April 26, 2011

We Made It (Finally!) & Our 1st Day as a Team

By jpotanko

We finally made it! Our core team arrived yesterday to the Detroit area throughout the day and was brought over to the clinic site to help finish setting up the various machines we will be using to pre-test, provide exams and manufacture the eyewear on site for the children.  The core team was also treated to a pot luck dinner, provided by the local area General Managers and Onesight Captains as their way of saying thanks for the team coming in and making a difference in their community. We had a gift basket raffle during our dinner where the items were provided by various members of the core team. Items included different bottles of wine, Starbucks gift cards, CDs, DVDs, etc.  The raffle was VERY successful, raising over 300 dollars for the Onesight program!

 

Our first full day of the clinic was very, VERY busy. We saw students varying in age from kindergarten to high school and everything in between. While there were a few small problems that arose during the day, our team worked efficiently and no one panicked when the pressure was on.  We saw eight different schools with a total of 290 students altogether. Of those 290 students, 253 of them needed eyeglasses which nearly all of them will or have been proceed on site in our lab and van.

One of the children we saw, Tiamarra, came in with her eyeglasses. We read the prescription on her glasses during the clinic and found that she was wearing glasses that had a -19.00 strength! We saw glasses on these students ranging anywhere from high plus prescriptions (+6.00 to +8.00) to those with high astigmatism (-4.00 to -6.00) and high minus prescriptions (-8.00 to -19.00).  Can you imagine what it would be like for these kids if they didn’t have glasses to be able to see, or read or do schoolwork?  It is experiencing what these students go through that makes what each of us do all worth it!

Our team dinner tonight was spent at a local restaurant owned by NHL player Chris Chelios, where we enjoyed great food and drinks while being able to relax and unwind from a very exciting day today!

 

Thanks for reading and look for the next blog post tomorrow night!

Detroit Team 2011

Arrival and First Clinic day pictures

3 Comments

  1. Gabi Welch-Bosch says:

    This was my first day on my first mission and I got to say it was hard work but super fun.
    It was nice getting to know people today and helping so many kids.
    I enjoy being part of this team a lot….
    Great Team
    Detroit 2011

    Posted on Tue Apr 26, 2011 8:41 pm EST

  2. Amanda says:

    Way to go team Detroit! We love reading about your Clinic so keep the stories and pics coming :)

    Posted on Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:10 am EST

  3. Mike says:

    Hey! I see you! I am so proud of you.

    Posted on Mon May 2, 2011 2:52 pm EST

Commenting is not available in this content entry.