Just in time for the season of giving, Sacramento’s FOX affiliate (KTXL) recently aired a special story on Christmas Day about one of the 50,000 Boys & Girls Club members who are receiving the gift of sight from a VSP doctor courtesy of the VSP Eye Pledge campaign. Watch the story here.

To learn more about the VSP Eye Pledge campaign, please click here.

Kate Renwick-Espinosa, CMO of VSP Global celebrates the VSP Eye Pledge with Sacramento-area Boys & Girls Clubs members

In recognition of the VSP Eye Pledge campaign reaching its goal to provide more than $19.2 million worth of free eye exams and glasses to 50,000 at-risk youth across America, the Boys & Girls Clubs Teichert Branch in Sacramento and VSP Vision Care (VSP) hosted a fun-filled celebration Friday.

Kate Renwick-Espinosa, CMO of VSP Global speaks to Boys & Girls Club members

Karolina Maluga, development manager of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento was on-hand to receive a giant gift certificate for 50,000 free eye exams and glasses on behalf of Boys & Girls Clubs across the country. Local Boys & Girls Club members also enjoyed an eye-opening tour inside one of VSP’s state-of-the-art, 45-foot mobile eyecare clinics.

In the online campaign that kicked off in mid-August, VSP Vision Care and Boys & Girls Clubs of America partnered to encourage people across the country to visit www.SeeMuchMore.com and take the free VSP Eye Pledge. For each pledge made, a gift certificate for a free eye exam and glasses was directed to a local Club child in need.

VSP Vision Care and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America launched the free campaign to encourage consumers to take care of their vision.

Children from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento, Kate Renwick-Espinosa, CMO of VSP Global, Karolina Maluga, Development Director of Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Sacramento and Dave Dess, VP of VSP Vision Care Marketing

Boys & Girls Club members will receive free eye exams and glasses thanks to the generosity of the fifty thousand people across the country who took the pledge to not only take care of their eyes, but directed care to a child in need.

Since the VSP Eye Pledge campaign launched in mid-August, more than half of those who pledged opted to direct a free eye exam and glasses to a Club most in need. Pledge-takers also had the option to direct to a child from a local Club in their area.

A special thanks to the individuals in these nine states that helped us receive the majority of our pledges:

• California
• Illinois
• North Carolina
• Georgia
• Texas
• Indiana
• Florida
• New York
• Missouri

Visit SeeMuchMore.com to learn more about the VSP Eye Pledge Campaign and check out the video below to see how your pledges have helped children. Plus, you can still take the VSP Eye Pledge and promise to care for your eyes. Your promise helps support the donation of free eye exams and glasses to those in need and keeps eye health top-of-mind.

Once again, THANK YOU for helping provide the gift of sight to 50,000 Boys and Girls Club members across the country!

You can be a life changer!
If you haven’t yet, please take a moment to take the free Eye Pledge and help direct a free eye exam and glasses, donated by VSP Vision Care on your behalf, to a Boys and Girls Club child in need in your local community. Then please share and encourage others to join us in helping to remove the need for 50,000 children and their parents to make a decision between sight and other family essentials.

More than 10,000 children have received the gift of sight, help us reach 40,000 more!

Several weeks ago, VSP^® Vision Care and Boys & Girls Club of America announced the free VSP Eye Pledge campaign to provide 50,000 Boys & Girls Club members in need with access to free eye exams and glasses worth more than $19 million. We recently hit the 10,000 mark!  This means that 10,000 kids across the country will now perform better in and out of school due to their free eye exams and glasses. With 10,000 down, we have 40,000 more to go!

Readers like you can help by simply going to www.seemuchmore.com/eyepledge!  You can choose to donate a free exam and glasses to your local club or the club with the most the need.

The VSP Eye Pledge is completely free and is as simple as these steps:

• Go to www.seemuchmore.com/eyepledge
• Pledge to take care of your eye health, which is an integral part of your overall health
• Direct the donation to either the local club of your choice (by inserting your zip code) or the club in the U.S. with the most need
• Share with your friends and family to help impact even more children in need in your community

Check out this clip to see how your support of the VSP Eye Pledge has already made a positive impact in two children’s lives.

