Los Angeles, CA
Launching on March 19th in partnership with Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA, USC Keck, Adventist Health White Memorial and the American Heart Association, four Los Angeles Clippers-branded Vision To Learn clinics were repurposed to deliver meals and household goods to the elderly in East and South Los Angeles. Since then, our team has delivered over 92,000 meals and groceries to families and senior citizens. You can learn more about the initiative in the video.
We have also teamed up with the Los Angeles Dodgers to deliver morale boosters like Dodger hats, clothing, rally towels, and even food to UCLA medical staff and homeless community members housed at local recreation centers. Our opticians have stepped into this new role with the true spirit of community, welcoming the opportunity to provide tokens of gratitude and relief to healthcare workers on the frontline, as well as to those in need throughout Los Angeles.
Philadelphia, PA
Our biggest clinic, The Eagle Eye Mobile, has been repurposed as a sheltered break space for the COVID-19 drive-thru testing staff. This is the same group of nurses that put a smile on the faces of people across the nation with their break-time dances. Check out their instagram video.
The Eagles have been a wonderful partner to Vision To Learn. Read about the partnership, and how they continue to support Vision To Learn’s efforts as part of their community investment during this critical time. Philadelphia Eagles donate $1million to Covid-19 Relief
Additionally, you can read about more of the Eagles’ initiatives to help the City of Brotherly Love here. Philadelphia Eagles.com #StayHomeStayStrong/
Atlanta, GA
Teaming up with the nonprofit organization Goodr and the Atlanta Hawks, our clinics have been busy delivering groceries to families in Atlanta and surrounding counties. Goodr and the Atlanta Hawks have also created pop-up grocery stores around the city. We concluded the successful partnership on June 26, 2020 after 11 weeks of service. Our staff personally made 475 of the thousands of deliveries.
Detroit MI
In partnership with Lighthouse of Oakland County and Oakland University, our Pistons clinics have been distributing groceries to homeless families in Oakland county and throughout metro Detroit. Vision To Learn staff can be seen here at a Gardner-White loading dock readying for a delivery run, as featured in a local news story here.
Hawai’i
During the month of May, our Hawai’i team will be dispensing 142 pairs of glasses to students who were examined before the COVID-19 outbreak. After many planning calls with school leadership, Vision To Learn was approved to set up drive-thru glasses-dispensing at school sites, immediately following the breakfast grab-and-go programs in place. Our staff has been taking every precaution, disinfecting all glasses cases while wearing gloves, and doubling up with N95 masks underneath the cloth masks or or other protective coverings they wear. Pictured here is our staff dispensing 30 of the 62 glasses prescribed to students at Nānāikapono Elementary School in Nanakuli, on the island of Oahu. We are all in this together!
Charlotte, North Carolina
In North Carolina, Vision To Learn has partnered with Heal Charlotte, a local organization working with area restaurants and food trucks to provide hot meals to families in the Orchard Trace and Garden Inn Suites living communities. In the seven weeks since launching, our Charlotte champions, Renee and Hugh McColl, have delivered 8,000 breakfasts to families!
Ongoing National Efforts
In Iowa, our program manager found a creative way to work from home while entertaining her children. Together they created “welcome to your new glasses” cards for hundreds of students in Iowa who will receive their glasses through the mail instead of at a school distribution event.
We are still processing lost and broken glasses requests as well as mailing out glasses to all of the students who received a prescription prior to the shutdown. If your student has lost or broken their glasses, please request a replacement here. www.visiontolearn.org/glasses
