Gil M. shares with us his recent experience as a VSP representative at “El Grito,” Mexican Independence Day. Gil works in IT and is a member of the VSP Latino Employee Resource Group in Sacramento.
The VSP Latino Employee Resource Group participated in the Mexican Independence Day, or “El Grito,” festivities in Sacramento,California, last week. We brought SeeZar, one of our Mobile Eyes clinics, to help educate attendees about the important role eyecare plays in a person’s healthcare routine as well as increase awareness about VSP charity programs. We were able to set up SeeZar right near the state capitol building where thousands of people saw us and came over to ask us questions.
Our main goal for participating was to connect VSP with the Mexican community. Of course, a 40-foot bus drew a lot of attention, so a lot of people came by to learn more about us! We even had some of the new Marchon 3D glasses, which were a hit with everyone. In addition to providing information about the importance of eyecare as well as VSP and its services, we provided 139 gift certificates for free eye exams and glasses to individuals who qualified for our Mobile Clinics charitable program. This was a value of more than $50,000 worth of exams and eyewear going to families in need! That made it all worth it.
SeeZar, one of VSP’s mobile eye clinics, is in Detroit, Michigan for a two-day vision clinic. VSP is providing free comprehensive eye exams and eyewear to many local children. Bess the Book Bus, a traveling literacy outreach program, is also there to hand out free books! Check out the short clip from our event below and read the full article here.
We’re also excited to share a new milestone! VSP’s Sight for Students® program, which provides low income and uninsured children with free eyecare, has helped more than 600,000 children receive an eye exam and glasses to correct vision- and health-related issues. More on this announcement.
In 1972, Dr. Marvin Poston was the first African American named "Optometrist of the Year" by the American Optometric Association, the highest professional award from the AOA.
VSPis known for quality service – whether providing eyecare to underprivileged through our number of charitable programs, ensuring patients have access to high-quality vision services or providing doctors with the tools they need to maintain successful private practices. This dedication to service can be directly attributed to the core philosophies of VSP’s founders, one of whom was Dr. Marvin R. Poston.
In 1935, Dr. Poston was the first African American student admitted to the study of optometry at University of California, Berkeley. It took another 23 years for the second African American student to follow in his footsteps and graduate from the Berkeley School of Optometry. Dr. Poston later became the first African American licensed to practice optometry on the West Coast.
Nearly 55 years ago, Dr. Poston, along with several of his fellow optometrists, formed California Vision Services, now known as VSP Vision Care. The company originally was the first to offer a prepaid, vision benefit that provided high quality, cost-effective eyecare. VSP has since grown to become the largest not-for-profit visions benefits provider in the nation, covering 1 in 6 Americans.
Dr. Poston’s optometry practice flourished for four decades in Oakland and Danville, California but his reach extended far beyond those who visited his offices. Befitting one of the founders of a company that prides itself on community support, Dr. Poston began his own tradition of community outreach by establishing vision-screening programs for under-served children and adults. The Children’s Vision Center of the East Bay, the West Oakland Health Group and the East Bay Skill Center are just a few of the organizations that benefited from his efforts.
“He was a man of great integrity,” says Norm Jacoby, O.D., a former colleague from Encino, California. “He was very soft-spoken and intelligent, and you listened when he spoke. Marvin was conscious of what new graduates needed when getting started in private practice and that they needed all the help they could get.”
Guests had the opportunity to ask questions about diabetes, cycling and receive autographs and pictures with the local star during his last appearance stateside as he prepared to move to Paris, France, where he will be racing for the 2010 season.
Kyle interacted with the kids…”you get to ride bikes for a job??” “Do you ride bikes with Lance Armstrong?” “I have a purple bike…but it’s broke.” “I bet you need really good eyes to see where you are going.” “Have you crashed before?” (OK, this last question was actually me. And yes, he just finished healing from a gnarly crash where he was clipped by another rider, flipped over his handlebars into a ditch and broke multiple ribs!) Read more »
Will B. works in VSP’s Customer Service department, part of our fabulous team that achieved the prestigious Service Quality Measurement, Inc. (SQM) Award of “World Class Customer Satisfaction” for the seventh year in a row! He shares his experience as a first time Mobile Response Team (MRT) member with the VSP Mobile Eyes® program.
I was fortunate enough to be selected to go on the last Mobile Eyes trip for 2009 and am quickly experiencing first hand, the work is truly some of the most rewarding work I have done with VSP.
