IU provides glasses to charity program

Three thousand pairs of new eyeglass frames were donated to the IU School of Optometry from Spectera Inc. May 20. The donation is valued at approximately $20,000 and is intended to honor the active participation of the IU School of Optometry in Volunteer Optometric Services for Humanity, an organization which provides eye care worldwide to the underprivileged. \nThe donation was accepted by School of Optometry associate professor and VOSH adviser Douglas Horner, School of Optometry Associate Dean of Finance Dan Gerstman and supervisor of IU eye care clinic in Guanajuato Jennifer Page. \nTom Davis, executive vice president of Spectera Inc., said, "Spectera's national sales headquarters is located in Indiana, and we would like to get involved in community relation." \nHe added that Spectera Inc. also wants to help IU's VOSH mission in Guanajuato, Mexico as the clinic needs frames.\nThe IU Eye Care Center in Guanajuato was officially established in March 2000 with the joint efforts of VOSH and Guanajuato's Department of Infants and Family. The clinic is supervised by full-time IU faculty members and optometry students, and fourth year optometry students rotate through this clinic. \nCynthia Foster, full-time faculty member and IU Eye Care Center director in Guanajuato, said via an e-mail, "There is decent quality medical care in Guanajuato, but many people cannot afford it. We try to care for (those) who cannot afford or do not have access to adequate eye care." \nThe eyeglass frames donated by Spectera will be used in a new IU optical in Guanajuato, where they use donated frames and lenses to make glasses for the underprivileged, Foster said. \n"Many of the glasses we make are for the indigent population of the state of Guanajuato, of course 3,000 frames would be great," Foster said. \nMost participants in the project find it to be very rewarding.\n"Working in the eyeglass dispensary is one of the most rewarding aspects of the trip as the patients are very excited to get their glasses and, for the most part, it is the first time that any of them receive glasses," said Danielle Lukkes, IU's VOSH secretary who has gone to Guanajuato twice.\nOn top of the current eye care services provided by IU in Guanajuato, the University plans to develop a clinic for complete eye care that will include both optometry and ophthalmology there, Foster said.\n-- Contact staff writer Joyce Chan at mkchan@indiana.edu.