Denver, CO (December 19, 2012) – The 2012 World Sight Day Student Challenge was a resounding success thanks to the student leadership at campuses across North America. Twenty-five schools participated and raised over $32,000, which is almost double the total donations from the Student Challenge last year.
Every year VOSH International offers travel stipends to the schools that raise the most in donations. “VOSH International is delighted to be able to provide these travel stipends, so that these student leaders can experience firsthand the vital work being done to train and mentor people in underserved communities to become degree qualified Optometrists and deliver affordable and accessible eye care services to people in need,” said Dr. Greg Pearl, immediate past President of VOSH International.
The enthusiastic support of the students leaders from the American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) and Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (sVOSH) contributed to the success of this year’s Student Challenge.
The winners of the 2012 VOSH International travel stipend awards are:
- University of Waterloo College of Optometry – The University of Waterloo optometry students held a ‘Dining in the Dark’ event. They transformed a meeting room at the University into a ‘restaurant’, and participants were blindfolded during the entire dinner to simulate what it would feel like to be blind. The event as well as other fundraising efforts raised over $6,100!
- University of Montreal College of Optometry – The University of Montreal optometry students held a ‘Bowlathon’ evening. The event was very enjoyable for everyone involved and was such a hit that they plan on holding a bowlathon again next year. Altogether, the students raised over $4,700!
- New England College of Optometry – The New England College of Optometry students got the whole school involved in the Student Challenge! With the support of other clubs on campus, the students visited classrooms to give a short talk about the need and followed up with an email for students to send to their family and friends to collect donations. All in all, the students raised $3,500!
The World Sight Day Challenge is a major fundraising campaign coordinated by Optometry Giving Sight which is designed to raise funds for projects that provide vision care, local training and infrastructure support for people who are blind or vision impaired due to uncorrected refractive error – simply the need for an eye exam and a pair of glasses.
Please visit www.givingsight.org for more information.
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