generated in a day’s work on the van.

Visit this blog the week of Jan. 25 to see Eye Van in action in San Diego!