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Clinic Blog: 2011 Detroit Clinic Blog

May 6, 2011

The Chapter Ends But The Story Continues….

By jpotanko

This experience has been incredible for everyone involved. We, as a team, came together so quickly despite for differences in backgrounds and experiences. We were united by one common goal of giving the gift of sight to the Detroit area. Clinics such as these require a level of unselflessness and desire for it to truly work and this team showed this day after day after day. We bonded as friends and shared memories and experiences that will be cherished for the rest of our lives.

If you are reading this, please apply for a Clinic next year, whether it be a Regional Clinic such as this or an International Clinic overseas. The fullfillment of making a difference in the lives of a group of people in need will change your life forever. There are few joys greater than giving back to a community and helping out. If for any reason you can not go on a Clinic, help out at the local level. Help recycle eyeglasses. Raise money. Participate in Vision Vans. Perform Outreach at local health fairs. There are so many ways to make a difference out there if you are willing to go for it. Hopefully we inspire some of you to participate in Onesight, so that you may inspire others who will come after you, just as we were inspired by those who came through before us.

Thank you all for your support!

Sincerely,

Scott, Cathie, Leona, Joyce, Caviniona, Dawn, Odette, Joanne, Tory, James, Chris, Desha, Joshua, Eddie, Julia, Danny, Joe, Elise, Greg M., Greg C., Jennifer, Krista, Leanne, Crista, Wendy, Lori, Jens, Amber, Erica, Elizabeth, John, Annette, Gabi, Michelle, Teresa, Luiza, Anita, Isisah, Dr Ron Spalter, Dr Pam Brown, the Dr team, the schools of Detroit Michigan, the social workers, the local food vendors, Ford Motor Company and the Ford employees and everyone else who helped make this clinic one to remember.

May 6, 2011

The Final Day…Time to Finish Strong

By jpotanko

Today was our final day at the clinic. We only saw 5 schools for a total of 86 kids. Out of those 86 kids, 67 of them needed eyeglasses.  Our final totals were roughly 110 schools came through with a total of 2249 students. Out of those students, 1923 of them needed eyeglasses, a 85.5% of need. Also, out of those 1923 eyeglasses, only 4 of them could not be processed on site here at the clinic. This feat was accomplished despite having prescriptions coming in with ranges anywhere between +13.00 to a -19.00 and everything in between. As the last kids started to leave the clinic, the team started to clean up and pack up the supplies so that the next clinic in Chicago can have all that they need starting on Monday. The team finished so quickly that we had time to kill and relax before we started to depart to head back to our homes. We, as a team, worked with the highest levels of productivity and ensured everyone involved enjoyed the experience. We thank you all for your support!

May 6, 2011

The Pinning Ceremony…Tears, Laughter and Joy

By jpotanko

Last night was our pinning ceremony. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this the night before the end of the clinic, the team gets together for a ceremony where a clinic pin is placed on your shirt by your peers unique to the clinic itself. No one else but the core team members gets these pins. These pins are a small token of the appreciation each member deserves for all the hard work they have put in to make this clinic as successful as it was. We shared memories and stories that made us laugh, made us cry and made us appreciate the experiences we all had as a team, as a family, while here in Detroit. Memories were made to be shared for years to come, friendships made to build upon down the road and all of us will be leaving here changed individuals from what we experienced. Hopefully we will all continue to grow, both as associates within our respected brands in Luxottica and as human beings.

Please enjoy the pictures. Hopefully they tell the story better than what could be put into words

May 5, 2011

The Lab Goes On A Field Trip…..

By jpotanko

Yesterday was our last full day here in Detroit. We saw 226 kids with 205 eyeglasses being made, a 90.7% need, the highest of the clinic. Our cumulative total so far is 2163 kids seen with 1856 eyeglasses made

 

We sent a second team out to start dispensing eyeglasses to some of the students who already came through the clinic. Greg, the leader from the last team, went again. He traveled with John, Teresa, Joe and Leanne to the school. John, Teresa, Joe and Leanne are all part of our Lab Production Team and do not get to interact with the kids as much as everyone else has, so they were all nominated and chosen to go out to the schools. it was nice and encouraging to see those four go out and experience the joy on those kids faces when they put on their new eyeglasses for the first time. Even as the kids left, they would stop our team in the hallways and point to them that they were still wearing their glasses as they should.

