Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Introducing "Rotary Community Heroes of Hope" - a podcast dedicated to showcasing the profound impact of Rotary in District 5330 and beyond. Join us as we explore the remarkable stories of rotary heroes and initiatives that are transforming communities and creating hope around the world.
Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
EPISODE 32- Vision to Learn - The Journey of Giving Kids Clear Futures with Rotary
Discover the monumental impact of providing children with the gift of sight as we're joined by the passionate Nora and Damian Carroll from Vision to Learn. Together, we uncover the startling reality that up to 40% of kids in areas like Riverside County are hindered academically due to uncorrected vision problems. This episode is a deep dive into the roots of Vision to Learn's mission, starting in Los Angeles and expanding its reach to bring vital eye care to students in need. Learn how the partnership with Rotary is changing lives, one pair of glasses at a time, and how community involvement is key to this program's success.
Feel the warmth of community action as we discuss the incredible strides made by the collaboration between Rotary Clubs and Vision to Learn. We've witnessed firsthand the joy on children's faces when they receive their very own glasses, allowing them to see their potential clearly—sometimes for the first time. Through engaging stories and insightful conversations, we reveal how trust and connections within school districts play a crucial role in the program's growth. The episode celebrates the heroes who make this possible and the expansion plans that promise to brighten more futures, spotlighting the heartwarming journey that Nora and Damian Carroll facilitate every day.
Welcome to the Rotary Community Heroes of Hope. I'm your host, judy Zulfikar, and I'm thrilled to be joined by my amazing co-host, jamie Zinn, district Governor of Rotary District 5330. Together, we will take you on a journey to discover the incredible impact Rotarians have on our community and around the world. Get ready to be inspired by our Rotary Heroes of Hope, by our Rotary Heroes of Hope. Today's episode, we have two amazing guests from Vision to Learn, and I'm excited to learn what Vision to Learn has to tell us. How about yourself, jamie?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, and I think you're going to be really excited about this program and what they're doing and want to bring further into the district here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so, Nora. Why don't you introduce yourself and get us started today?
Speaker 3:Obviously, I am a member of Rotary. I joined Rotary in 2011. And in 2012, this amazing organization was founded called Vision to Learn, and it started in April of 2012. And in March of 2012, or it started in March of 2012, I started volunteering with them in April of 2012. And it's been quite an incredible journey. And it's very simple. Vision to Learn provides free eye exams, free glasses for kids, and I'm going to let Damian give a little more info about Vision to Learn.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 4:I'm Damian Carroll. I'm the National Director and Chief of Staff. I've been with the organization since 2015. And my job at Vision to Learn is primarily to help us expand to new regions of the state and across the country, as well as fundraising some government affairs communications. I wear a lot of hats, but mostly I just love to be here and love to help kids get the classes they need at school.
Speaker 1:Awesome, and where did this program originate?
Speaker 4:So Vision to Learn launched in Los Angeles back in 2012. So we are a little over 12 years old. In fact, our birthday was just a couple of weeks ago, at the end of March. Happy birthday, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4:And the program was originally conceived by philanthropist civic leader, austin Buechner to help kids who were going without glasses that they needed at school.
Speaker 4:He had been told by school nurses, educational experts, that it was a big problem Kids who couldn't see the board because they didn't have the glasses or have a regular eye exam to be able to get a prescription for glasses. So he founded the organization, purchased a clinic that he could start bringing out to schools, with a licensed optometrist on board to be able to provide vision screenings, eye exams and eyeglasses to all the students at school who needed them all in one fell swoop, so all the kids get glasses at once. And it turned out. It was a large issue in schools, where a lot of kids qualify for free and reduced lunch. You can see as much as 30% of students who need glasses and, by and large, very many of them are going without those eye exams. So this intervention brings it right to the schools and, of course, nora was there right at the beginning, so it can give you even a little more information about how we got started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean it's really interesting. They first said that 15% of the kids couldn't see the board of the words on the page. We quickly found out that number was incorrect. It jumped to 25% and 30%, and we'll just get into the weeds a little bit more later, but in what we're seeing in Riverside County, the number is up to 40%.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a lot of kids not getting information that they need, isn't it?
