Elias addresses gala attendees.

NEW YORK--Friends, colleagues, and board members and supporters of the NYC Children’s Vision Coalition were on hand at a gala dinner on Wednesday night to honor Richard Elias, vice president of PPG’s Optical Product division, with the group’s Eyes of the Future Award.

The group also bid on special items at a Silent Auction held here at the Penn Club to raise funds for the activities of the Coalition, which provides vision care to children throughout the New York City area and includes the group’s Mobile Vision Van. The Van is on display in the Crystal Pavilion of the Javits Center during Vision Expo.

Elias joined PPG in 1975 as a chemist and progressed through a series of technical and commercial positions, becoming responsible for PPG’s photochromic lens program. He is currently president of Transitions Optical. For the last two years he served as chairman of the Vision Council of America.

Honoree Rick Elias and his wife Linda celebrate his Children’s Coalition honor.	Universal Photonics’ Alan Ritter, New York Children’s Coalition reception co-chair, visits with Eyewear Designs’ Andrea Gluck.
VCA CEO Bill Thomas (l), and A. Norman Haffner, OD, president of the New York Children’s Coalition, enjoy the reception.	National Optronics’ David Beach (l) and Carl Zeiss’ Roland Sitzler at the reception honoring Elias.