 

Our Fundraising Co-Captains, Lori and Desha, held a second silent and live auction over the last few days to help raise more money for Onesight. Some of the items that went up for auction included a pair of Chanel sunglasses, a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses, two University of Michigan hats, a Onesight water bottle and various Onesight T-Shirts.  We were able to raise another $330.00 for our fundraising page, putting our total so far near or above $10,000. Great job by the team and Desha and Lori for putting everything together for us!

 

The Pinning Ceremony also happened yesterday, however that will be incliuded in a separate post to give it proper due for the event itself.

 

Thanks for Reading!

Detroit Team 2011

May 4, 2011

School Dispensing Trips & Crazy Hat Invasion

By jpotanko

Today we were able to enjoy some serious sunshine throughout the day. Sure beats all the grey clouds and rain we have been dealing with during our stay here. We saw 276 kids today with 240 of them needing eyeglasses, a 86.9% need. So far for the entire clinic, we have seen a total of 1937 kids with 1651 of them needing eyeglasses, a 85.2% of need. The impact we have made as a team has been tremendous for this area and all of these students that have come through our clinic doors.

 

Today was Crazy Hat Day at the clinic for the core team members. Desha and Lori, our co-fundraising captains, made a number of hats to wear for today. All they asked for was a $5.00 donation to our team page for each hat. Desha and Lori made various hats, rangings from tiaras to crowns to the unique and unusual. Others brought their own hats to wear. Those hats included floral hats, baseball caps, polka dotted top hats to Packer Cheeseheads (which drew friendly heckling from the locals here in Detroit) Crazy Hat day is done to help loosen things up for both staff and students alike to ensure everyone involved was having fun during the day.

 

This day was also big for us as we sent a team out to start dispensing some of the glasses we had made on site to the students. The teams were selected based on nomination from the other core team members on why they should go and how it would impact them from experiencing this. Todays team consisted of Greg Martin, one of main controllers, Chris, our photography captain, Krista, a member of oiu production team, Elizabeth, one of our team leaders, and Odette, a clinic coordinator from South Africa. Odette has been here the last few days learning the process we do here in the states so she can start similar program in South Africa.

 

Our dispensing team visited three schools today and started dispensing glasses out to some of the students who had came through earlier in the clinic. There was a little six year old girl who was moving around with one of the teachers that our team didnt initially realize that she was one of the students there for dispensing. She had never worn glasses before and needed a Rx for a +4.00 with a -3.00 cylinder. She had already picked out a bright bliue plastic frame earlier for her glasses. The moment she put the glasses on, her eyes lit up and she had a huge grin on her face. She was very excited and happy to be able to actually see with straining and squinting her eyes. Now she got to see everything she was missing out on not being able to see correctly.

 

One of the students who came in today was Michael. Michael is an 11 year old boy who was very apprehensive of the entire process. He came up to our tonometer machines, or "puff of air" machines and ended up not liking the test at all. He became very upset and wasnt happy. He was suppose to have his eyes dilated, however Caviniona decided not to have his eyes dilated. Caviniona walked with him up to the auto-refraction machines, which are very similar in design to the tonometers. He started to becomne upset again, but Caviniona showed him what the test actually did. Michael ended up calming down and gave hugs to everyone at the end. He even went as far as saying he was sorry for his behavior, even though he never did anything wrong. Glad to see he ended up enjoying the process today.

 

Allen was a 9 year old little boy who came into our clinic today. Desha worked with him during the process, helping him be more at ease and explained all the tests to him so he knew what was going to happen. During the process, he recited Dr Suess's Green Eggs and Ham to her while going from test to test. At the end of the day, Allen asked Desha to sit with during lunch and even offered her half of his snack and called Desha his new best friend.

 

We are always taking donations for the program. If you wish to donate, please visit our page at http://onesight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&eventID=514&teamID=5074

 

Thanks!

Detroit Team 2011

May 3, 2011

A Busy Rainy Day & A Visit From Geese

By jpotanko

Yes, had a visit from a family of geese today. We have noticed these geese roaming around the complex while we were here. Today, they decided to get an up close view of our van to see what all the commotion was about.