Speaker 2:And is this 40% specified in certain areas within Riverside County where you see a greater need than other areas?
Speaker 3:What we're seeing is in the city of Riverside we're seeing numbers that are probably and Damien correct me if I'm wrong probably around 30 to 35%, which is trending higher than what we see in the Los Angeles area of where we initially started, and then as we move further east in the county, in some of the rural areas, especially like when you get into Mecca, we've seen schools of 50 percent and once we had 55, but right now we're averaging about 40 to, you know, probably about 40 percent of the schools that we've screened. So of the Rotarians to screen so far throughout Riverside County.
Speaker 2:What do you think is driving this, that there's such a high number of schools and students that don't have glasses?
Speaker 3:Lack of resources. As you get into more rural areas, you don't have an optometrist office. The schools provide, in the state of California, vision screenings in certain grades and they'll tell the parents that their child should see an eye doctor. Well, we have people that are working multiple jobs. They may not have transportation, gas is hugely expensive, having to take time off of work to get to an optometrist, trying to find an optometrist that will take them. Then there's the confusion of families that are not documented, that they don't realize their children are actually covered by Medi-Cal, and then there's that fear. So the kids are not getting to see the eye doctor. So Austin Buechner came up with this great idea of bringing the services to where the kids are, in the schools.
Speaker 4:There's also a lot of evidence that post-COVID the percentage of kids who are nearsighted, what's called myopia, has increased, somewhat likely related to the increased use of screen time, that the kids are spending less time outdoors and so that their eyes are not focusing off in the distance. And we've certainly seen that in our failure rates for vision screenings across the country and specifically here in the Inland Empire.
Speaker 1:Now, how does the Rotary Club work with Vision to Learn to reach these children and schools?
Speaker 3:Let me jump into that one. So we kind of started doing this in the Los Angeles area. And how do how do we help bring, as a nonprofit, bring some of those little costs down to have an optician go to a school and screen all the kids. That's time and that's money. So, rotarians, because the screening process is actually a pass fail system that you really don't need to be a licensed practitioner. So when we first Rotarians first started, we started with the old eye charts on the wall, the child with one eye, then the other eye. Well, that's great for distance. What about near vision problems? And, as Damian was saying, we're getting a lot of kids now with near distance problems because of the devices they use. So we got through, we started.
Speaker 3:One of the optometrists, who actually was a Rotarian, also found this great machine called the Welch-Allen Spot Checker and it looks like and I should have brought it with with me looks like a big old polaroid camera, but it's. You point it at a child's face about three feet, about three feet away, so it's no very distant, and it reads their eyes in in a second or two and will tell us, refer on for further examination or within normal range, and you know if it refer on, it says it in red letters. You don't even need to have to read it, we just know and we refer them on. So it's a simple pass fail. So we need Rotarians have been coming in. We can screen and we have done it. When we get more than one machine, we've screened 1,000 kids in one day, wow.
Speaker 1:That's pretty impactful.
Speaker 3:Well, when you get into high schools, yeah, we, you know we've done it, but a lot of schools are about 600 students. We usually start at like eight o'clock in the morning. I can quickly train the Rotarians in and we're we're working at 815 and we're done by 11 or 12. Wow so it's a fast process, very simple to do and if we think about it in and I like to quantify things a lot, and so does Damien, to screen these students, rotarians, it's like an in-kind gift to Vision, to Learn.
Speaker 3:Right we used to think it was about $1.50 per child but now as we get out further into rural areas, if we had to bring an optician from like the city of Riverside, it's costing over $2 per child to screen Rotarians. We're on site, we use local Rotarians so they already have a normally have a relationship with the schools and the community. They come in, so they're known and we it's done and we get I'm there supervising getting the results and we get them to Vision to Learn and they start the exams. Probably about two weeks around two weeks later they start the exams.
