Community comes together to improve Carter County students’ lives by improving sight

Published 3:20 pm Monday, December 19, 2022

According to the EssilorLuxottica Vision website, “80% of what we learn is processed through our eyes and one in four children has a vision problem that affects their ability to learn.”

On December 12, the Southern Piney Flats lab held its fourth EssilorLuxottica Vision event at Valley Forge Free Will Baptist Church and hosted 120 Carter County students from 10 schools, with great success.

In October of this year, Carter County School system’s health professionals began screening K-12 students for vision problems. Once the students were identified, permission slips were sent home for their child to attend the Dec. 12 event and receive a free eye exam as well as glasses, if needed.

Those students, with permission, were bused to Valley Forge Free Will Baptist Church, where they were greeted by Tucker, Carter County’s Therapy Dog, before their eye exam given by local optometrists Dr. Tammy Holsclaw-Jones, Dr. Brooke Jones-Cannon or Dr. Casey Harrison. Students needing eye correction then chose frames that will be delivered by EssilorLuxottica employees to their specific school when they are complete.

This event was a whole community effort. Carter County Schools would like to give a BIG thank you to all those involved including the three local optometrists, Dr. Tammy Holsclaw-Jones, Dr. Brooke Jones-Cannon, and Dr. Casey Harrison, who volunteered their time to participate in the event with the mission to “improve lives by improving sight.” Others in the community and school system that made this event a success included Mikki Daniel, Regional Operations Director EssilorLuxottica; EssilorLuxottica employees; Valley Forge Free Will Pastor Johnson and his wife Gina; Hampton High School Health Science students; Hampton High School alumni Sarah Orr; Joanna Orr, retired Carter County School Counselor; Tiffany Jenkins, Special Education Director; Allison Timbs, School Support Coordinator; Barbara Marek, SpEd Behavior Specialist; Carter County Transportation, Missy Ward; bus drivers, Tom Houghton, Dan Richenberg and Mike Orr. Carter County counselors, administration, social workers, and nurses helped to organize and chaperone the students.