RELATED CONTENT

The World Sight Day Coalition includes ABB Optical Group, Alcon, AllAboutVision, CooperVision, Essilor, Eyefinity, Marchon Eyewear, TLC Laser Centers, Transitions Optical, Vistakon of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., Vision Source, VSP Optics Group and VSP Vision Care. As reported earlier this month in Vision Monday, the Coalition’s objective is to raise awareness about the importance of eye health and to help expand access to eyecare through support of Optometry Giving Sight (OGS) and its annual fundraising campaign, the World Sight Day Challenge.


A check for $570,000 was presented to OGS in support
of their efforts at the VSP Mobile Eyes Clinic in Atlanta, Ga.

This year, the Coalition and partnering local optometrists provided free eyecare to 4,000 Atlanta residents in need onboard the VSP Mobile Eyes clinics. Some more examples of their efforts are as follows:

Alcon, in partnership with AARP Media Sales, held a national education event titled "Experts on Call” on World Sight Day during which a panel of experts addressed concerns and raised awareness about the importance of eye health for Baby Boomers and others.

Alcon also organized the Kids Celebration of Sight Program, pairing screening activities among primary school children in Texas and India as well as holding local events in Australia and the UK.

AllAboutVision offered to donate $25 for each person who signs up to their online practice directory and donates to the Challenge.

CooperVision, a global platinum sponsor, raised the bar with all offices and staff around the world participating in fundraising activities raising nearly $40,000 at press time.

Essilor conducted and published an international vision study on taxi drivers, sending a team of employees to  21 major cities around the world where they interviewed 2,100 taxi drivers to determine whether they had “normal vision” (defined as 10/10 visual acuity) or had recently had an eye exam. A video of the study is now featured in VisionMonday.com’s Multimedia section. Each member of the study was provided with a voucher to receive a free eye exam from their eye doctor. The company also put on a flashmob in Paris.

TLC Laser Eye Centers, a silver national sponsor, showed their support by sending company representatives from Centers across the U.S. and Canada to the World Sight Day Coalition event in Atlanta, Ga. to provide vision health and LASIK information to attendees.

Vistakon Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. (JJVCI) launched a worldwide campaign asking people to “Take the #EyePledge” by promising to get an eye exam in honor of World Sight Day and posting an “eye selfie” photo on personal social media sites through the Johnson & Johnson Donate A Photo app. A further option for support is to upload the photo on behalf of Sight for Kids, a partner program of JJVCI and the Lions Club International Foundation, for which Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 for every photo uploaded up to $30,000. The Donate a Photo app is available from the App Store and Google Play.  

Vision Source offered to match the first $10,000 in donations sourced by its members.

VSP Global and VSP Vision Care celebrated World Sight Day with the largest mobile eyecare clinic event in history, said the company, providing free eyecare and eyewear to more than 4,000 underserved Atlanta residents onboard the VSP Vision Care mobile eyecare clinic at the Atlanta Metropolitan State College campus from October 9 through 13. VSP also partnered with Olympic Gold medalist Misty May-Treanor, a Nike Vision athlete and volleyball legend, who spoke about the importance of taking care of one’s eyes to raise awareness for the event.

Company Snapshots
More companies that joined in World Sight Day efforts are A&A Optical, Alden Labs, Art Optical, Bard Optical, Carl Zeiss Vision, ClearVision Optical, Contamac, DAC Vision, Demandforce, Europa International, Gas Permeable Lens Institute, Hoya, ICU Eyewear, IVI Vision, Morel Eyewear, Optos, Primary Care Optometry News, Reed Exhibitions, REM, RevolutionEHR, RX Optical, Sauflon, Scotiabank, Signet Armorlite, Tom’s Eyewear, Viva International, WestGroupe, Williams Group and Zyloware Eyewear. Some highlights of their campaign contributions include:

ICU Eyewear of Hollister, Calif. partnered with the Seva Foundation to provide aid to two programs, the SIPI Program and Seva’s Eye Care Initiative, furthering the Seva Foundation's mission to eliminate preventable blindness and visual impairment.

As part of the SIPI program domestically, ICU is providing 600 pairs of eyeglasses and sunglasses to impoverished Native American communities in New Mexico. The SIPI, or Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, works with Seva and will train 25 American Indians, most of which are women, to be top tier vision technicians and licensed opticians.

On Nov. 2, 2013 ICU will take part in "Sing Out for Seva,” one of Seva's world-class benefit concerts, by donating product for silent auction to facilitate global progress in accessible eyecare across the developing world.

IVI Vision of Irvine, Calif. pledged their support via a news article.

Linden Optometry in Pasadena, Calif. made its mark by purchasing World Sight Day Challenge T-shirts for its entire staff.

FYi Doctors in Canada reported 100 percent participation from their members.

OneSight, the not-for-profit foundation of the Luxottica Group, honored World Sight Day by providing vision care and eyewear in underserved communities with vision clinics and sustainable initiatives in The Gambia, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S.

• In The Gambia, trained locals served 30+ patients at OneSight’s permanent vision center located in Farafenni.
• In Mexico, OneSight doctors and volunteers served 700 patients at the OneSight Vision Clinic in Morelia.
• In South Africa their doctors and volunteers served 500 patients at the Vision Clinic in Mtubatuba.
• In the U.S., volunteers provided vision screenings to over 300 students throughout the Cincinnati, Ohio Public School District as part of its Community Vision Care program.

Throughout 2013, OneSight plans to provide vision care and eyewear to more than 240,000 adults and children through over 80 OneSight vision clinics, sustainable initiatives and community programs worldwide. Since 1988, OneSight has given the gift of sight to more than 8.4 million people through 1,189 Clinics in 40 countries.

TOM’s Eyewear encouraged World Sight Day support with their Twitter campaign, #BESHADY, using the hashtag to challenge fans to wear sunglasses indoors and post photos of themselves doing so on their social media channels to spark both organic and digital conversation about the cause (reported by Vision Monday)

Full contributor list:  A&A Optical, ABB Optical, Alcon, Alden Labs, Art Optical, Bard Optical, Carl Zeiss Vision, ClearVision Optical, Contamac, DAC Vision, Demandforce, Essilor, Europa International, Eyefinity, Eye Recommend, Gas Permeable Lens Institute, Hoya, IDOC, Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Marchon Eyewear, Morel Eyewear, Optos, OSI, Primary Care Optometry News, Primary Eyecare Network, Reed Exhibitions, REM, RevolutionEHR, RX Optical, Sauflon, Scotiabank, Signet Armorlite, Texas State Optical, TLC Laser Eye Centers, Transitions Optical, Viva International, VSP Vision Care, VSP Optics Group, WestGroupe, Williams Group and Zyloware Eyewear.