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Clinic Blog: Houston 2 Clinic Blog

October 10, 2010

Houston clinic - Final days!

By jbishop

Sorry I'm a little behind in "blogging" but the last few days have been crazy busy with very little "down time".

Thursday was the busiest clinic day so far and we saw 445 people - both kids and walk ins. In case you did not know, this is a record for the City of Houston clinics. In the past when we had that many show up, we had to turn some of them away, to return another day...but not this team, not this day! We weren't going to let that happen! We even received a congratulations e-mail from Jennifer Graves, Managment Analyst IV, HDHHS Neighborhood Services Division

"I was just informed that you all for the first time in Houston Vision Mission History you all saw over 400 clildren without turning anyone anway. I was told that you all planned and implemented this day that resulted in such success."

What a compliment! To be honest, we could not have done it without the help from the volunteers...TOGETHER we made it happen!

Even though it was 119 more than yesterday, things seemed to go alot faster with less hold ups at stations... we have finally "found our groove", as Adrienne Ruebusch said it.

Thursday night was the "pinning ceremony" at the local Pappasita's. Pappasita's donated all of our dinners and provided a private room in the back...once again, Cindy Baum worked her magic! Thanks Cindy and thanks Pappasita's!

For those of you that have been on a clinic, I will let you know that the ceremony this time was a little different, but I won't tell you exactly how. I will just let you know that we did hear from most of the team members, about their week here in Houston and it was pretty emotional to say the least...I'll also tell you that from the sounds of it, we're all applying for future clinics as well!

Even though clinics can be exhausting at times..they are sooo rewarding!

Our final number of kids that we were able to see was 1,418 and of that, 1,295 of them needed eyewear! That's unbelievable when you really think about it...

I know that we've all made some pretty incredible friendships and it was very hard to say goodbye. I just said "see ya later" and hopefully I will either on a future clinic, a work event or at the CSC. I work at the corporate offices and have made an open invitation to each and everyone.

I really want to give a special thanks to our team leaders: Scott Lawrence, Monafeitha Darbonne, Nissa Marks, Dexter Jones, Cindy Baum, Connie Shumaker and Renee Cuesta. Without their great leadership, we would not have had the experience that we did!

For more stories, you will need to connect with the team members that you might know...I know there are LOTS more stories that I did not mention...and they can tell them better!

Take Care..and thanks for following us

Jennifer

October 8, 2010

Houston Clinic - more overview pics

By jbishop

Here are pictures from the 2nd half of a day at our clinic, if you haven't seen the 1st half, go back to the most recent blog...and check them out!

October 8, 2010

Houston clinic overview/pictures

By jbishop

I'd love to walk you through a typical visit at our clinic and will try to include some pictures.  The internet here at the hotel has been somewhat challenging but I'll do my best!

First stop- Registration.  The City of Houston volunteers have been handling all of this for us.

Second stop- Color blind testing, Depth perception and Vision Acuity.  Another area that the city has helped us with, with a little guidance for our team members.

Third stop- Autorefraction. Team members use autorefractors to obtain an approximation of the patient's prescription

Fourth stop- Tonometry. Team members use tonometers to check the pressure in the patient's eye for evidence of glaucoma

Fifth stop- Lensometer. For those patient's who already were glasses.  We obtain their current prescription with this machine.

Sixth stop- Dialation drops.  If required by the doctor and permission is received.

Seventh stop - Doctor exams.  Tests are given for eye coordination and movement, the health of the eye and full refractions are given

Eighth and final stop - Frame selecting/Fitting - Team members help with picking out the perfect pair of frames, and opticians take necessary measurements to provide the best possible vision.

Frames are then taken to the lab to start the process of making the final glasses.

 

October 8, 2010

Houston Clinic - Silent Auction

By jbishop

Last night our team held our Silent Auction fundraising event, where all the team members bring an item or two, to auction off and all of the proceeds benefit OneSight.

 

The room where the event was held was here at the hotel and we all met there right after dinner.  The silent auction committee consisted of Katie Bolin, (Fundraising Captain) Jen Garcia, Harriet Joeckel and Stephanie Bloom. These ladies collected our items then marked them all with a minimum bid and minimum amounts of bid increases.

 

We were all allowed to look around for about 30 minutes and then one by one, the auction committee started “closing the tables down”.  Some of the items had some pretty fierce competition and was fun to watch!

 

A few pretty cool items that are worth mentioning that were there are:

 

Homemade Houston Clinic 2010 quilt, made by Alice Penley, of the EyeMed Department at the CSC.  It was beautiful!

 

Renee Cuesta donated a “San Francisco Dinner” that she is personally putting together and shipping out complete with crab, artichokes, and chocolate covered fruit!

 

Kym Willey, from my Asset Protection department donated a Louisville Slugger bat that we all autographed and was very cool!

 

And there were lots more great items that were donated including Oakley t-shirts, sunglasses, Texas souvenirs, etc …way too many to mention all of them!

