Jill N. is a member of the VSP Global Public Relations team.

Our newest mobile clinic, Eyenstein, was featured last week on CBS 3  in Philadelphia with his friend, Bess the Book Bus, regarding outreach we did with local Girls and Boys Clubs in the area. Check out Dr. Berman and Bess founder, Jennifer, as they talk about the importance of eyesight and getting kids excited about reading!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m traveling on the road once again with the VSP Mobile Eyes Clinic.  The first stop of our trip was to Omaha, NE to provide free comprehensive eye exams and glasses to the clients of the Lydia House.  The Lydia House is a Mission who serves their community by providing basic living needs for the homeless and families living in poverty. 

In talking with Candace Gregory, President of the Lydia House, she said that a large portion of their population is in need of vision assistance.  Illiteracy is not the problem in many cases; it’s that people are simply unable to see to do simple tasks like filling out a job application, reading simple instructions, etc.  I am very proud to be part of the VSP Mobile Eyes team.  Through our program, we were able to partner with the Lydia House to fill that void. 

The first evening, the Mobile Eyes Team gathered around the TV to watch the news coverage of our first day’s event.  I must confess that I was excited to see myself on the news.  During the filming, I was auto-refracting a patient who was in need of new glasses.  It struck me as odd that the news showed me, but they did not show what I was doing.  In reflecting, I realize it was because the woman I was working with was shy with the cameras.  She did not want to be filmed.  She shared with me that no one knew she was at the shelter.  She did not want her family or friends to know that she was there.  She found herself down and out, but was too proud to ask for help.  She came to the Mission to get the help she needed to reclaim her life.  I was touched by her story and her journey to reclaim her life.  I feel privileged to have been part of helping her.  It makes me very proud that she is just one of the more than 27,500 people whose lives have been helped by the VSP Mobile Eyes program.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kim R. is on the VSP Mobile Clinic team.

Part of VSP’s Mobile Eyes Program includes portable lanes of ophthalmic equipment that we loan at no cost to VSP doctors and Schools of Optometry to support their community charitable events. For the second year in row, we worked with Dr. Gilbert Matsuoka, a VSP doctor who practices in the bay area town of Pleasant Hill, CA, by supporting his community outreach program in Oakland, CA in conjunction with over 100 volunteers from his church and in partnership with World Impact. World Impact offers many programs that strengthen, promote and help the community.

Dr. Matsuoka plans, organizes and executes an amazing four day event in Oakland. He pulls many volunteers from his church, and is supported with help from students at UC Berkeley College of Optometry, and many of the local optometrist. It is quite impressive to see what he accomplishes with all of these volunteers! The Mobile Eyes program set up six lanes of portable equipment to support his efforts and also provides all of the glasses for the patients. This year we broke all of the records with our program – in one day we saw 120 patients, we had our highest RX ever, a gentleman who is legally blind, and we have served our oldest patient – a 97 year old woman who seems to have more energy than I do!!

 There were so many touching moments last week, we were thanked by each and everyone of the patients and they were are all so grateful for the services we provided. So many of them have commented on how kind and sweet each and every volunteer has been! They are amazed at the beautiful frames that they are able to select from (thank you Marchon for the donated frames!!).

We had a four year old little boy who was diagnosed Thursday with Glaucoma – pressures were extremely high and after a lengthy consultation with Dr. Matsuoka, the child’s parents understand the importance of getting him in to see a doctor through the local free clinic for follow up care.

Jill N. is a member of the VSP Global Public Relations team.

VSP Vision Care is excited to support the 9th Annual Sacramento Juneteenth Festival this weekend. The mobile clinic will be on site for two days to provide no cost comprehensive eye exams and eyewear to qualifying attendees.

In the summer of 2001, Sacramento’s Juneteenth festival joined the ranks of other American cities to celebrate, as well as educate, the community on one of America’s most important acts of legislation, the Emancipation Proclamation. Signed into law in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared that all those enslaved were now free.

As a company committed to the community as well as to inclusion and diversity, we are proud to support the Juneteenth Festival and look forward to providing much needed services to those in need.

Yesterday morning, VSP Mobile Clinic Operations Manager Niki M. and Sacramento Juneteenth Festival founder, Gary Simon, discussed VSP’s support of the Festival with KCRA’s Adrianne Bankert.

Click here to view the embedded video.

View the clip from KCRA here.

