Monday, November 9, 2009
We realized we left you hanging on Wednesday through Friday but things were busy and there was no time to post a blog, so here's our attempt to keep you in the loop after the fact.
The clinic ended on Friday, Nov 6. but our memories of a wonderful experience are still vivid in our minds. Here are some of the things we experienced that last three days of the Cleveland Clinic:
--We had technical difficultly with a particular style of frame that was not traceable (no brands mentioned here, but Gardner, our Oakley rep on the clinic, knows what we are talking about, hehe). Due to this, we were not able to manufacture about 60 frames on Wednesday. We had to wait for them to be sent out to another lab to be completed. We did not let that stop us!
--We saw a girl who was legally blind in one eye (-16.25 sphere) due to a congenital issue called caliboma. We bumped her up to the front of the line to ensure she would receive glasses right away. We ended up giving her 2 pairs of frames due to such a high prescription. We were all in awe that someone could go through life without having had a pair of glasses and not able to see out of one eye.
--A little girl had been wearing quite the wrong prescription for quite some time, we surmised she was wearing someone else's glasses. Needless to say, we were able to get her the right prescription so she could see without damaging her eyes further!
--Wednesday we saw a little boy named Alex and his classmate Jade. Both were defiant and scared of the clinic. Alex was so defiant with the tonometer, that we gave him a "pass" to skip it. Little did he know that one of the next stations was the "dilation station." It took him over 20 minutes to get up the courage to go through with this. After we did one eye, the entire clinic cheered, which then gave him the gumption to get the second eye dilated. Everyone gave him high-fives and he was so excited to have gotten through what he perceived as torture. And, not to leave his classmate Jade out, she was equally defiant with the tonometer and got a "get out of jail free" card but also took her quite some time to get dilated. Once we passed those kids on to the autorefractor, we felt our day was done! We were all so excited to have helped Alex and Jade along on their vision journey.
--This week we had also seen a group of special needs children. This also tugged at our heart strings. Some were physically and mentally challenged but some were also hearing impaired, which brought on some challenges having no interpreter. We were all drawing from our limited knowledge of sign language and just pointed and showing them what they had to do. There was even an autistic child in a wheel chair we referred to a doctor's office so he could get one-on-one attention in a less chaotic atmosphere. We'll never forget this child's infectious laugh!
--As Thursday rolled around, we were beginning to see the exhaustion on many clinic members' faces. We had 2 members sick that day but they kept on working as if nothing was wrong! The week was beginning to take a toll. No rest for the weary. We also had the pinning ceremony and silent auction to look forward to, which brings me to....
--Thursday night! Once we had finished a long day of about 290 kids, we were able to go back to the hotels and rest a little. We had a reception, pinning ceremony and silent auction, always a highlight of each regional clinic. We raised over $2000 that night alone for OneSight! Clinic members brought things like homemade jewelery, hand-painted OneSight wine glasses (courtesy of Leslie) and Oakley glasses with OneSight etched on the lenses (courtesy Gardner). Dr. Bill auctioned off 10 lbs of fresh gulf shrimp from Alabama shipped right to your door. Handmade OneSight bracelets were also popular items (courtesy of Janet).
--Friday came and we all busted a move to get kids through the clinic in time for some of our clinic members to catch early shuttles back to the airport. The great thing is that by the time the shuttles started arriving, the clinic had seen the last school passing through the last stations. We were able to get the entire clinic packed up by 3:00, probably a new record according to some clinic alumni!
We helped approximately 1500 children in Cleveland receive the gift of sight thanks to such a wonderful team. This will be yet another clinic we won't forget. Until next year....
The clinic ended on Friday, Nov 6. but our memories of a wonderful experience are still vivid in our minds. Here are some of the things we experienced that last three days of the Cleveland Clinic:
--We had technical difficultly with a particular style of frame that was not traceable (no brands mentioned here, but Gardner, our Oakley rep on the clinic, knows what we are talking about, hehe). Due to this, we were not able to manufacture about 60 frames on Wednesday. We had to wait for them to be sent out to another lab to be completed. We did not let that stop us!
--We saw a girl who was legally blind in one eye (-16.25 sphere) due to a congenital issue called caliboma. We bumped her up to the front of the line to ensure she would receive glasses right away. We ended up giving her 2 pairs of frames due to such a high prescription. We were all in awe that someone could go through life without having had a pair of glasses and not able to see out of one eye.
--A little girl had been wearing quite the wrong prescription for quite some time, we surmised she was wearing someone else's glasses. Needless to say, we were able to get her the right prescription so she could see without damaging her eyes further!
--Wednesday we saw a little boy named Alex and his classmate Jade. Both were defiant and scared of the clinic. Alex was so defiant with the tonometer, that we gave him a "pass" to skip it. Little did he know that one of the next stations was the "dilation station." It took him over 20 minutes to get up the courage to go through with this. After we did one eye, the entire clinic cheered, which then gave him the gumption to get the second eye dilated. Everyone gave him high-fives and he was so excited to have gotten through what he perceived as torture. And, not to leave his classmate Jade out, she was equally defiant with the tonometer and got a "get out of jail free" card but also took her quite some time to get dilated. Once we passed those kids on to the autorefractor, we felt our day was done! We were all so excited to have helped Alex and Jade along on their vision journey.
