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Prior to the California Lions Friends in Sight vision screening in Barstow, 87 year old
Chyde Pope had never seen an eye doctor or worn prescription eyeglasses. Accompanied by
her daughter, she was among the thousands of people we serve each year whose stories move
us. Her story ends when volunteer Kathy Ogaz fits and cleans her “new” prescription eyeglasses. Kathy asks Chyde to look at her daughter. With a wide-eyed gaze, Chyde declares, “She’s beautiful!”
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Where Does Chyde’s Story Begin?
Vision screenings take place thanks to the efforts of fellow lions’ extensive planning. It all starts with Lions Clubs routinely collecting donated eyeglasses from collection boxes at doctors' offices, churches, and businesses throughout Southern California. The generosity of those who donate their old prescription eyeglasses helps create the inventory for future vision screenings.
In order to find Chyde’s eyeglasses, volunteers must first sort through the collection of donations to gather the ones in good condition.
This is done at the Beaumont facility or prior to being delivered to Beaumont. Sorting parties are held at a Lions home or local facility with a dishwasher to inspect, sort, sanitize, and box prescription eyeglasses. This is a convenient and great way to contribute to your district's vision screenings!
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Sanitizing the wearable lenses prepares the eyeglasses to be measured, bar coded, and placed in inventory.
👓 Did you know? Broken and damaged materials are sent off to a recycling center where the proceeds are used to help offset operating expenses.
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Once lenses have been sanitized by volunteers, the prescription must be measured using a Lensometer and marked appropriately. Prescription numbers are handwritten on lenses. Volunteers then sort men’s, women’s, kids, single vision & multifocal lenses to be placed in categorized holding bins. Chyde Pope’s eyeglasses are in there somewhere. | |
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Finding Chyde's "New" Eyeglasses
To closely match the needs of every patient, an inventory totaling more than 18,000 pairs of
eyeglasses is organized ahead of time by dedicated Lions volunteers.
Between each vision screening, volunteers identify the prescriptions and categories that are needed to replenish what was used at the last event. They are barcoded, labeled, and placed in the rolling rack slots left open from the previous screening. This streamlined restocking creates an updated database for volunteers to search and pull the eyeglasses that are needed for Chyde.
Contact your District Coordinator to gift your time working behind the scenes or onsite providing eyeglasses to everyone who needs them.
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How Lions Reach Communities to Restore Sight | |
A Full Team of Volunteers | California Lions Friends in Sight vision screenings rely 100% on volunteers for setup, support during vision screenings, and help wrapping up each event. To prepare, emails announcing the upcoming screening are sent to all who have volunteered at previous events and those who've newly signed up, to determine their plans on attending. | |  |
Our Safe Driver Selection Process | Lions from a pool of Lions Club drivers are identified for the vans and trailers used to transport volunteers, equipment, rolling racks, and supplies to the screening. The drivers wash, check condition, and gas up the vehicles. Between each vision screening, volunteers take care of repairs for vehicles, trailers, optical equipment and instruments. | | |
Mobile, Functional Exam Equipment | |
The evening before and morning of the screening, the drivers pick up the vans at staging areas. With the help of other volunteers, they load eye examination equipment into the vans and trailers. For some volunteers, the vision screening is only the beginning of their journey in helping others like Chyde restore their vision.
What happens next?
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What Happens After Chyde's Vision Screening? | |
At the conclusion, we collect patient sign-in sheets, eye examination forms, referral/consultation forms, and volunteer sign-ins to wrap up vision screenings. With the trailers loaded, the vans return to the staging area for unloading. Volunteers then complete administrative tasks to ensure more patients like Chyde are given an opportunity to see their loved ones clearly. | | |
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The number of patients seen and eyeglasses provided are tabulated. Volunteers identify how many patients need lenses to be fabricated, number and types of detected clinical pathologies are recorded, and rolling rack replenishment requirements are identified. | | |
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Generate Official Reports | Soon afterwards, reports are generated and forwarded to volunteers for the official vision screening assessment, webmaster postings on the website, and volunteer database updates. Records of the patients whose eyeglass needs could not be met are identified for follow-up action. | | |
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For patients whose prescription could not be closely matched from the recycled eyeglasses inventory at the screening, new glasses are made in our own optical lab and through optical laboratory services generously donated by the Essilor Vision Foundation. Once made, the new eyeglasses are mailed to the sponsoring Lions Club for delivery to patients who are looking forward to seeing the world better. | |
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This Behind the Scenes Story would not be complete or even possible without the Beaumont
facility where the processing and inventory management for thousands of donated
eyeglasses is performed. An area is also provided for a fully-equipped optical finishing lab and
vehicle storage in the yard. The space is on the property of Ranney Custom Builders and made
available to California Lions Friends in Sight at no cost by Lion Don Ranney. Thanks, Don!
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Thanks to generous gifts from donors like you, we make tomorrow look better! | |
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We hope to purchase a building with expanded space for workstations, inventory shelving,
an optical lab, training area, connected garage for vehicle parking, maintenance and repair,
equipment/instrument storage, and a screening staging area.
Can't make a donation? Host a sorting party and email photos of your gathering to be featured in upcoming email announcements.
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501c3 non-profit organization operating under the Federal Tax ID #27-2235369 | |
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