In August of 2011 the COA hosted an eye health fair with Assembly Health Committee Chair Bill Monning. COA volunteer doctors performed eye exams on roughly 300 children and several adults. One parent was diagnosed with diabetes for the first time. Referrals for serious conditions were made to the local community clinic, Salud Para la Gente, which also had a booth at the event. It was a long, often cold day, but after seeing the impact we made in the lives of so many children, it was well worth the effort.

The community also came together to truly give this event a hometown feeling. The local library allowed us to use their grounds and facilities, the Castroville Police Department came out and prepared free hotdogs and water to those seeking eye exams, and a local DJ kept the mood light with a wide variety of music playing in the background. Even the local church offered food and refreshments as an expression of gratitude to the volunteers who came to make a difference to the Castroville citizens.

In the past, COA has helped notify optometrists about volunteer opportunities at health fairs, but hasn’t taken an active role in organizing its own event in years. The reasons for this event were three-fold: first, to assist the community of Castroville, and through eye exams, provide greater access to quality primary healthcare; second, to establish relationships with community clinics in underserved communities; lastly, to partner with Assembly Health Committee Chair Bill Monning to not only increase access to quality healthcare, but to ultimately make the case for legislation making eye care more accessible to children in California.

View more photos of the event on COA’s Facebook page.

COA would like to thank the incredible optometrists, students and other volunteers who worked tirelessly and graciously throughout the day:

Volunteer Optometrists

Page Yarwood, OD, COA President

John Rosten, OD, COA Board Trustee

Dave Redman, OD, COA Past President, Legislation & Regulation Committee Chair

Scott Daly, OD, COA Past President, Legislation & Regulation Committee

Bob Theaker, OD, COA Past President, Legislation & Regulation Committee

Marc Shaw, OD, COA Cal-OPAC Board

Philip Ong, OD, COA Cal-OPAC Board

Juliette Le, OD, Monterey Bay Optometric Society President

Trevor Fogg, OD, Monterey Bay Optometric Society Membership Chair

Curt Simmons, OD, Monterey Bay Optometric Society Public Awareness Chair

Elizabeth Anderson, OD, Monterey Bay Optometric Society

Joseph Estrada, OD, Monterey Bay Optometric Society

Cammie Hunt, OD, Monterey Bay Optometric Society

Maricela Salgado, OD, San Jose Optometrist

Dai Tran, OD, Monterey Bay Optometric Society

UCB Students

Jen Lim

Sarah Lopez

Melissa Moore

Serena Sukija

Hao Tran

SCCO Students

Dorothy Lea

Meggie Nguyen

CSC Lab Volunteers

Kathy Anello

Maria Godoy

Maria Luna

Chong Tuthill

Kimberly Upton

Laura Vige

Tina Yorkey

Erica Zuniga

Non-OD Volunteers

Julie Andrade

Carina Calderon

Adriana Calderon

Tara Cooper

Maggie Cuneo

Lisa Denton

Lisa Faulkner, First Five of California, San Benito

Grace Khieu (Dr. Le’s daughter)

Morgan Martinez

Kristy Masterson

Rachel Pitts

Sarahi Salgado

Melissa Shetler

Kristine Shultz

Rose Smoot

Aaron Taras

William Theaker (Dr. Theaker’s son)

Karla Villalobos

Thank you to Vision Service Plan (VSP), who provided five lanes of portable equipment and “Sight for Students” gift certificates for those children who arrived to late to be examined.

We would also like to thank Dr. Greg Pearl from Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) who also donated equipment, as well as many hours of his time helping COA organize this event.

Special thanks to D. K. Kim, Group President & CEO from CSC Laboratories. CSC donated the frames, provided lenses at a discount and had eight of their staff on site to help patients select frames and fill eyeglass orders at the event. We could not have done the event without CSC’s generosity.

Also special thanks to Castroville optometrist Dr. Dai Tran and her staff, Karla Villalobos, who welcomed us to their community, volunteered their time, agreed to work with CSC to dispense eyeglasses after the event and let us use their office to store equipment.

Congratulations to COA’s public affairs lead Rachel Pitts and her team at Marketplace Communications for making “giving back to the community” a way for COA to educate others about the importance of children’s vision and to encourage optometry’s full integration into the health care delivery system.

Again, thank you to everyone who made this event such a success.