Clinic Blog: 2012 Cleveland Clinic Blog

October 16, 2012

Day 2

By amullen

Well the days seem to be getting better and better, hope we can keep it up!!! Our wonderful team of doctors saw 207 children today and 140 needed prescription eyewear. Our manufacturing lab made over 150 pairs. The kids definately needed our help today. There were quite a few high Rxs and one child told one of our team members that she lost her glasses in a house fire. The day did seem a bit longer though, not as many volunteers were offering their services today. The ones that did really made a difference and I believe we also made a difference for one particular volunteer named Shirley Johnson.

Shirley Johnson, 60, is an Occupational Therapist who works for the Cleveland Clinic Heath Systems. She had wanted to participate in some type of outreach program for the community when someone told her about how people can collect glasses for those in need. She went to the internet to do some research and when she Googled, OneSight popped up and that is how she first learned of us. She read that Sears Optical was one of the optical stores that collected the used glasses for OneSight and she wanted to get involved. She then contacted Denyse Kerr, who is the store manager for the Mentor location who in turn, gave Shirley my information and let her know that she is welcome to volunteer for Cleveland's upcoming OneSight clinic. Shirley was ecstatic.

So when she approached me at clinic today and asked if my name was Amy, I knew right away who she was. I was so excited that she made her way to clinic to help us. She worked with me in the auto-refraction station and assisted the children by instructing them how to place their chin on the chinrest and cleaned the machine between students. I showed her how to use the auto-refractor as things slowed down and before I knew it, she was handling it like a pro. Once we were done seeing the last of the kids, she asked what we do next. I told her everyone goes to lab to help make the glasses and invited her to come along and learn the ropes. One of the volunteers introduced her to the edging process and she actually was able to run the machine with assistance and even helped inserting the lenses. Before she left, I asked her what her favorite part was out of this entire experience. She replied by telling me she enjoyed making the actual glasses that are going to be delivered to the children in need.

With OneSight, everyone comes together as a team and the end result is always the same no matter how big or how small your part was... you ALL helped someone in need receive their eyewear.