 

 Thank you ladies for the awesome job getting everything set up and organized!  We were able to raise $2169.00, towards our team goal!  

 

It’s not too late to donate to your favorite clinic members fundraising efforts…simply log on to our fundraising page at www.onesight.org, and find our Houston 2010 team page.

October 6, 2010

Houston Clinic - Day 3

By jbishop

Day 3 – Our Biggest Day Yet

 

Today we saw over 325 kids and more than 90 % of these kids were in need of corrective lenses for their day-to-day lives.  It is amazing to be helping young kids see the world around them.  So far this week we have seen almost 700 kids and we are projecting our biggest day of the week to be tomorrow. 

 

The city of Houston is Awesome!  Their volunteers care as much about the OneSight Cause as our core team members.  There is no way that we could accomplish what we set out to do without our amazing city volunteers.  Many of them have been at the clinic 3 days in a row, all day long.  They are impacting the youth in their community, and they are proud to do it. 

 

Adrienne Ruebusch, from the Store Construction Department in the Home Office had this to say about her experience: 

 

It is great to get outside of my everyday role in the company and help others.  I have learned how to do visual acuity tests, work the auto refractors & tenometers, and even process lenses through the lab.  I have interacted with some amazing young kids who will benefit greatly from the services we are providing.  It feels good to take a breather and give back to those in need. 

 

Kevin Manns from the Optical Manufacturing Facility in Memphis had his first eye exam ever at the clinic today.  It was discovered that he could have an issue with high pressures in his eye.  The tenometer reading showed an elevated reading and it was recommended that Kevin follow up with a doctor when he returns home for further evaluation.  Kevin said, “I am grateful that I took this opportunity to learn more about my eye health.  I process thousands of frames for others every day in my job, and I now understand the importance of monitoring my eye health in my every day life.”

 

Larry Fawcett has been instrumental in running our in house lab in conjunction with our ringleader Connie Schumaker for the last three days.  Larry has trained multiple team members to work the equipment in the lab and has coached people to move outside their boundaries and do something new.  Larry is a great coach and he makes people feel at ease with doing new things.  Larry said, “My greatest joy comes from teaching someone a new skill that they would not have mastered without my help.  Being a mentor to my peers is a fulfilling way to give back to the community and others.”

 

Melanie Christianson, of Drs. North & Watson Optometrists, is enjoying her first clinic experience and would like to give a shout out to her grandpa Lloyd Christianson who was very interested in following Melanie on her first OneSight experience.

October 6, 2010

Houston Clinic Day Two

By jbishop

Today was Day 2 here in Houston, Texas and just like yesterday it was a beautiful day!

 

Our clinic team has really bonded and we are all working great together as a team. We all work for different brands and in different facilities all over the United States, but for this one week – we are Team Houston- October 2010.

 

Yesterday was a first clinic day ever for a few of our clinic members, but today it was really hard to tell who are the alumni and who are brand new to OneSight. Everybody was busy in every station and if we weren’t busy at our assigned station, we were busy learning new jobs and pitching in to help at other stations.  I could see where several  members had learned a new job yesterday, and were quick to show other members what they had learned today…it was great to see all the teamwork and efforts all over the building!

 

 

A BIG win for the lab today from Chris Wolcott, Sears 196:

 

First kids were coming off the bus about 8:45 am.   Station 1 had Visual Acuities starting at 9:00. The lab completed the first pair of glasses by 10:00.  That is crazy fast considering most people are working on machines for their first time! It was very inspiring. 

 

A great story by Stephanie Bloom, LC798

 

“Let me tell you about a little boy named John.  I met John this morning at Auto-refract.  He is six years old and has been wearing glasses for a little over 2 years, but lost his most current pair 3 months ago.  John auto-refracted at a –12.  For those readers of this blog who do not know what that means, John literally cannot see past the end of his nose.  I followed Johns progress throughout the afternoon at different stations in the clinic.  I was even fortunate enough to do his dialation and auto-refract all the way throughout round 2 of the slit lamp and 2^nd doctor visit.  Not once did John complain or squirm in the doctors chair.  He really was the perfect little patient, and oh, did I mention that because we had to do extra tests, he did not get his afternoon snack right away – and still no complaint.  I left John just before he went in for his frame selection and had a warm feeling in my heart knowing that in a couple of days, John was going to receive his new glasses and be able to see his classmates once again, or see the pictures in his shark book, or just see the world again! I cannot say enough about how incredible this team is and how amazing our volunteers are. Thank you to all who support OneSight on behalf of our recipients this week, especially little John.”

 

 

Another great story as told by Dexter Jones, Store Manager LC 359

 

A teacher made me aware of a 13 year old boy named Edgar who could not read or write and asked how we were going to test him.  It was determined that the doctors would test him with pictures to make it easier for him.  After all the doctor testing, the auto-refracting, dialating, etc, it was determined that he was a –2.5 and a –6.5 cylinder! No wonder he could not read or write.  Hopefully with a new pair of glasses we’ll help Edgar with his classes and his reading and writing.