Speaker 1:So does Vision to Learn. Come in with a trailer and do the exams.
Speaker 3:Damian, yours.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So imagine one of the Amazon delivery trucks. That's a Sprinter van, except we've outfitted it with a full optometric lane inside. So you've got the chair where the kids sit, you've got the 4-Opt-er, which is the device that has different lenses that the kids can compare, you've got a computer monitor where the kids can look at the letters. So it's just like when you go to your optometrist.
Speaker 4:With one exception we don't give any eye drops to the kids because they're at school.
Speaker 4:We don't want to impact their ability to safely go back to class and learn for the rest of the day. That mobile clinic can see 15 to 20 students for a full, comprehensive eye exam over the course of the school day, and so generally it's going to be coming back to the school over multiple days to see all of the kids, and on the clinic, the kids who are prescribed, which is most of them, are going to be then choosing their frames. We have a huge selection of attractive, stylish, cool frames of all sizes and colors for the kids to choose from. Here in California, warby Parker provides our glasses in kind, at no charge, and so the kids are not only for many of them getting to choose something that they're wearing, for, you know, maybe the first time in their lives on their own, but they're going to be proud of the glasses and they're going to be able to show them off to their friends and, of course, more likely, to wear them and succeed at school.
Speaker 2:Wow that that is such a great program. How do you, once you have these students that have the glasses, do you re-exam them at a certain point in time? Because, as we know, as kids grow, their eyes change, so are they repeats coming back. And and what schools do you start at first? Do you start at elementary or are you focusing middle high school? How does that work?
Speaker 4:Well, you're absolutely right, jamie. Kids' eyes change frequently as they are growing up, and so, ideally, students would be seen every year. Our program serves a large number of schools. We don't have the capacity to see kids every single year, so we try to come back to the schools every other year and hope that our program introducing students and their parents to optometry will make it more likely that they will then seek out a local provider to be able to see them on those off years, and if not, we're going to be back again the year following to provide them a new pair of glasses.
Speaker 2:So is maybe that outcome that we can work on differently in our Rotary clubs, Because you've outfitted them with the first pair of glasses but we want the parents to take them to optometrists. Is that an area where the clubs could start developing relationships with these optometrists and create a follow-up program and educate the parents and, you know, potentially get them to the optometrists and maybe even start some level of scholarshiping to help these parents pay for this?
Speaker 4:I love that idea, Nora. What do you think?
Speaker 3:I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 3:And also one thing I forgot to mention, one thing that's really fabulous about this program because I know that there's a concern. It's about the every other year thing Kids they lose, they break things, um, they're, you know, can be very active and we want them, we see that they're more active with their glasses. So vision to learn has a one year warranty on these glasses. So if the kids lose or break them vision, all they have to do is the parents, the school nurse or even the teacher contacts vision to learn and they will mail them free of charge a new pair of glasses. So that really helps get through that.
Speaker 3:We've had we've broken that that one year warranty where we had a child that was high in the scale and had a really hard time adjusting to the glasses and kept breaking them. So by the fifth pair finally got used to the glasses and realized life was a lot better, could see better and actually improved their skill levels in school, and so it made their life much better. But Vision to Learn has shown a great deal of flexibility and it's been quite wonderful. So that's another great program.
Speaker 3:But I love the idea of education, making families aware of the glasses issue, maybe even educating them on that. The kids are covered by Medi-Cal, anything like that to make them comfortable. Maybe it's a brochure, maybe it's the school nurses, maybe they can do add something in there when they register, for here's a doctor that will take Medi-Cal patients. So school districts can help be a great partnership with Rotary to help with that education process. I love it.
Speaker 1:So how many schools in District 5330 have you been able to serve and how many students do we think we have?
Speaker 3:Oh boy, vision to Learn has screened themselves since we started probably and it's been mostly in the Coachella Valley about 30 schools that we have screened, but we but so far in 5330, the schools, both public and some parochial. It's probably been closer to 60 some schools.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, is there. Are you looking for other clubs to join you in this activity to be able to screen more schools? How, what are the? What is the process?
