Last week in San Francisco, Exploratorium guests were invited to peer into the science of seeing with VSP Vision Care. During an Exploratorium Free Wednesday on December 2nd, kids and families had the opportunity to tour SeeZar, one of the VSP Mobile Eyes® clinics, Ask the VSP eye doctor, Jim Winnick, all sorts of questions (which animal has a brain that weighs less then its eye?), spin a prize wheel, and participate in intriguing, eyes-on activities inspired by the Exploratorium’s Seeing exhibit collection. As if all of this wasn’t enough fun for the day, we had one more surprise in store for everyone, a visit by San Francisco’s Kyle Rose, member of the Team Type 1 professional cycling team!
Guests had the opportunity to ask questions about diabetes, cycling and receive autographs and pictures with the local star during his last appearance stateside as he prepared to move to Paris, France, where he will be racing for the 2010 season.
Kyle interacted with the kids…”you get to ride bikes for a job??” “Do you ride bikes with Lance Armstrong?” “I have a purple bike…but it’s broke.” “I bet you need really good eyes to see where you are going.” “Have you crashed before?” (OK, this last question was actually me. And yes, he just finished healing from a gnarly crash where he was clipped by another rider, flipped over his handlebars into a ditch and broke multiple ribs!)
An amazing story was a woman who asked Kyle if he was wearing an insulin pump on the back of his arm. He said yes and proceeded to tell her the story of Team Type 1. She then proceeded to tell us about her husband, who also has Type 1 diabetes, and how cycling has saved his life by getting and keeping him active. It gave me goose bumps! Kyle provided her with information about Team Type 1 and encouraged her to have her husband reach out to the team.
We were all so grateful to have Kyle take time out of his busy day to join us for a few hours (he literally was packing up the last of his things to get shipped across the Atlantic just 72 hours after the event!).
Be sure to stay tuned as we post a series of videos featuring Kyle as he shares with us how an eye exam led to the early detection of his diabetes and how he continues to use annual eye exams to help manage and monitor his diabetes. And be sure to follow him while he’s in France on twitter and Facebook!
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