Impact Stories

Supported by Oakley, an EssilorLuxottica eyewear brand, we held a four-day charitable clinic earlier this year offering free eye exams and glasses to nearly 200 patients from Boys & Girls Clubs (a national organization with local chapters which provide voluntary after-school programs for young people) in Los Angeles, USA. The clinic helped bring vision care to children and families throughout the Los Angeles area who may otherwise lack access to eye exams and glasses.

Travis, an Oakley engineer, was a first-time volunteer at the event. “This experience definitely hit home for me because I grew up going to a Boys & Girls Club, so it was an extra special experience being able to give back to the organization that I grew up with.”

Vision care was brought to several Boys & Girls Club locations through a compact vision van that offers full comprehensive eye exams and glasses manufacturing. The nimble vehicle is designed to provide flexible vision care to patients in varied environments regardless of the space available.

One of these locations is the Variety Boys & Girls Club which also serves parents and adult family members of the children who attend the club because it believes that a healthy family leads to better lives for the youths in question. The club’s Executive Director, Patty Siqueiros explained, “Some parents in their 50s were saying that this was the first time that they ever had the opportunity to have these vision screenings or eyewear. Now they’re going to be able to see the world in a different way and be able to do things that they weren't able to before.”