Now that I have gotten the “Aww How Cute” out of you, time to get down to business.  Today was our busiest day as far as the number of students that were seen and second busiest day for the lab thus far. We saw 296 students today with 258 of them needing eyeglasses, giving us an 87.1% need. Our cumulative totals are 1661 students seen with 1411 needing eyeglasses, an 85.0% of need.

There was a little boy by the name of Armani who came in today with his school. He was very timid and hesitant to go through the pre testing equipment.  Michelle, one of the members of our core team, was kind enough to walk with Armani at each station. Michelle went first on each machine to show him what being done. Afterwards, Michelle allowed Armani to go through the same test, helping him to be more at ease.  Armani finished out the process by picking out his new eyeglasses and then gave Michelle a big hug and said thank you!

The students while awaiting dilation, serenated one of our team members with “Happy Birthday!” to help pass the time. Eddie enjoyed it all in good fun & got a great laugh out of it. Eddie is now 36, so Happy Birthday Eddie!

Our team dinner was at Buddy’s Pizza, where we had our fill on unlimited pizza and salad. Lori, Amber, and Greg helped get a birthday cake and birthday card for Eddie while we were out this evening. Everyone had a great time and I’m sure a number of us are going to feel stuffed for a while.

Tomorrow and Thursday we will be sending a team out to three different schools to start dispensing some of the eyewear we have made on site to the kids. Photos and stories will be posted on Wednesday and Thursday night blogs for everyone to see how excited the kids are and how much of a difference it makes to them.

If anyone is interested in donating, our team page link can be found at http://onesight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&eventID=514&teamID=5074  We will be raising money all throughout the year for our clinic. Any donation, no matter the amount, is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your support!

Detroit Team 2011

May 2, 2011

Back to the grind stone folks…...

By jpotanko

Today was our first day back to the clinic after having the weekend off to have fun, relax and recharge for the rest of the clinic. We saw 268 students today with 217 of them needing eyeglasses, giving us a 80.9% of need for the day. The cumulative total so far for our clinic is 1365 students seen with 1153 needing eyeglasses, giving us a 84.5% of need thus far.

The students were very attentitive and eager to go through our process today. There was a young boy who came in today who was blind in his one eye. My hearts felt for this boy being he already lost sight in his one eye and had no corrective lens for his good eye. The boy was very excited to have his eye exam today and enjoyed picking out his glasses to finally be able to see correctly.

We also had twin boys come through, Tyrell and Tyrese. These boys were born with cataracts in their eyes that required them to have very high plus prescriptions (between +11.00 and +14.00). Dr Pam Brown had recognized them from a clinic here a few years ago. Back then they came in because they had broken their previous pairs of glasses and now were back in because their glasses were broken yet again. Dr Brown went over with the boys how to properly maintain and take care of their glasses so that they would last longer for them.

Tonight we were treated by the local Sears employees to a potluck dinner as their way of showing appreciation for us coming here. There were tons (and I mean TONS) of chicken, spaghetti, salad, rolls, desserts, etc for us to eat this evening. Needless to say, some of us are going to return home and need to update our wardrobes to a slightly bigger size or two!

Also, if anyone is willing to donate to our clinic, our link to our page is http://onesight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&eventID=514&teamID=5074

Thanks for reading and your support!

Detroit Team 2011

May 1, 2011

The Weekend Off From Clinic

By jpotanko

Finally the weekend arrived with some much needed rest and relaxation! The majority of our team decided to take a tour of Detroit, which was organized by one of our doctors, Dr. Spalter. One of our local volunteers, James, was able to get his mother in law to bring us on the bus to take us around Detroit.

