Legacy Health Endowment (LHE) is launching a vision care pilot program for public school students. Students in five school districts in Stanislaus and Merced counties will have access to free eye care this spring, thanks to a partnership between LHE and a company that organizes mobile eye clinics all across the country.

The program is known as Glasses 2 Classes. It offers free eye screening and same-day glasses for up to 200 students per district. The Optical Academy of New Jersey runs it. Turlock-based LHE is underwriting the cost of the clinics.

The school districts involved in the upcoming program are:

·         Denair Unified: April 15

·         Gustine Unified: April 16

·         Hughson Unified: April 17

·         Keyes Union: April 18

·         Hilmar Unified: April 19

At each clinic, Optical Academy’s mobile vision team will bring its state-of-the-art equipment to a school site to provide students with free eye screening and examinations. If students need glasses, they are made onsite that day and provided at no cost. The school districts select the students who will participate.

“Being able to see correctly is critical to any student’s success in or out of the classroom,” said Jeffrey Lewis, President and CEO of Legacy Health Endowment. “We are happy to be able to bring a proven program such as Glasses 2 Classes to this area. We know it has the potential to positively impact hundreds of lives. The collaboration with Optical Academy will help LHE determine if the program could be expanded.”

Abby Ayoub, founder of Optical Academy, praised LHE for providing the money to put on the clinics.

“Without partners with passion like the Legacy Health Endowment, we can’t deliver these crucial onsite mobile vision services,” Ayoub said. “It’s partnerships like this that allow us the opportunity to help our communities. We are extremely excited to serve students in the comfort of their school and engage them in making their glasses.”