Alexis McLaughlin, 20/20 Onsite President and CEO, and Lilly Bunch, Executive Director at Greater Gift onboard our Mobile Vision Clinic.
20/20 Onsite is continuing to honor our commitment to two important patient groups we serve: the students in our community and clinical trial patients throughout the country.
Through a partnership between Greater Gift, a nonprofit organization that celebrates participation in clinical trials, and AGTC, a clinical research organization that is testing new therapies for eye diseases, we were able to give the gift of free eye exams to 125 Boston Public Schools students thanks to 125 AGTC clinical trial patients whose participation donated an eye exam to a child in need.
“The pandemic has shone a bright light on the need for clinical trial participation as never before in history,” said Lilly Skok Bunch, Executive Director of Greater Gift, in a press release. “Greater Gift has been celebrating and acknowledging clinical trial participants for more than 10 years; this is the first time that a program will recognize trial participants in a way that also yields benefits for students with vision challenges.”
Greater Gift partnered with 20/20 Onsite because of our commitment to the underserved through their relationship with the Boston Public School System.
“We are honored to be part of this partnership with AGTC and Greater Gift. Both companies align with our mission to make eye care more accessible and to increase trust in and awareness of clinical trials. Now, because of this relationship, we will be able to support even more Boston area school children to help them succeed in the coming school year and beyond,” said Jessica Mays, Senior Director of Business Development & Partnerships for 20/20 Onsite, in the past press release.
Over the last two years, our Life Sciences team has worked with AGTC to provide clinical trial mobile assessment collection as the biotechnology company continues to develop therapies for vision loss. Being able to celebrate clinical trial participants in this way makes our work that much more rewarding!
In January, Boston news station WCVB5 captured the excitement of our visit to Blackstone Elementary students to provide free eye exams and glasses. Check out the video below:
In the video, you can see some students stepping onboard our 20/20 Onsite Mobile Vision Clinic for their eye exams. Among those students is Heaven, a fourth-grader who sometimes has trouble seeing the board in class. “My eyes — they are used to being shut like this — not open,” she said.
“Eighty percent of learning is visual, and 20% of students have a visual deficiency where they can’t see the board, and a simple pair of glasses can fix that,” said Alexis McLaughlin, CEO of 20/20 Onsite.
It turned out that Heaven did need a prescription and she picked out the perfect pair of free frames!
Our Mobile Vision Clinics have traveled to over 30 Boston area schools and are always looking for more schools to visit! The participating schools were recommended by the Boston Public Schools Health Services Department due to their high need for vision support, while school administration and school nurses advocated for their school communities to participate. For many of these students, our visit marked their very first eye exam.
Skyler Shore of Greater Gift, Jess Mays of 20/20 Onsite, and Jessica Skaliski of AGTC
"Thank you eternally for helping us make (this visit) happen. We got a remarkable number of kids set up with glasses, and all seemed very excited to *see* how much things will improve with your help." - Nurse, Match Charter Public School