--This week we had also seen a group of special needs children. This also tugged at our heart strings. Some were physically and mentally challenged but some were also hearing impaired, which brought on some challenges having no interpreter. We were all drawing from our limited knowledge of sign language and just pointed and showing them what they had to do. There was even an autistic child in a wheel chair we referred to a doctor's office so he could get one-on-one attention in a less chaotic atmosphere. We'll never forget this child's infectious laugh!
--As Thursday rolled around, we were beginning to see the exhaustion on many clinic members' faces. We had 2 members sick that day but they kept on working as if nothing was wrong! The week was beginning to take a toll. No rest for the weary. We also had the pinning ceremony and silent auction to look forward to, which brings me to....
--Thursday night! Once we had finished a long day of about 290 kids, we were able to go back to the hotels and rest a little. We had a reception, pinning ceremony and silent auction, always a highlight of each regional clinic. We raised over $2000 that night alone for OneSight! Clinic members brought things like homemade jewelery, hand-painted OneSight wine glasses (courtesy of Leslie) and Oakley glasses with OneSight etched on the lenses (courtesy Gardner). Dr. Bill auctioned off 10 lbs of fresh gulf shrimp from Alabama shipped right to your door. Handmade OneSight bracelets were also popular items (courtesy of Janet).
--Friday came and we all busted a move to get kids through the clinic in time for some of our clinic members to catch early shuttles back to the airport. The great thing is that by the time the shuttles started arriving, the clinic had seen the last school passing through the last stations. We were able to get the entire clinic packed up by 3:00, probably a new record according to some clinic alumni!
We helped approximately 1500 children in Cleveland receive the gift of sight thanks to such a wonderful team. This will be yet another clinic we won't forget. Until next year....
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Tuesday in the Cleveland Clinic was a different kind of day as Cleveland Public Schools were closed to make way for voting polls. Instead, we saw children living in homeless shelters, children whose parents are currently in the prison system as well as an afternoon full of walk-ins. When we pulled up the Red Cross building at 7:30 there were already several families waiting to be seen.
There were many touching stories today but perhaps the one that touched us the most was Terrel, aka TJ, who was only in Kindergarten. He had a +8.00 sphere in both eyes. He cried hysterically when we had to put the dilation drops in his eyes, so much so that the drops did not take and we had to dilate him again. Thankfully, Dr. B came to the rescue and had TJ close his eyes and blink to get the drops in his eyes and his pupils finally dilated. His twin sister, Terrela, also needed glasses. They were both so cute! Pictures will come later....
We also found out that Augenafaye, aka Peaches, is a whiz on the tonometer. She came to the rescue several times when the lines were backed up and we needed to move quickly. She had a touch we have never seen before and gets the puff of air in each eye in record time! Turns out that Rodney has a talent for dilation, too. Would would have known?
Several of us (Tessa, Paola and Bridgette) also had the rare opportunity to learn how to trace and edge lenses and fit them into the frames in the Vision Van. A real treat we all don't work in labs.
And last, a parent brought us two sheet cakes as a thank you for all the work we've been doing thus far! Yum!
Tomorrow it's been rumored that we will be seeing 400 kids! Better get some sleep...after the Cleveland Cavaliers game, that is.
We'll check in again tomorrow...stay tuned.
There were many touching stories today but perhaps the one that touched us the most was Terrel, aka TJ, who was only in Kindergarten. He had a +8.00 sphere in both eyes. He cried hysterically when we had to put the dilation drops in his eyes, so much so that the drops did not take and we had to dilate him again. Thankfully, Dr. B came to the rescue and had TJ close his eyes and blink to get the drops in his eyes and his pupils finally dilated. His twin sister, Terrela, also needed glasses. They were both so cute! Pictures will come later....
We also found out that Augenafaye, aka Peaches, is a whiz on the tonometer. She came to the rescue several times when the lines were backed up and we needed to move quickly. She had a touch we have never seen before and gets the puff of air in each eye in record time! Turns out that Rodney has a talent for dilation, too. Would would have known?
Several of us (Tessa, Paola and Bridgette) also had the rare opportunity to learn how to trace and edge lenses and fit them into the frames in the Vision Van. A real treat we all don't work in labs.
And last, a parent brought us two sheet cakes as a thank you for all the work we've been doing thus far! Yum!
Tomorrow it's been rumored that we will be seeing 400 kids! Better get some sleep...after the Cleveland Cavaliers game, that is.
We'll check in again tomorrow...stay tuned.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday Nov. 2
Most team members arrived in Cleveland on Sunday, Nov. 1 after some very long travel. We have team members from as far away as Honolulu and Vancouver so as a team we've logged many hours via air and ground to get to downtown Cleveland.
