NEW YORK--ClearVision Optical’s Mimi Friedfeld received the Optical Women’s Association’s (OWA) Pleiades Award Friday night during an OWA reception held at Marchon Eyewear’s showroom here.

Mimi Friedfeld  of ClearVision (second from r) receives the OWA Pleiades Award from (l to r) past honoree Dana Weeks, OWA president Corinne McCormack and past honoree Andrea Gluck.

In accepting her award, Friedfeld noted the progress women have made in the optical industry since she and husband Fred launched ClearVision, now run by sons David and Peter: “We are no longer in the back seat of any business--we hold the reigns equally with our male counterparts,” she declared.

Added Friedfeld, “We’ve come a long way, baby!”

Donna Rollins (l), Marchon, and Grady Culbreth, Carl Zeiss Optical, with the Vespa motor scooter to be auctioned off on Ebay.

Noting that this is Women’s History Month, Friedfeld said, “I would like to conclude with a quote from one of my female heroes, Golda Meir: ‘Trust yourself, create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all of your life, make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny sparks of possibilities into flames of achievement’.”--Cathy Ciccolella