Speaker 3:Well, constantly, um, we're coming near the end of the school year, we've got two more schools that will be screening and then we will hit our capacity, um, because obviously the clinic can only handle so many. So we've got two more schools where we're going to be screening and then we will hit our capacity because obviously the clinic can only handle so many. So we've got two more schools that we're going to be screening and we've got the volunteers for that. But as we go to like look at planning for next year and we see a school that we're doing maybe it's in it's in Hemet or, like we did Desert Hot Springs, we got Rotarians from Desert Hot Spring involved. We want to be able to reach out to the clubs and saying we need a couple, you know three volunteers on this date, and this is what we're doing.
Speaker 3:And probably what I'm going to start doing is, you know, I think this podcast will be hugely helpful for me to help with the outreach, but also maybe going out and chatting with the schools, also maybe going out and chatting with the schools. We do have one project that kind of started because of what we're doing in District 5330. Is that one of the nonprofits that is supporting us, is asking us to, because they love what we've done here and with that Rotary partnership and that they want to help and they want to bring it to Blythe and I know it's not part of 5330, but it's because of the work that's been done here in 5330, we're bringing it out to Blythe. So we've got a budget and we're raising some funds and we're going to make it happen.
Speaker 1:I'm very excited. Well, you've done an amazing job and I don't know how many other Rotarians, Damian, you're working with throughout Southern California. Are you working with other clubs in districts?
Speaker 4:We are. You know Nora has been our secret agent from the very beginning at Vision to Learn in helping us to understand how important and helpful partnerships with Rotary across the state could be. You know, when we got started, vision to Learn served one school district. It was a big one, los Angeles Unified. But in order for us to be introduced to other districts in the community and be able to help more kids, our Rotary relationships were critical.
Speaker 4:School districts have a lot of vendors approaching them, even nonprofit charitable vendors that they have to decide. Is this credible, is this for real? And the ability for us to approach, through Rotary relationships, folks like Ruth Perez, who was the superintendent of the Paramount School District at the time, later became a deputy superintendent in Riverside County school district at the time, later became a deputy superintendent in Riverside County. Making those connections allowed us to build trust, be able to bring local Rotary clubs out to do the screenings, manage that process from beginning to end and give great comfort to the school districts to let Vision to Learn come in and provide eye exams to the kids, and that momentum has allowed us. Now there's barely a school district in California that has not heard about our program and isn't eager for us to come out and help the students. That is entirely due to those rotatory relationships.
Speaker 3:So, example one of your PDGs, past district governors, damian he is meeting with me next week and we're gonna to be going over. There's a couple of school districts that Vision to Learn is trying to get to in San Bernardino County and, as Damien said, they're fielding so many different calls. Who do they trust? Well, rotarians are everywhere. They know the superintendents, they know the superintendents. They're probably even school board members and all of members, or they're even superintendents. So I'm going to be giving him a list of some school districts that we want to get into, that Visual Learn wants to get into, and we just need somebody to field a call or let me meet with them or one of the Visual Learn staff members meet with them, and so we can get an MOU and because of these relationships, I know we're going to get them.
Speaker 2:So tell our viewers out here if they are interested and want to join this cause. Uh, how can they get involved, of course, besides becoming a Rotary member, uh.
Speaker 1:Rotary members number one.
Speaker 2:Rotary members number one. But, uh, what other avenues do they have to be able to provide service for this outstanding project?
Speaker 3:So what we're hoping to do, like when we're in some school districts that are a little smaller and need some more help. So not only can the Rotarians help with the screenings, they can contact me. I'd be more than happy to get them involved, but not only with the screenings, but we're also looking at Rotarians. If they are familiar with the school district or the school that we're serving. We'd love them to act as runners when the clinic is there and they would be the ones that would be going to the classrooms and escorting the students to the clinic. A lot of times they try to get a parent volunteer or a staff member to do it. A lot of these schools are running, are running pretty tight yeah, they have not not a lot of resources there.