Eight local VSP optometrists from the WMOA volunteered their time and services during the two day event. During the 2009-10 school year, KCHD vision technicians screened more than 46,000 children, and referred more than 6,500 of those children for complete eye exams. Many of those children did not have the resources to receive that follow up care, that’s where Dr. Kenyon and VSP came in.

Dr. Laura Kenyon, president of the West Michigan Optometric Association

“Our member doctors are more than willing to volunteer and give eye examinations to those who may not otherwise receive care,” said Dr. Kenyon. “We are excited to have the VSP mobile eye clinic traveling to Grand Rapids to support both our doctors and the members of our community most in need.” 

Here is an article and radio clip that were published yesterday regarding the event.

VSP would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Kenyon, all of our VSP doctors who volunteered, and Chris Buczek from the KCHD who helped to make this event a huge success!

Jill N. is a member of the VSP Global Public Relations team.

In February we asked our VSP doctors to submit names for the new VSP/Transitions mobile clinic. Thanks to the great response from our providers, we received over 600 names, and selected five for the general public to vote on: Eyenstein, LuSee, SeeAna, SeeBert and SeeCil. After a two week voting period, Eyenstein received the top number of votes and has become the official name for the third mobile clinic in the VSP Mobile Eyes^® fleet!

Amanda S. from Dr. Churchill’s practice, Cedarville Eye, in MA, submitted the winning name: “I had originally come up with several other names, and while I was submitting them, the name ‘Eyenstein’ just popped in my head. The play on the name made me laugh a little, so I submitted it. I thought it was clever because as an opticianry apprentice, I know that healthy vision is smart!”

Our winners, Dr. Churchill and Amanda

Dr. Churchill gave the prize, an all-expense paid trip for two to the 2011 Transitions PGA Championship at Innisbrook Resort & Golf Club in Florida, to Amanda who stated, “I’m very excited about the trip, but I know I’ll be even more excited when March comes and the weather is miserable here in New England, but I’ll be boarding a plane to sunny Florida!”

The new clinic will travel to Cedarville Eye later this year to provide charitable eyecare services in the local community to those in need.

Christine M. from Chicago was our Facebook Fan consumer drawing winner winning a VSP Experience (a comprehensive eye exam and new eyewear from a local  VSP doctor of her choice) and HD Flip Video Camera!

Thank you to all who participated! We look forward to utilizing Eyenstein, in partnership with our VSP network doctors, to help extend our reach even further to help more people in need.

About VSP Mobile Eyes^® Program

The VSP Mobile Eyes^® program features portable ophthalmic equipment and three advanced mobile eyecare clinics which respond immediately to disasters and assist people in need. When not at disaster sites, our mobile clinics travel to community events across the country. In partnership with VSP network doctors, the clinics provide no-cost comprehensive eye exams and, if needed, glasses to the underserved.

Since inception, the mobile clinics have visited over 200 underserved communities nationwide, providing charitable eyecare services and education outreach. Over 410 VSP eye doctors have volunteered their time and services to help more than 23,500 low-income, uninsured, and underinsured children and adults.

Jill N. is a member of the VSP Global Public Relations team.

Recently VSP announced the launch of VSP Eye on Diabetes, a five state campaign created in response to the increasing spread of diabetes across the U.S. A lot of people (did you know?) are unaware that diabetes can be detected through an annual eye exam, sometimes as much as five years earlier than through a Fasting Blood Glucose (Blood Sugar) test! 

Our first stop on the campaign trail was Little Rock, AR on May 21-22. In partnership with the American Diabetes Association Little Rock chapter and the Arkansas Optometric Association, VSP provided free eye exams, eyewear and diabetes screenings to residents in need who had or were at risk of developing diabetes.

It’s been found that 61% of Americans with vision coverage go in for their annual eye exams vs. just 21% who get an annual physical! This provides an opportunity for optometrists to be the first to detect a variety of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, in a patient. With new information pertaining to diabetes continuing to be introduced, it is important to realize that your VSP private practice eye doctor is being provided the most recent information available pertaining to diabetes and eyecare and is a key component to a patients diabetes-care team. You can find more information at the VSP Diabetes Discovery Center.

Check out the video of the day of outreach in Little Rock, narrated by the Mayor of Little Rock, Mark Stodola.

After many years of fundraising to create a National Memorial commemorating his life and work, the memorial is only 10% away from reaching its goal. This memorial will honor his life and contributions to the world through non-violent social change.

For more information, including how to donate, go to http://mlkmemorialnews.org or www.Facebook.com/MLKNationalMemorial