1 Eye Pledge = 1 VSP Gift Certificate for a Child in need

Go to SeeMuchMore.com and take the Eye Pledge in just three easy steps:

-   Select the Eye Pledge that’s right for you
-   Direct a free VSP eye exam and glasses gift certificate a Boys & Girls Club of your choice
-   Share your pledge to help spread the word and help us reach our goal!

Check out this video featuring BGCA discussing the importance of the campaign and the impact it will have to help children reach their full potential.

For more information about the VSP Eye Pledge campaign and to take the pledge, please visit www.SeeMuchMore.com.  The site also includes an interactive, virtual savings calculator to learn about savings with VSP vision benefits, allows users to browse the latest eyewear styles, and provides helpful information about healthy vision.

Jill N, a.k.a. Eye Need Coffee Mommy, is proud new mom to AJ, who apparently was very excited to learn that his first eye exam is schedule for mid-April

 Time is flying by. AJ is now 6 months old and continues to change daily! It is amazing to watch, especially as he reaches some exciting milestones.  

His vision has improved immensely in the last few months. He is reaching and grabbing for things, can see further across the room and is getting better at his hand eye coordination (although he still seems to like jabbing the bottle into his eye instead of his mouth, but that may be a whole other issue…) 

Even though he seems to be progressing normally, as a new mom, I’m constantly worried that I may be missing something. So I asked Dr. Parenti for some specific symptoms/behaviors I, and other paranoid new moms, could look for that may be a sign there is a problem. Here is what he shared:  

Be sure to contact your doctor if: 

• Your baby’s eyes don’t move normally. For example, one moves and the other doesn’t, or one looks different from the other when moving.
• Your baby is older than one month, but lights, mobiles, and other distractions still don’t catch his attention.
• Your baby is older than five months but his eyes are still crossing.
• Your baby has a persistent, unusual spot in his eyes in photos taken with a flash (like a white spot instead of a common red-eye caused by a flash).
• You notice white, grayish-white, or yellow material in the pupil of your baby’s eye.
• One, or both, of your baby’s eyes is bulging.
• Redness in either eye lasts more than a few days.
• Your baby’s eyes seem to tear excessively.
• One, or both, of your baby’s eyelids seem to be drooping.
• Your baby squints often.
• He rubs his eyes often when he’s not sleepy.

Dr. Parenti also mentioned that newborns should be able to momentarily hold their gaze on an object for a few seconds, and by 8-12 weeks they should start to follow people or moving objects with their eyes. At first, they have to move their whole head to move their eyes, but by 2-4 months, should start to move their eyes independently with less head movement.  If this isn’t happening, be sure to talk with your pediatrician or eye doctor. 

As I’ve noted before, your baby’s first eye exam is recommended around the age of six months. At this exam, your eye care practitioner will also check the health of your baby’s eyes and look for anything that might interfere with normal and continuing vision development. For the most thorough eye exam for your 6-month-old, you will want to seek the services of an eye doctor who specializes in children’s vision and vision development.  To help you identify doctors near you who specialize in this, use the “Advanced Search” option under “Find a VSP Doctor” at vsp.com.

Jill N. a.k.a. Eye Need Coffee Mommy

As my son was born 5 weeks premature, I am well aware how stressful the unknowns are when it comes to baby’s health. Fortunately, it appears there has been some advancements in treating premature babies who are afflicted with blindness.

According to an article published in the Wall Street Journal last week, babies born before 30 weeks of gestation have immature eyes and are at high risk of developing a condition called retinopathy of prematurity that is caused by uncontrolled growth of blood vessels in the eye. The blood-vessel growth can lead to scarring and detachment of the retina, which causes blindness.

The article highlights the results of a study that were so significant that the 15 hospitals participating in the research have stopped using lasers in favor of this drug, Avastin, which is injected into the eyes of the affected newborns.

Read the full article

Click here to view the embedded video.