One if the first stops along our tour was at the Motown Museum. We were greeted by our tour guide Antonio, who took us around the museum. We learned about how Motown was founded, with an $800 loan from Berry Gordy Jr family. Berry Gordy Jr had created up to 13 different labels for his artists under the Motown name in hopes of creating as much airtime as possible. Radio stations back then only played a maximum of 3 artists from a label, so this was Motown's way of maximumizing as much exposure as they could. Antonio also taught us how the Motown sound was created, which was a hole cut into the ceiling leading into an attic that was stripped of material inside. The noise reverberated off the walls inside the attic which is what gave Motown its own unique sound. Inside the museum, there were various furnishings inside as the building was Berry Gordy's apartment and studio when he first created Motown. He also bought all the houses on the block in hopes of creating a close knit family atmosphere within his own company. All of his artists, ranging from Stevie Wonder to The Tempetations to The Four Tops and everyone else were under the age of 21, with Stevie Wonder being the youngest, age 11 when he was brought on board. Gordy helped refine his artists, teaching them how to be professionals, mannerisms, how to properly exit and enter a car, etc. Gordy wanted his artists to be able to perform around the world, in front of kings and queens and world leaders. Ultimately, Gordy's $800 initial loan would turn into a multi million dollar business, eventually selling Motown for over $60,000,000

 

The second major stop on our tour was at St Anne's Church. It was founded and built in 1701, making it the second oldest church in the United States. It was founded 2 days after Antonie de la Mothe Cadillac landed in Detroit and began construction of Fort Ponchartrain. The original church was destroyed by fire in 1703. The church would be again be destroyed by fire in 1714, however this time it was destroyed by the citizens themselves as a means of a way to prevent the Native Americans from using it a cover during the conflict between them and the Fort Soldiers. Church services were held in a make-shift church for many years afterwards. The current church was built in 1886 and has stood there ever since, with many of the parish records from the previous locations of the church still intact from over the years.

 

The final major stop was the Heidelberg Project. Heidelberg, one of the suburbs of Detroit, is one of the most economically depressed areas in the country. A number of people have turned their streets, lawns and homes into a giant art exhibit. Many of homes and properties are ran down and in poor condition, however they were able to turn something negative into something positive. Many of the exhibits are more abstract in nature while others offer a clear message of what they are trying to say.

 

On Sunday, a small part of our team went out with two of our local team members, Krista and Wendy to various parts of Detroit, including Lafayette Coney Island, Joe Louis Arena and 8 Mile. Lafayette Coney Island is a small hot dog shop in downtown Detroit that comes with high praise from locals and tourists alike. We were greeted by a very friendly and helpful staff who took our orders for hot dogs and fries and Cokes. One the waiters kept us entertained by doing simple tricks, such as balancing two forks on two tooth picks stuck in a salt shaker and balancing 10 smaller nails on top of a larger nail. The food was very delicious and served very quickly. The cost was also very reasonable, with a Chili Cheese Coney Dog with Chili Cheese fries costing you roughly 6 bucks.

The next stop was Joe Louis Arena, named after the famous boxer Joe Louis who hails from Detroit and is the home of the NHL Detroit Red Wings, or Hockeytown as its fans refer to it. We got to see the giant squid outside of the arena, homage to Red Wings fans throwing squids on the ice inside the arena during Red Wings games. It was particularly interesting for two of the team members, Jens and Joshua. Jens is a supporter of the San Jose Sharks who are currently playing the Red Wings in the playoffs while Joshua supports the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have faced the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals merely a few years ago.

The final stop was along 8 Mile. We were not exactly looking for any particular landmark along 8 Mile, just a chance to have a photo taken along 8 mile just to say we were there. For those who do not know, 8 Mile became somewhat famous when Eminem made a movie and soundtrack called 8 Mile, loosely based off of his own experiences from living there. So we went into two teams, with one team standing under a 8 Mile road sign with the other team taking the photos and vice versa.

 

The weekend is almost over and soon it will be back to the clinic site for the start of our second week of the clinic mission. Thanks for reading!

 

Detroit Team 2011

April 29, 2011

Sunny Friday and the Week in Review

By jpotanko

Today was our fourth day of the clinic and final day for the first week before we take a break during the weekend and then will resume clinic again on Monday.  We saw 278 students today with 231 of them needing eyeglasses, giving us a 83.1% of need. For the week we saw a total of 1097 students with 936 of them needing eyeglasses, giving us a 85.3% of need thus far for the clinic. It goes to show how much of a need and impact we are making in the Detroit community.

