Day 4: Aloha!!

Texas lingo for the day, off the ranch, meaning slightly crazy, ex: You are off the ranch with that idea.

Our attire for clinic is normally our OneSight clinic shirts, red with a Houston logo on back but one day each week of clinic we have a fun day. Today was Hawaiian shirt day. Above is a picture of our team at breakfast in their Hawaiian shirts; Top left, Sheila Neal Moore - Target Dallas TX, Paul Craven - LensCrafters North Portland MN, Billy Thomas - LensCrafters Detroit MI, and Debbie Hailey - Talent Management Mason OH.


Pictured above is Lakshmi Gopiram, LensCrafters Los Angelas CA, working on the Auto Refractor machine.

This is the third step in the clinic process is what we call pre-test, this includes auto refraction and tonometry. Auto Refractor estimates prescription by measuring the way light bounces in the eye to give our doctors a starting point for their exam. Tonometry measures the pressure of the eye which if it is too high can indicate conditions like glaucoma.

Pictured above working on the Tonometry machine are Malisa Sicilia, Sears Savannah GA, and Lisa Barbour LensCrafters Denver CO.

We had a very special visitor today, Sheila Jackson Lee, US Congresswoman for the 18th district of Texas. During her visit she spoke about President Obama's Health care proposals and presented OneSight with a Congressional award. Pictured above are Sheila Jackson Lee and Scott Lawrence - OneSight (our team Leader).

Our truly fulfilling story of the day comes from a young girl, Jasmene. She came through the clinic wearing a -1.00 sphere in both eyes. The auto refractor read her left eye as needing a -15.25 correction, not believing his eyes, Carson Maxted - Pearle Kelowna BC re-tested. The re-test gave similar correction results. Unfortunately, Jasmene was very scared throughout the process and left before we could get her final written prescription. However there is a happy ending to this story, because of the wonderful partnership we have with the local doctors here in Houston, she will be seen again by them and receive the prescription. We all are so excited to be part of such an amazing little girl and helping her by giving the gift of sight.

Day 3: Team in Action

We had an amazing day, seeing almost 400 kids. It was exciting to see how appreciative the children were for the care they were receiving and the excitement they shared with us as they picked out their brand new frames.

To check out the local news story on the clinic visit http://www.myfoxhouston.com/



Here is step two in our clinic setup; after registration children have their color and depth perseption checked. This pre-screening step helps our doctors catch some rare vision problems. Pictured here are two OneSight core team members, left to right Sukhmeet Garha - Learning and Development Mason OH and Sheila Neal Moore - Target Dallas TX.

Your Texas lingo for the day is, coke. After discussion amongst the team we have decided that the terminology is regional. In the west it's pop, the east it's soda and in Texas it's coke.


A huge win for the team today was completing a very high prescription for a kid today. Before the addition to the OneSight family of EyeVan the new mobile lab a prescription of +5.50 -6.00, +5.75 -8.00 would have been sent out for special order and may have taken several weeks to get back to the student. EyeVan's high tech lab didn't missed a beat and had the glasses ready in no time. Sabrina will receive her stylish Oakley frames in the next few days. The picture above is Oakley frame she picked and will be receiving with her new prescription.

Day 2: First Clinic Day

This was one of the best first clinic days we've experienced. We had the privilege of seeing 300 kids today who all received free eye exams and those in need got to pick out frames for their brand new glasses.

Our bit of Texas lingo we learned today was shoot, meaning line or queue. Ex: Follow the shoot to the next station.

To give you an idea of the clinic setup we would like to walk you through our clinic process a few stations at a time.
The kids first stop is registration. We are so blessed by the amazing City of Houston staff that are running registration and many other parts of the clinic. Each child receive paper to track them through the process so we can document each step and make the best recommendations for their eye health.

Each day we'll share more stations with you.

We want to leave you with a heart warming story from our day. At the tonometry station, where you get the puff of air in your eye at the eye doctors office. We had a young girl named Jayla, she was so afraid of this station that everytime she got to the head of the shoot, she would let two or three other kids in front of her. When Jayla was left as the last kid in line the team realized her fear and took her by the hand, after two quick puffs she was off with a smile.

Day 1: Travel

Day one started with all of us traveling from different parts of North America. All of us are headed back to our hotel from dinner and we have about three quarters of the team together. The Cincinnati team could not make it today because of bad weather so we are looking forward to meeting them tomorrow.

We have already learned our first bit of Texas lingo, Fixin: planning to do something, ex; We're fixin to go to Chili's for drinks.

We are very fortunate to have Dawn Yager - OneSight and her vision van "Seemore" with us for week one. As we break in our brand new vision van "EyeVan" we will have both vans to use first week of clinic. Thank you Dawn for making the trip to come help us. To see our brand new van visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/OneSightOrg

Stay tuned for the next two weeks to see our clinic in action and learn more about our amazing Onesight core team.

Welcome!

Hello!

If you are interested in virtual participation in our OneSight Clinic to Houston TX, you have landed on the right blog! Our team of 24 volunteers from North America will spend two weeks in the Houston area providing new eyewear to thousands of Texan students who could not otherwise afford to see the world clearly.

Each day, right here on this very page, we will be posting highlights from our vision care clinic including stories of our recipients, the team experiences, and a little about Houston itself. We land in Houston on Sunday, February 14th and will be posting messages and photographs through Friday, February 26th. Be sure to log on every day so you don't miss any of the excitement!

Here's a little background about OneSight and our Global Clinics: OneSight is a family of charitable programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education. Sponsored by Luxottica Group, OneSight programs have helped more than 7 million people over its 20-year history.

Each year, OneSight conducts two-week global clinics in developing countries where our doctors and trained volunteers provide free eye exams and recycled eyewear to thousands of people in need. Till date we have run about 155 clinics in 31 different developing countries. This year, we have planned 20 clinics in developing countries around the world. For a complete list of clinic locations, visit www.onesight.org.

We would like to thank all of you in advance for your financial and emotional support for OneSight and our clinic team, as well as a big thank you to our local volunteers and coordinators who will make this clinic possible. Thanks for visiting our blog and we hope you are as excited about the clinic as we are!