Several local students will soon be able to see more clearly thanks to a special partnership between Essilor Vision Foundation and the Carter County School System.

Essilor Vision Foundation is the non-profit charitable arm of Essilor, an international company specializing in eyeglass lenses.

“We are the largest company in the United States for wholesale optical,” said Mikki Daniel, the General Manager for the Essilor lab in Piney Flats.

On the Essilor Vision Foundation side of things, the foundation provides free eyeglasses to individuals in need. The Foundation recently partnered with Carter County Schools to provide free eye exams and glasses for children. Nurses and counselors in the school system identified children who may be in need of glasses but whose families either didn’t have vision insurance or didn’t have the means to purchase glasses for the children, Daniel said.

“We feel like we are improving lives by improving sight for these children,” Daniel said. “We chose Carter County because of the large need.”

On November 30, a team of 16 volunteers from Essilor labs across the country came to Carter County for the project. They were joined by four local optometrists — Dr. John Holland, Dr. Tammy Holsclaw-Jones, Dr. Brooke Jones-Cannon, and Dr. David Mills — who provided the eye exams for the children.

After their exam, the students got the chance to look through a variety of frames and pick the ones they wanted.

Daniel said her lab in Piney Flats will make the glasses and then deliver them to the schools to ensure they fit on the children. She estimated it would take around two weeks for the glasses to be completed and delivered.

“I can’t wait to see their faces when I put their glasses on,” she said.

In total, around 150 children from the Carter County School System received eye exams and either new glasses or repairs to glasses they already had. The Essilor team and optometrists set up shop at Valley Forge Free Will Baptist Church, which loaned use of their facilities so the project could be held at a centralized location. The school system then transported students by bus to and from the church for the exams.

Bruno Barajuan, Regional Operations Director for Essilor Labs of America’s Southeast region, was on hand at the event volunteering his time as well. He said members of the Essilor team came from several states —  Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, and Arizona — to work together on this project.

“The mission of our company is improving life by improving sight,” Barajuan said. “Since we started, we have delivered over 500,000 pairs of glasses.”