There was a little girl who came in today who was really shy and bashful. She was very hesitant about the whole process and really did not want to go through any of the tests. One of our core team members, Amber, walked her through the process first to show her what each station did to help put her at ease. Amber even went with her as each test was performed with her and became her buddy throughouit the day, even helping her pick out her brand new glasses at the end.

Jens and Gabi were our team members in charge of the dilation station today. If anyone knows about kids and dilation, you know this is usually not the kids favorite test to have done. However, Jens and Gabi were able to make things easy and smooth for the kids, laughing and having them make funny faces to help make the process less stressful on them.

Desha was in charge of the auto-refraction station today and one of the last students was having a hard time opening his eyes enough for Desha to get an accurate reading for the doctors. So Desha has the kid do various stretches to help loosen him up and make him more relaxed. However, the student had noticed Desha didnt touch her toes during the stretch and kinda called her out on it. So Desha went all the way down to touch her toes, much to the laughter of the little boy, but may have stretched just a bit much. So if you see Desha, give her a pat on the back (not too hard though) and maybe help her walk a bit because she might be a bit sore after today!

Today did have a bit of a somber mood today as we had to say goodbye to two of our team members today. Dawn, one of our team leaders and Dr Easter, one of our local doctors, are leaving us after today. Dr Easter will be going back to work at one of our local stores here in the Detroit area and Dawn will be enjoying some well deserved time off away from work. Thank you Dr Easter and Dawn! Great Job by both of you!!

The majority of the team will be on a tour of the Detroit area tomorrow while others will be venturing off to unwind and relax on their own. Sunday is also a free day for everyone but something tells me Sunday is going to be laundry day for alot of us

Thanks for reading!

Detroit 2011 Team

April 28, 2011

Day of Dispensing & the Not-So-Silent Auction

By jpotanko

Our third day of the clinic was greeted with fairly cold weather at the start of the morning. After a quick run to Starbucks, our team hopped right into positions and awaited our day's worth of students. Today we saw 265 students, of which 219 needed eyeglasses. That brings our overall totals 819 kids that we have seen thus far with 705 of them needing eyeglasses. That is a 86.1% need so far at our clinic. We were also able to dispense eyeglasses to one of the schools we saw earlier in the clinic and are currently working out plans for our team to start dispensing out eyeglasses that we have completed to the students in need. We also had our Not-So-Silent Auction today to help raise money for the Onesight program. Some of the items that were donated were Detroit Tigers gift bags, a signed Portland Trail Blazers jersey, customized Oakley Sunglasses with the Onesight logo and colors, an iPod Shuffle and various bottles of wine. The auction was a HUGE success!

 

We had a young man who came into our clinic today who had a very difficult time seeing and at times had to be helped through the process because he couldnt see. The young man came to our auto-refraction area, which gives us a rough idea on what his prescription looks like for the doctors. We were able to get a reading on his right eye, which was reading at a very high plus prescription (+13.00), but could not get an accurate reading on his left eye, despite using two different machines. The young man went to one of our doctors, Dr. Caldwell, and it waas discovered that the young man had surgery done that had implants installed and one of the implants had actually shifted out of alignment for him. Dr Caldwell was able to write a prescription for him to help him be able to see, which the glasses were able to be proceed on site in our lab. Greg Martin, one of our core team members, sat with the young man and helped him eat his lunch as he couldnt see what was given to him and ensured the boy that he would get his glasses as soon as we can have them ready.

A young lady also came through our clinic process today who had never worn glasses before in her life. Once she was finished, she needed a +5.50 prescription for eyeglasses, which is a fairly high prescription need for a first time wearer. Our lab team, who have been very efficent and helped produced this young lady a pair of glasses today for her onsite that she was able to go home with today! She tried those glasses on and her eyes lit up when she was able to see. She came over and gave Erica, one of our core team members, a big hug and thanked her for her new eyeglasses!

One 12 year old girl was having a difficult time with some of the pre-testing procedures in our clinic and did not want any more testing done. Desha, our fundraising captain had actually walked her through the tests with her being tested so that the little girl could actually see what was being done. Desha talked and danced and joked with the little girl to help ease her through the tests without any difficulty and ended up enjoying her experience here! Awesome job Desha!