We are half way done with our trip to Central California, and so far everything is running smoothly. Before the trip, I had a general idea of what to expect. I was impressed that we have most everything onboard that you would find in a VSP doctor’s office. We can read the prescription off the patient’s current glasses, we can test for Glaucoma and even do an auto-refraction for the doctor. The VSP doctors who come on board and provide the exams have everything they need to complete a comprehensive exam. They even dilate patient’s eyes if they need to get a closer look.
Jeff H. is a channel partner manager with Eyefinity®/OfficeMate®. He shares his recent volunteer experience during an educational event at the San Francisco Exploratorium with our mobile clinic, SeeZar.
I haven’t been to the Exploratorium since my own grade school field trip. As I stepped into the spacious, interactive museum in San Francisco during the recent Eye See: Free Day with VSP Vision Care, I was reminded what a unique educational landmark the Exploratorium is – an exhibit hall filled will hands-on experiments that are not just educational, but entertaining (for kids and adults)! Read more »
Jill N. is a member of VSP's Corporate Public Relations team.
VSP network Dr. Dennis Delp of Shiloh Eye Care Center in York, PA, has been volunteering his time once a week for the last 20 years with ForSight Vision Center, a not-for-profit serving its community by providing quality, specialized services and opportunities designed to prevent, prepare for and manage loss of vision.
Dr. Delp volunteered with us during our fifth community event providing exams with the clinic back in November of 2007 and we were happy to partner with him again last month when he called to ask for our support of during this important inaugural event with ForSight. Listen to Dr. Delp as he speaks to the results of the event and the impact it had on the community.
Liz C. is a mobile response team member and is an Account Manger working within the VSP Field Sales department in our New Jersey regional office. She shares her recent first experience working on board SeeZar at the Green Dot Bronx event in New York.
While I’ve been a part of the Mobile Response Team since it first started about two years ago, I just recently had the opportunity to attend my first event at the Green Dot Public School in NY this week. Having recently moved to the east coast about 8 months ago it was nice to participate in a local event! I was so excited that I couldn’t fall sleep until midnight the night before even though I had to wake up at 5am. I felt a kid waiting to go to Disneyland. After almost a year since I saw SeeZar last, I smiled big as I saw him drive up and we headed off to the GreenDot school located in the Bronx area.
David Wakefield is a VSP Friends and Family driver and husband of VSP employee, Shelly Wakefield. He shares his experience during his first event with the Mobile Eyes team in York, PA.
I came into this event with a blend of curiosity and apprehension, not really sure what to expect. The team was fired up and putting together their game plan and I followed along hoping to be useful and not in the way. We were scheduled to see 102 people today which would be a new record for a one day event. I found that everyone, from the VSP team to the doctors and rotary volunteers, were all motivated to work together to overcome the unknowns to make this event a success.
We set up and were ready to begin right on schedule. The patients began to trickle in and we were blessed with a slow but steady warm up. We were wondering if the bad weather would be keeping the people away, but we soon found that the need to see outweighed the desire to stay dry and the long lines began to form. I was tasked with operating the auto-refractor and had the opportunity to experience the personalities of every patient who came in. The mix of emotions was astounding but everyone had one thing in common, they wanted to be able to see. Read more »
Last week, the mobile clinic was in Charleston, SC at Crisis Ministries helping their clients. We had patients scheduled, and we have been able to see all of them and take the walk up patients. The word spread quickly through out the community and each day we had people lined up waiting for us when we arrived! The people here are so gracious and thankful for the services being provided. Some have walked miles and waited all day to be seen! Each and everyone of the patients we have seen have required glasses! Read more »
For questions about this blog, e-mail vspblogadmin@vsp.com.
For other questions, contact Member Services at 800.877.7195 Monday – Friday.
VSP Blog Comments Policy
We encourage conversation about VSP and our VSP Global companies.
We review all blog comments prior to posting and may forward some comments to others within the company for follow up. Please note that we won’t post comments that are off-topic, unrelated to VSP or the VSP Global companies, or that violate the VSP Privacy Policy.
Public comments expressed on the VSP Blog don’t necessarily reflect the views of VSP, or our VSP Global companies or subsidiaries. By posting comments, VSP does not endorse or approve of content.
Gil M. shares with us his recent experience as a VSP representative at “El Grito,” Mexican Independence Day. Gil works in IT and is a member of the VSP Latino Employee Resource Group in Sacramento.
David Wakefield is a VSP Friends and Family driver and husband of VSP employee, Shelly Wakefield. He shares his experience during his first event with the Mobile Eyes team in York, PA.