Essilor Vision Foundation

School nurse Miranda Gore loves helping her students, but she’s frustrated when those who struggle to see clearly don’t have the glasses they desperately need. “I’ve had students who have failed vision exams several years in a row and were still in need of glasses,” she says.

Miranda was excited after planning a vision clinic with Kids Vision for Life (KVFL) and wanted to be certain her students who failed their vision screening would be able to get an eye exam and glasses. She knows that communicating with parents is key to making sure students who need vision care get it.

KVFL provides free online resources in English and Spanish that school nurses can use to contact parents letting them know when KVFL will be at their school and how to sign up their students for free vision services. “I actually chose to send the notification letter with all info home with every student who failed the vision exam and I emailed parents,” she shares. KVFL launched an online permission slip in the fall of 2020, and Miranda says it increased the number of responses from parents and made it easier for students to get critical vision care.

Miranda agrees that the exams, glasses, and resources KVFL provides are valuable, and she’s a big fan of the program. “I think the program is wonderful! The students were finally able to receive glasses from Kids Vision for Life, enabling them to be much more successful in the classroom.”

“If I had a superpower, it would be the ability to fly so I can go out of space,” said third-grader Nazarieon as he walked up to the check-in table.

This kid’s charisma and imagination blew us out of this world. Naz took no time warming up to the Kids Vision for Life team. He was so excited to get a pair of glasses and couldn’t wait to tell us all about it. “Even though I’m excited, I’m also worried about getting glasses because I might break them playing outside with my friends since boys are really rough!” he said. We assured him that if he kept them in his case while playing, then they wouldn’t break. “Whew!” he exclaimed as he wiped his forehead. We just knew a pair of glasses would change his life.

Besides having issues seeing the board in the classroom, he told us there was something more important to him that his poor vision was preventing him from being good at—his video games. “When I’m playing my videogames, it’s hard for me to beat the levels because it gets really blurry.”

Naz had a great time getting his vision exam and told us his favorite part of the exam were the pictures because it was really cool. Once he finished his exam and came out to pick his frames, he already knew he wanted red or black. When we asked Naz what he wanted to be when he grew up, he gave us the best response ever, “I want to be both a vet and a scientist, but first I need to get out of 3rd grade because this is the hardest grade of my life!” but then followed with, “Well besides college because you have to actually pick a job.” Laughs erupted all around the mobile clinic and Naz went with a cool pair of black and red frames. The sky is beyond the limit for Nazarieon and every other child who received glasses that day.

There were so many smiles this day and we are so grateful that we are able to provide access to proper vision to those all around the world who need it. Every person we help inspires us more than anyone would ever know.