For the first time Hoya Vision Care’s ePoster contest placed a winner from every optometry school resulting in 20 winners of a $1,000 grant and one grand prize grant scholarship winner of an additional $6,000. The grant winners also received an all-expenses paid trip to the AOA Meeting and an iPad.
“I continue to be impressed by the young people entering the field of optometry,” says Barney Dougher, president of Hoya Vision Care, NA. He continues, “Mike Elton, our director of professional services, does an incredible job of reaching out to all of the schools and developing programs that excite and inspire students to participate.”
The awards luncheon was held at the San Diego Hilton Bayfront Hotel on June 28 in conjunction with the AOA’s annual meeting. The scholarship winner, Dr. James Thirion, graduated in May and is already employed at an NSU clinic that serves the Cherokee Nation and was unable to attend the luncheon.
“It was an amazing year for this competition,” notes Mike Elton. “This is the first time in seven years of the program that we had a grant winner from every school, an all-time high of 75 entries and three repeat grant winners. I couldn’t be happier with the results and the opportunity to help so many students.”
Judging was based on originality, application of technology involved, product knowledge and overall analysis and composition.
COBURN TECHNOLOGIES LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE
Coburn Technologies is launching a new company website,
coburntechnologies.com. The site includes lens processing equipment and consumables, the company’s new line of ophthalmic equipment and better integration with its new online store,
shopcoburn.com.
Coburn has remodeled the site to better segment its growing line of equipment solutions, including their recent addition of several refraction and diagnostic systems, to provide visitors with an easier way to find the product most appropriate to their eyecare field. Originally focused more toward wholesale lens processing, the site now gives equal presentation to ophthalmic care, lens processing, consumables shopping and service. The site includes several new features:
- Complete Web pages and brochures for Coburn’s new diagnostic line of equipment.
- Better integration with Coburn’s supplies and parts catalog of over 6,000 products.
- Dedicated sections for lens processing and ophthalmic care.
- More comprehensive company contact directory.
- Faster and more intuitive navigation from section to section.
- Same familiar look and feel.
EVF PROVIDES FREE GLASSES AND SCREENINGS
AT SPECIAL OLYMPICS TEXAS SUMMER GAMES
Through their partnership with the Special Olympics Opening Eyes, the Essilor Vision Foundation provided more than 475 pairs of glasses to athletes at the Special Olympics Texas Summer Games, May 24-25, 2013, at the University of Texas at Arlington’s Maverick Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“The Special Olympics Texas Summer Games is a prime example of Essilor Vision Foundation’s ongoing commitment to the Special Olympics Opening Eyes program,” says Stephen Shawler, president of Essilor Vision Foundation. “We provide glasses at more than 50 Opening Eyes events each year, and we’re excited to help these athletes experience a better life through better sight.”
Since 2002, Essilor Vision Foundation has been the exclusive global supplier of corrective lenses for the Special Olympics-Lions Club International Opening Eyes vision care program, and in 2012, the Foundation committed another 10 years as a global partner. As part of the Healthy Athletes program launched in 1997, Opening Eyes promotes healthy vision for Special Olympic athletes and includes vision screenings, corrective and sports protective eyewear for athletes in need and referrals for athletes requiring follow-up treatment and services.
—Andrew Karp