This comes from one of our core team leaders, Dawn, who has been on countless Regional and Global Clinics throughout the years and has many years of experience:

I’ve been an optician for a long time and have seen some crazy Rx’s even dispensed some really high powers in other countries but in 1 day to have my hands on a -18.50, a -17.00 -3.00 and a -14.00 all in the same day, made on our amazing production van EyeVan brings a smile to my face and a sense of pride that I work for a company that cares enough to give back.  These kids in Detroit need OneSight and the glasses this fantastic team is making daily and it’s great to be a part of it.

Dawn

 

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Detroit Team 2011

April 27, 2011

Rainy Days and Smooth Sailing

By jpotanko

Today we were greeted by dark clouds and rain as we departed for the clinic site. However, our team spirit and energy would not be dampened on this day. For only our second full day working as a team, our clinic went very very smooth with very little to no disruption. Our team worked very efficiently and effectively which allowed the children to go through the clinic in a timely manner. We saw 264 students today, of which 227 of them needed eyeglasses. That brings our totals to 554 students seen with 480 so far needing eyeglasses.

The students from our schools today brought in Thank You cards that they had made in their class to give us during their time today! How awesome is that! We displayed the cards on some of the doors within the building to show everyone how talented and appreciative they were! Thank you students!

We had one young lady around the age of 11 or 12 who was going through our process today and when it was time for her to see the doctor, she had to squint very badly just to see where to go. She was asked if she had ever worn glasses before, which she replied she didn’t. Our doctor found that she had a very high prescription for near-sightedness for her glasses. She was one of a number of students we saw today that never worn glasses or never had their eyes checked that were in a real need for eyeglasses. Can you imagine the difference these glasses are going to make for them once they are going to be able to actually see correctly without squinting? HUGE DIFFERENCE!

We had another young lady who was waiting to have her eyes dilated. She really didn’t want to have her eyes dilated and was afraid it was going to hurt. One of our doctors, Pam Brown, was able to come over and calm the young lady down and pinkie promising her that the drops wouldn’t hurt.  Afterwards the young lady felt so much better and didn’t seem to worry too much about the drops. Thank you Dr. Pam Brown!

We would like to remind you that we are always in need for donated eyeglasses for our International Clinics, so if you have any old eyewear that you are not using, please drop them off at any Lenscrafters, Pearle Vision or Sears Optical so that they may be used. Do not worry about the condition of the eyewear because all donated eyewear will be used in one way or another for the International Clinics. Also our fundraising page is still up and running as well. If you or anyone else is interested in donating, please visit http://onesight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&eventID=514&teamID=5074 to donate to our clinic.

Thanks for your reading and support!

Detroit 2011 Team

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

April 12, 2011

Welcome to Detroit 2011!

By jpotanko

Hello everyone! We would like to thank you and welcome you to the Onesight Clinic in Detroit for 2011!

We have assembled an awesome team of volunteers and doctors from around the world, and will be spending two weeks providing exams and eyewear to the youth of the Detroit area, who would otherwise not be able to afford them.  Every day we will be updating our experiences at and around the clinic, giving stories of fantastic recipients, and the experience of the team, allowing you to see what we experience and the differences we make during our stay here.  We will be arriving on April 25th  , and we will be updating this blog daily until our departure on May 6th , so please be sure to check often so you don't miss anything!

 

If you are interested, the team has been working hard on our fundraiser to help raise money for this clinic and your help would be greatly appreciated. Our link to our fundraising page is http://onesight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&eventID=514&teamID=5074 Or go to www.onesight.donordrive.com. Search for Detroit 2011 and you can donate to our fundraiser  You will be given a charitable tax receipt after you make your donation and the thanks of all of the kids we will be helping out on site.

 

Here is a little background information regarding the Onesight program and our 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 around the world during its 20-year history.

 

Each year, Onesight conducts two week clinics where our doctors and teams of trained volunteers provide free eye exams and eyewear to thousands of people in need. To date, Onesight has had nearly 200 clinics in 37 different countries, with 15 clinics scheduled across the globe and 14 clinics scheduled for North America for 2011.  For any more information, please visit www.onesight.org

We thank you for all of your support and please do check back here often starting on April 25th!

Joshua and the 2011 Detroit Team