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Angels
for Sight Partners With Insurance Provider to Give the Gift of Sight
Mobile optometry
clinic rolls into the Hub City for a two-day visit
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin
Staff Writer
COMPTON – From
the inside, it looks just like a traditional optom-etrist’s
office, except that it’s on wheels.
Vision Services Plan (VSP) rolled into town with its mobile optometry
clinic late last month for a visit in partnership with Angels for Sight,
a local nonprofit providing free eyecare services to uninsured youth.
The custom-built clinic set up shop Jan. 24 and 25 and provided 93
underserved and uninsured area residents free eye exams and glasses.
Compton native Shea Hamilton, executive director of Angels for Sight,
said she met the folks at VSP in October at a vision industry expo.
“I saw them there, asked them to come and we put it all into motion,” Hamilton
said. “We only service children ages 5 to 21 here (at Angels for
Sight), and we’ve been getting calls from older individuals who are
in need of the same services. I saw an opportunity by partnering
with VSP to help this other population.”
Hamilton sought out uninsured adults through organizations like Compton’s
U.S. Vets, area shelters and Our Lady of Victory church. She visited these
sights to conduct pre-screenings and give patients appointments.
Last Thursday, those who received the free services were able to
come back to the office to pick up their new eyewear, which had to be sent
away to a lab and brought back for distribution.
Headquartered in Rancho Cordova near Sacramento, VSP encourages its
employees to take two weeks off annually to work without pay in various
communities on what VSP’s Lori Fanning called “the coach.”
“We’re all volunteering,” she told The Bulletin Jan.
24 before excusing herself to assist a man as he selected a pair of frames
on board
the 40-foot-long clinic-on-wheels. “The company allows us to go away
from our job so that we can be out here helping in the community.”
Fanning, a VSP communication specialist, later explained that the
mobile clinic idea was born from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in
2005, when the company provided more than 10,000 pairs of glasses to people
who’d been displaced during relief efforts.
“Our board of directors authorized us to purchase two mobile clinics” so
that in the event of another major disaster, the company would be
better prepared to serve those in need.
Instead of waiting around for the next big emergency, the company
has unleashed them into the community to set up shop at community-based
events and provide eyecare and eyewear to people in need.
The mobile clinic that visited Compton is currently the company’s
only unit. The second one, which will feature the same layout but be two
feet longer, is being custom made in Ohio and should be ready in July.
Each cost the company roughly $500,000, Flanning said.
VSP member doctors from the local area volunteered their time to
perform the actual exams, while VSP employees provided all other services
including consultations, frame selection and fittings.
One of the optometrists volunteering with VSP on Jan. 24, Dr. Charolette
Barnes, already takes time off from her private practice in Paris to volunteer
four to six hours a week with Angels for Sight.
She is one of eight optometrists from the greater Los Angeles area
who volunteer their time at the Compton facility on a rotational basis.
Since Angels for Sight opened its doors last spring, the doctors’ help
has assisted in providing vision services to 691 youth and putting glasses
on 200 of them all at no cost, Hamilton said.
She founded the nonprofit in 2004 after working with Lens Crafters
and the LA Eye Institute to provide eye exams and vision services to children
in Compton Unified School District and realizing how largely unfulfilled
the community’s vision care needs are.
Hamilton, who formerly worked for the late Congresswoman Juanita
Millender-McDonald, took out a loan on her home to open the Compton optometry
center, which is located at 920 N. Alameda St.
The location, which had not been occupied for more than 30 years,
was run down and dilapidated when Hamilton purchased it. Today, a lot of
renovation and site beautification later, the facility has been transformed
into a full-fledged optometrist’s office complete with the latest
ophthalmic equipment.
For more information on Angels for Sight, visit www.angelsforsight.org or call (310) 537-2102.
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