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Clinic Blog: Camp Pendleton Blog

May 28, 2010

Day 5 and Clinic Close

By pcappellari

Today has been a busy day! We started the day at 7:30 with breakfast at what became our favorite early morning hang-out "Carrow's." Then we headed to base to take a team picture in front of some canons. Jan, otherwise know as unsinkable Molly Brown, was the first to leave clinic and go back home right after the picture. Clinic opened at 10am this morning so we got right to work once we arrived. The short day went the clock-work thanks to more Oakley volunteers that came to help! We think we saw about 40 kids today, final numbers are still being counted.

At 1:00 we began tearing down the tents, returning tables and chairs to the military, cleaning equipment and doing inventory on frames and lenses AS WE BIE farewell to two of our first clinic members leaving (from San Diego) - Michele and Rodney. As this blog is being written, there is noise of the shop vac cleaning all the edgers, music blaring over the hum of the shop vac and all sorts of clinic members counting and sorting Oakely skus in preparation for the South Dakota clinic on an American Indian reservation. Actually, Marcos, one of our lab volunteers is driving EyeVan to South Dakota! The next group of folks going to the airport (Santa Ana) are Jason and Paola at 4:00. As we get cleaned up many of the local team members will be driving home to various parts of Southern California. We have Trina, Tysa and Rupal leaving tomorrow morning (from Santa Ana). Many of us are thinking that a long snooze is order after a long week giving the gift of sight!

We will miss this clinic and the team! Thank you to all for enriching so many lives this week and giving back to families that put themselves in harm's way every day in the name of freedom for the USA, freedom for us. Thank you to Camp Pendleton for allowing this clinic to happen on base. Thank you to Juliana and Cindy for leading the way in preparing for this awesome clinic. Thank you to Gary for taking care of all the logistics (and the taquitos). Thank you to Scott for your leadership! THANK YOU EVERYONE!

May 28, 2010

Day 4

By pcappellari

After a long day at clinic we hosted the traditional silent auction and pinning ceremony. We walked across the street to The Flying Bridge Restaurant where we prepared all the items for the auction. Many of the items were hand-carried from all over the USA. We bid on wine; glasses from CHANEL, Oakley and Chrome Hearts; Hawaiin choclates, coffee and nuts; handmade jewelery; business card holder and watch made out of silverware; sweaters; t-shirts; clutch purses; handmade OneSight scrapbook; Oakley backpacks; handmade Camp Pendleton 2010 frame; made on demand fresh jalapeno jelly...and the list goes on! After the auction we announced the lucky winner of the "Split the Pot" raffle we hosted all week. We collected $1040 from clinic members and other volunteers. $520 went to OneSight and $520 went to Christy (LC #622 Montclair), a portion of which she donated back to OneSight. OneSight was also presented with $5000 check from Sons of the American Legion and a $500 check from Diamond Bar Ladies Club to help support Camp Pendleton Clinic 2011! Awesome!!

We then convened in the cozy breakfast nook of the hotel for the much-anticipated pinning ceremony. For clinic rookies we won't divulge too much information but suffice it to say that earlier in the week we pick a clinic team member name out of a hat. We then have to honor and pin this member at the end of clinic. It's a very heart-warming ecperience for everyone. We get to hear what everyone learned about each other.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long day closing up the clinic, re-packing EyeVan and counting lens and frame inventories so Good Night!

May 27, 2010

Day 3!

By pcappellari

Wednesday was another fantastic day at the clinic and it flowed so much smoother than the previous other days. We moved EyeVan closer to the parking lot where it could serve as an advertisement to help people find the clinic. We also moved the registration tent closer to the van as well so all flowed well.

We had several very young children today that were severe needs. We had Sophia at 15 months old who needed glasses for the first time, those with the cable cords behind the ears to hold them in place. Although her prescription wasn't terrible, she was just so young to be in need. We also had another 3-year old who had a -10.00 in the right eye and no correction the left. We actually did not have glasses small enough for her face so she's getting a rather small pair however Cindy is going to help them in her store to find just the right pair to fit her small face.

We are excited to see what Thursday will bring!

May 26, 2010

Future OneSight Volunteer!

By pcappellari

May 25, 2010

Day 1 Photos

By pcappellari

May 25, 2010

Day 2!

By pcappellari

We all came to the consensus after Day 2 that volunterring in Southern California has to be one of the roughest of clinics. Our sunkissed faces bare the mark of another successful day helping children of military families receive the gift of sight. See, this clinic is actually outside in sunny Camp Pendleton, a hop, skip and a jump away from the Pacific Ocean! While we help kids select the perfect frames and dispense the finished glasses, we are enjoying the fantastic weather and breeze that occasionally passes through our tents and reminds us to keep the tents anchored down with water bottles, lense solution boxes or whatever we can find.

Day 2 saw 95 children pass through the clinic and word is starting to spread fast around the base that OneSight is here and offering FREE eyewear to children in need. In the last 2 days we've seen many, many children with very high prescriptions that certainly were in need so we feel happy that we can provide them the gift of sight. Today we saw a very touching story of a 4-year old child named Riley. Riley was born with a left eye that has almost no vision. He wears a patch on his right eye 8 hours per day to strenghten the left eye so the right eye is not overcompensating. In fact, in recent months his left eye has been able to identify colors and shapes! However, that is not the part that touched our heartstrings today. You see, Riley is 1 of a set of triplets he'll never know. His siblings did not survive the pregnancy and his mother was told she would have to terminate the pregnancy of the only surviving embryo due to diabetes and the previous 4 quadruple bypass surgeries she had. She was advised to have tubal ligation to prevent other pregnancies. However, that day, something special happened! The pregnancy was too far along to terminate and thus have tubal ligation. Riley is a survivor! He was so sweet we wanted to scoop him up and eat him for dessert!

Overall, the clinic flowed so much smoother today thanks to the runners we had (Kathy, Josh and Jan) and thanks to the decision to move the dispensing tent closer to frame selection. We did however have a small back-up in EyeVan due to a technical issue that was causing one of the machines to back-up with fluid leading to several remakes. Despite this glitch, we only had 6 pairs that need to be produced tomorrow morning from today's clinic! Both labs (inside building and in EyeVan) did a super job with helping ensure that most children left here with glasses today. And, the inside lab even instituted a new process to help runners identify which jobs were in currrently in production so they could tell the families the status of their glasses. Tomorrow the EyeVan lab will be starting a similar process. So, we should be running a near perfect clinic tomorrow after so many improvements.

Check out the latest photo attachments from Day 2. One photo if of a child was pretending do get PDs (pupil distance) from Rodney, one of our clinic team members.

May 25, 2010

Camp Pendleton Tent Set-Up

By pcappellari

May 19, 2010

4 Days Until Departure for Camp Pendleton!

By pcappellari

4 days and counting until Team Camp Pendleton comes together to give the gift of sight to Camp Pendleton families! I am starting to give some thought to what I'll be packing for the week-long adventure although the suitcase hasn't yet seen the light of day and I'm picking up my silent auction item tomorrow night . Woo hoo! I'm wondering what other team mates will be auctioning!

I'm anxiously awaiting to see what this clinic experience is going to bring as it's a different kind of set up than I've  been exposed to in the past. We will not be giving eye exams to the families as in most clinics because families are already coming with prescriptions. We will be doing a lot of style selection, lens tracing and grinding, and fitting and adjusting on this clinic.

I'm sure I speak for everyone coming from outside California that we can't wait to smell the salt of the ocean!