The Elkhart Community Foundation in partnership with Boling Vision Center today kicked off the “Kindness to Prevent Blindness”, a new non-profit initiative, which offers free eye exams to Elkhart Community School Students.
Working out of a custom RV, the Kindness to Prevent Blindness project plans to provide more than four thousand students in Elkhart Community Schools, with free eye exams, and glasses if necessary, during the school year.
Students will be referred to the program by school nurses after school-administered eye-exams. Those in need of glasses, will receive two pairs, one pair for daily use and the other to keep at school as a backup. The program aims to close what representatives from Boling Vision call the “referral gap”, or the lack of follow through in having a prescription filled.
Carla Darr is a teacher with Elkhart Schools, and says she’s excited the program will be able to help so many students. She told the crowd gathered for the kick-off ceremony, that the story of students losing their glasses days after they’ve been fitted for them, is one she’s familiar with. And she says the idea of keeping a pair at school at all times, will prove beneficial to students’ success in the classroom.
“In 25, er, 35 years of teaching in Elkhart, I can’t think of an initiative that’s going to be this big of a game changer for the students in my classroom.”
For more information on the program is available at www.onecityonemission.org.