The service vision of VOSH focuses more on just eye care

Joanne Williams
Editor

(Photo provided- The busy VOSH clinic offers exams, glasses, wellness checks and a chance for patients and volunteer staff to visit and celebrate vision health, courtesy of service organizations including the Eaton Rapids Rotary Club.)

Eaton Rapids, the only city of that name in the United States, also has another claim to fame and service – the Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH) team.

Both started with a vision – to make a community a better place. The community saw its way to support service organizations, including the Eaton Rapids Rotary, which brought VOSH in Dominica to life.

Now VOSH-MI Dominica, in its 30th year, travels to the Caribbean island of Dominica, bringing advanced eye screenings, eyeglasses and health referrals to the people there. The vision for the program came from former Eaton Rapids Rotary president and optometrist Dan Wrubel, Dr. Dan to his more than 70,000 island friends.

“I just fell in love with that country,” Wrubel said. Our main theme of service is to “check the whole person, not just their eyes,” he said.  

The most recent visit, in May, the clinic, staffed with more than 30 team members, saw 1,700 people in four days, gave away over 4,000 pairs of glasses and referred almost 200 people for further eye testing and medical care. (They were only scheduled for 1,400 exams.)

Wrubel recalls the early visits. “It was chaos,” he said, with so many people hoping to be seen without prescreening (vision and blood sugar) or ticketing protocals.

In the second year, and ever since, Wrubel and other volunteers have re-envisioned the clinic process; planning is continuous, as is the drive for donated glasses. VOSH works with the assistance of many organizations. In addition to the Eaton Rapids Rotary, Lions International has has created a worldwide recycled glasses collection program including the College of Optometry at Ferris State University in Big Rapids. From these collectins of recycled Rx glasses, readers and sunglasses, VOSH teams develop VOSH stock which are separated, cleaned, measured, labeled, bagged and boxed up for each individual mission.

The glasses are then transported by the volunteers in their individual duffle bags, along with portable eye testing equipment and eye drops for dispensing to patients of need.

A June meeting of the Eaton Rapids Rotary featured Wrubel via Zoom, and fellow travelers from the Rotary, Rus Halsey. who was accompanied on the trip by his wife, Dee,  and Garth Rouble, who traveled along with his wife, Jenny.

There were informational videos played to help members, who have donated more than $30,000 to the cause, as well as countless glasses, see the workings of the mission. 

“The trip was exciting to be a part of, and especially fulfilling, when you witness first-hand the impact that a pair of glasses can have on a person’s quslity of life,” Rouble said.

Working with area service organizations on the ground  in Dominica, the clinic provides basic eye exams, triage for urgent care and referrals. Children and adults are served.

Disease causes many of the eye problems on the island, but lack of eyeglasses remains the number one reason for “legal blindness” or less than 20/200 vision in underdeveloped countries worldwide.

One interesting fact: only 20% of donated eyeglasses are actually used for the final product, for various reasons, Wruble said. Clinic patients are multiple pairs, as there are few sources for more glasses once they are seen.

Wrubel said the mission is about the whole person, so vitals are taken. High blood pressure is a problem, and is often caught here, as most people do not take advantage or have access to regular medical exams.

VOSH, which now has support in 37 states and a number of countries is very much a “cooperative” effort, Wrubel said, with optometry schools, the Rotary, the Lions, churches and the government working together “synergistically.”

It’s the patient’s stories that volunteers remember most. Rotary member Halsey once thought of being an optometrist after going through some eye issues himself, but “became a finance guy” instead. Still, he gets to “be an eye doc” one week a year when he travels on the missions. Halsey, who is international service chair for the club, prepared a video walk through of the clinic for the Rotary meeting.  The video offered looks at smiling, bespectacled faces all around the clinic. 

“This is where it all started,” Wrubel reminded his fellow Rotary members. While Wrubel has moved away from Eaton Rapids, he remains an honorary member. The Rotary, and Eaton Rapids, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Eyeglasses are collected year round by the Rotary and area Lions Clubs. For information on the Rotary or VOSH, contact therotaryofeatonrapids@gmail.com, or stop by Foster Coffee at 7:15 a.m. on Wednesdays.