 

 

Tomorrow is another day, that  I’m sure that will be filled with similar stories…and without all of your support would not be possible.  Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

October 4, 2010

Houston clinic - inside EyeVan and inside lab

By jbishop

October 4, 2010

More Day 1 pictures

By jbishop

October 4, 2010

Houston Day 1 Pictures

By jbishop

October 4, 2010

Houston Clinic Day One

By jbishop

We started our morning bright and early @ 6:30, down in the hotel lobby- which by the way, is very close to the Reliant Stadium.  How cool is that?

 

At 7:00 we all went to our assigned vans and drove approximately 30 minutes to our clinic site – called the Third Ward Multi Service Center.  It was a very nice facility and they kept it nice and “cool” for us…

 

As soon as we arrived, we went inside and walked through each of the stations so that we could each see the flow of the clinic. That was very helpful to each of us.  After that, we were introduced to the City of Houston’s Program Manager, Jacalyn McClinton, otherwise known as “Miss Jackie”. She is the head of the Command Staff of the city volunteers. 

 

Miss Jackie explained all the roles of the 100+ volunteers that were helping us all this week.  We could tell what each volunteer was a part of based on the color of the vest that they wore. The volunteers were very instrumental in helping the clinic run so smoothly, and allowed the OneSight volunteers to use our expertise where needed.

 

Monafeitha, the GM formerly known as Mona, then led us in a cheer that was texted to her last night after midnight, by James Gully, a Lab Manager from Detroit.

 

Here is what he sent to her:

 

To get what we never had, we must do what we’ve never done…

To do what we’ve never done, we must work together as one! 

Go OneSight!

 

What a great way to start our morning!

 

A few stories that we heard today:

 

1)      Ken Shelton and Jen Garcia, both talked about James, a 10-year-old “little guy” that was cracking them up at the acuity testing. James had glasses that were broken, so we knew he probably needed new glasses….what we didn’t know was that James could not even read all of the first line of the chart, even with his broken glasses on!  Even though his vision was so bad, he still had such a great attitude and kept asking everyone “what do I do, what do I do?”

2)      Another boy, age 11 was brought to the frame selection room escorted by Dr Singh, our lead doctor.  Dr Singh informed us that a “foreign body had just been removed from his eye”, but that we should still allow him to pick out a pair of frames, as we will still be able to make glasses for him.  The young boy was being referred to a local ophthalmologist.

 

Interesting side note- Esther from Oliver Peoples, worked at the Auto-Refracting station and thought it was so funny that the kids all opened their mouths wide open, at the same time she told them to open their “eyes wide open”… ladies, when you’re putting on your mascara see if you do the same thing??

 

Our final numbers for the day were as follows- 121 students were seen and 103 needed eyewear.  23 of those students received their glasses today and we’re hoping the rest will be dispensed this week, while we are still in town!

 

We had an awesome Day 1 here in Houston, …Stay tuned for more updates!

October 3, 2010

Arrival Day!

By jbishop

We all arrived safely and we just finished up with our first team meeting!

It was really fun finally meeting all the great people we've been communicating with for the last few months, getting ready for our week of working together.

It was nice to hear the stories about all the families, friends and co-workers that we've all left behind. We want you all to know we really appreciate all of the support you're giving back home, allowing our team members the opportunity to be here, to give back to the City of Houston.

We ended our meeting with a special surprise birthday cake for Ken Shelton.  Ken works at the CSC and today is his birthday!

Stay tuned for the next week to see our clinic in action and to meet our amazing team!

 

September 20, 2010

OneSight -Houston, Texas Clinic- October 2010

By jbishop

Hello family, friends, co-workers & donors!

If you're interested in virtual participation in our upcoming OneSight Clinic to Houston, Texas, you've landed on the right blog! Our team of 40 volunteers and doctors from all over the country will spend one week providing complete eye exams and new glasses to a few thousand Texans 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 and a little about the city of Houston itself. We will all land in Houston, on October 2nd and 3rd and will be posting messages and photographs through October 8th. 

 Be sure to log on every day so you don't miss a minute of the excitement!  And, if you're interested, our team is also raising money to help fund our Clinic.  Make your donation to our team today! 

http://onesight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&eventID=502&teamID=5040

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, 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 to people in need.  To date, we've run 175 clinics in 35 different developing countries.  This year, we have planned 20 clinics in developing countries around the world.  For a complete listing of the Clinic locations, visit www.onesight.org.

We'd like to thank all of you in advance for your financial and emotional support for OneSight and our clinic team, as well as a BIG thank you to our local volunteers and coordinators who will make this clinic possible. 

Thanks for visiting our BLOG, and we hope you're as excited about the clinic as we are!!