Monday came quickly and we scampered about to try to get on the shuttle to go the clinic early so we would not be pegged for the cheerleader position so joyously appointed by Janet every morning if you are the unlucky one to arrive as the last one to board the shuttle. Previous missions with Janet have meant dressing up in pink tutus and gorilla costumes to lead the team in a motivational cheer to get us all psyched to get through a hard day's work! Tomorrow's chant will be lead by Derrick wearing a pink tutu....can't wait to see this!
The morning's activites were off to a slow start as we waited for the yellow school buses to drive up. The first ones showed up at 9:30 which meant we were hurried to get all kids through all of the stations so they could get back to school and board school buses back home. In all, we saw 375 kids, with about 90% of them needing glasses.
We had stories reported from the tonometry station (you know, the puff of air into your eyes) that one kid took 4 tries to muster up the courage to get through the puffs of air. We had several children with fairly high prescriptions of up to -7.00! One child in particular couldn't even see the glasses we was selecting so relied on team members expertise to choose the best pair.
Monday night we also had a reception for the City of Cleveland hosted by the Red Cross and Ken and Linda Lanci of Consolidated Graphics. City councilmen were present and gave a presentation as well as Kerry Bradley, Luxottica North America CEO. Several OneSight volunteers from Cincinnati also made the trek to partake in this reception. Cleveland has really embraced OneSight and it really made us proud to be part of such a fantastic company that allows us to give back to the community.
Stay tuned for more from Team Cleveland tomorrow....
Monday came quickly and we scampered about to try to get on the shuttle to go the clinic early so we would not be pegged for the cheerleader position so joyously appointed by Janet every morning if you are the unlucky one to arrive as the last one to board the shuttle. Previous missions with Janet have meant dressing up in pink tutus and gorilla costumes to lead the team in a motivational cheer to get us all psyched to get through a hard day's work! Tomorrow's chant will be lead by Derrick wearing a pink tutu....can't wait to see this!
The morning's activites were off to a slow start as we waited for the yellow school buses to drive up. The first ones showed up at 9:30 which meant we were hurried to get all kids through all of the stations so they could get back to school and board school buses back home. In all, we saw 375 kids, with about 90% of them needing glasses.
We had stories reported from the tonometry station (you know, the puff of air into your eyes) that one kid took 4 tries to muster up the courage to get through the puffs of air. We had several children with fairly high prescriptions of up to -7.00! One child in particular couldn't even see the glasses we was selecting so relied on team members expertise to choose the best pair.
Monday night we also had a reception for the City of Cleveland hosted by the Red Cross and Ken and Linda Lanci of Consolidated Graphics. City councilmen were present and gave a presentation as well as Kerry Bradley, Luxottica North America CEO. Several OneSight volunteers from Cincinnati also made the trek to partake in this reception. Cleveland has really embraced OneSight and it really made us proud to be part of such a fantastic company that allows us to give back to the community.
Stay tuned for more from Team Cleveland tomorrow....
Hello!
Well, if you're interested in virtual participation in our Regional OneSight Clinic to Cleveland, you've landed on the right blog! Our team of 32 volunteers and doctors from around North America are spending 5 days in Cleveland providing complete
eye exams and brand new glasses to approximately 1800 children who could not otherwise afford to see the world clearly.
Each day, right here on this very page, we will be posting highlights from our vision care clinic including stories of our recipients, the team experience a little about Cleveland itself. We arrive on Sunday, Nov. and will be posting messages and photographs through Friday, Nov 6th. Be sure to log on every day so you don't miss a minute of the excitement!
Here's a little background about OneSight and our Global Clinics: OneSight is a family of charitable programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education. Sponsored by Luxottica Group, OneSight programs have helped more than 7 million people over its 20-year history.
Each year, OneSight conducts two-week clinics in developing countries where our doctors and trained volunteers provide free eye exams and recycled eyewear to thousands of people in need. To date, we’ve run 155 clinics in 31 different developing countries. This year, we have planned 20 clinics in developing countries around the world. For a complete list of clinic
locations, visit www.onesight.org.
Well, if you're interested in virtual participation in our Regional OneSight Clinic to Cleveland, you've landed on the right blog! Our team of 32 volunteers and doctors from around North America are spending 5 days in Cleveland providing complete
eye exams and brand new glasses to approximately 1800 children who could not otherwise afford to see the world clearly.
Each day, right here on this very page, we will be posting highlights from our vision care clinic including stories of our recipients, the team experience a little about Cleveland itself. We arrive on Sunday, Nov. and will be posting messages and photographs through Friday, Nov 6th. Be sure to log on every day so you don't miss a minute of the excitement!
Here's a little background about OneSight and our Global Clinics: OneSight is a family of charitable programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education. Sponsored by Luxottica Group, OneSight programs have helped more than 7 million people over its 20-year history.
Each year, OneSight conducts two-week clinics in developing countries where our doctors and trained volunteers provide free eye exams and recycled eyewear to thousands of people in need. To date, we’ve run 155 clinics in 31 different developing countries. This year, we have planned 20 clinics in developing countries around the world. For a complete list of clinic
locations, visit www.onesight.org.
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