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LAS VEGAS—American Idol’s Randy Jackson announced the winners of the Opticians Association of America’s (OAA) Great American Optician Video Contest at the Zyloware booth during Vision Expo West at the Sands Expo & Convention Center here last week on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014. Zyloware manufactures, markets and distributes the Randy Jackson Eyewear line.

The first place winner, Adam Chizmar, won $3,500 for his entry, “An Optician’s Main Focus.” Matthew Denton won $2,000 for his second place entry, “What is an Optician?” The third place prize of $1,000 went to Michael Beaudoin for his video, “Clearly an Optician.” View all three winning videos here. 

In addition to Jackson, other celebrity judges (as reported by VMail July 6, 2014) were celebrity chef, Robert Irvine, of the Food Network’s Restaurant Impossible; Amy Schneider, co-founder and VP, product development, Eyes of Faith; and fashionista, business woman and designer, Cynthia Shapiro, who founded Europa International with her late husband, Alan, in 1977.

The YouTube video contest invited anyone in the U.S. to submit a 30- to 90-second video conveying to a consumer what opticians are and what they do. Over 60 videos were submitted in the 45 days the contest was open, and those videos have been published on the OAA YouTube Channel.  

Chris Allen, OAA executive director, said, "I want to personally thank our judging panel and most importantly all the people across the country who put great thought and passion into the videos that were entered. The videos are simply amazing, and now that our organization has the top three videos we cannot wait to share them with the American public in an effort to educate the consumer regarding the wonderful profession of opticianry."