Speaker 3:Yes, exactly so if you, can get a local rotarian that already knows the school and knows the school district. The school is very comfortable then with a outsider coming, that kind of person coming in and working with the clinic and bringing the students back and forth to the classes, Because some of these younger kids my little the kindergartners can get lost.
Speaker 1:They can get lost going to the snack bar there.
Speaker 3:It's like oh look, there's a swing set, so they squirrel on you, so you want to make sure they're to the clinic and back to the classroom and in an efficient amount of time, so that's another way that they can help. So, um it's. There's a lot of different ways they can help. Um, we're, you know, if they are members of foundations, of course, I have to say this putting my vision to learn hat on um vision to learn is a non-profit, like rotary is, and uh, they need help um, financially. So we've been very blessed that local foundations immediately jumped on board and they love the fact that rotary is already a partnership, and that was one of the reasons they're like oh, rotary's already involved. Oh, okay, well, and they've been right, we're're lucky to get checks.
Speaker 4:We're a public private partnership and we've already had some wonderful support from Riverside County, the desert healthcare district RAP foundation. Yeah, we're doing a good job, but we, because our program is out five days a week. In the school, our rotary members are volunteers but our clinical staff is not. We have paid positions for our optometrists, our opticians. We have a program manager who coordinates the day-to-day with the schools. So we do have ongoing costs that need to be covered for the program and we're always looking for more folks who want to support Vision to Learn's mission, to give generously and help us to help our kids.
Speaker 3:And every nation that's been involved in District 5330 Foundation. We were introduced by Rotarians.
Speaker 1:Damian, why don't you go ahead and give us your website and contact information so anybody that is outside our district can connect with you directly?
Speaker 4:Absolutely so. The website is visiontolearnorg and the two is TO, it's not the number. So vision2learnorg. Through that website you can get contact information for our development team, for any questions from parents and schools obviously can also come in through that site. My email address is Damian D-A-M-I-A-N at vision2learnorg and that's the best place to reach me with questions about the organization.
Speaker 1:And Nora, for all of our Rotarians in District 5330 that want to get involved, want to be runners, be volunteers and support this program. Let's get your information so that we can pass that along to them.
Speaker 3:Okay, great, Again, Nora McClellan, but my email address is Doug Nora D O U G N O R a at aolcom. Don't laugh, it still works for me.
Speaker 1:I was going to say AOL.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:It still works. Let it go. I can really see. Do you have mail when it comes in to go? I can really see You've got mail.
Speaker 1:when it comes in, I have a feeling we're going to have a lot more conversations. I know that District Governor Jamie and I both are connected to a lot of district governors around the state that would possibly be interested in carrying this to their district, if they haven't already. So I think we're going to have a lot more conversations. Thank you so much for bringing this today. This was very enlightening and exciting to hear what you're doing for the kids in our schools.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you so much and you know that Rotary is always here to help you and we'll get the word out and let us know for whatever needs you have. So thank you again for sharing such a wonderful program.
Speaker 1:I think there's a global grant that could be attached.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, yeah, global grant, there you go global grant, Laura.
Speaker 1:So let's have a conversation.
Speaker 3:We'll chat offline ladies.
Speaker 1:Daniel, how many more of those vans do you need?
Speaker 4:We'll take as many as we can afford. There's endless need for these services.
Speaker 1:I can imagine. I can imagine. Well, thank you all for coming and look forward to spreading the word and make sure that you check out this podcast that will be on district5330.org along with all of the rest of our podcasts, and we'll be sharing it with the world. Thank you all. Thank you, have a great day. Bye-bye, bye. So that wraps up this episode of Heroes of Hope. We are so happy that we have an audience out there listening. We want you to subscribe, share and tell your friends about the Rotary Community Heroes of Hope, because that's how we get the word out about the impact we're having in this world.