VSP Blog

Tresa D. is a Mobile Response Team member who volunteered her time in Nebraska last week. Below is an account of her experience:

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.

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.