East’s Optical Program serves RCSD students

East’s Optical Program serves RCSD students

• April 17, 2015

About two years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that East’s Optical Program had recently begun to offer free glasses and repairs for RCSD students and, occasionally, other members of the community. To provide a learning experience, ophthalmic fabrication teacher Logan Newman had his students expertly make me two high quality pairs.   East’s Optical Program helping students see a brighter future 

When I went back this week for new glasses (time for bifocals!), I was unequivocally impressed. Before me was a classroom on which every desk had a lensometer (used by opticians to measure lens power) and a blocker holding lenses and hand tools. In two short years, “Vision Care East”–as the program is called–has grown by leaps and bounds.

As explained to me by Logan, first year students in the program learn to make a single vision pair of glasses, like my reading glasses. From knowing nothing about glasses, they are soon able to take measurements, read lenses, cut and mount them into frames. Second year students learn about bifocals (like I now have) and progressive lenses, and work with visionvolunteer eye doctors who provide refractions for students needing prescriptions. During this school year, using donated frames and purchased lenses, Logan’s students have made glasses for over 270 needy kids in grades K-12 in 12 different schools in the RCSD. And for students the glasses are free!

On my way out, I showed off my bifocals to two security guys. One man, praising my new look, chimed in that Logan’s class had also made him equally attractive glasses.  Along with students learning invaluable skills, add two more to the growing list of those who have benefited from Vision Care East.

For more info see:

Contact Logan at: [email protected]

About The Author

dkramer3@naz.edu

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle  blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C  ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones.  So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.

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