Lenscrafters Program Helps Low-Income District 68 Students Receive the Glasses They Need

In every classroom, there are children who need glasses to see the board, read a book or do their homework. But not every family can afford them.

That’s where Lenscrafters’ “One Sight” program comes in.

Through the program, low-income students in District 68 are able to receive the glasses they need to succeed in the classroom.

A district or school is allowed to send 30 students for a one-day annual visit to a Lenscrafters location. While there, the students are given eye exams. If deemed necessary, they pick out frames and go home with glasses made just for them.

Students are asked to bring a book with them so they can see the difference in their sight before and after wearing glasses.

“When they come back with glasses and open the book, their faces light up,” said Kim Superits, administrative assistant in District 68. “They see the book so differently for the first time in their lives. It makes it all worth it.”

Every year, each District 68 school can name five students it decides most need classes following school vision to participate in the one-day event.

Most of the students receive glasses, but those who don't need them just yet do not.

The district has been a part of the program for five years. This year, 28 students have been serviced by Lenscrafters so far, Superits said.

“There are comments all throughout the year from teachers about how good the students are doing (because of their glasses)," Superits said.

Lenscrafters doesn’t just help the 30 students chosen for the one-day program. Other district students were sent to Lenscrafters before Wednesday to get glasses before ISAT testing, and more can be sent there throughout the year, as well. 

“It’s such a benefit to the children,” she said. “Due to income and with the economy we have, a lot of people are losing insurance and don’t have money to pay for glasses. They’re unable to get them.”

After the students receive their glasses, they can return to Lenscrafters if their glasses are broken, lost or if their prescriptions change. Those services continue as they get older: there is no age limit for the program, which is also open to anyone deemed eligible to participate.

Brandon Amoah, a second-grader at Edgewood, and Elizabeth Campbell, a third-grader at William F. Murphy Elementary School, were two of the students who went to the Lenscrafters in the Bolingbrook Promenade Wednesday to receive their glasses.

“I always sit very close in the classroom, but I couldn’t see the board without glasses,” Amoah said. “It was fuzzy and I couldn’t see.”

They said they were nervous at first about picking out their glasses.

“I hadn’t had glasses before,” Amoah said. “I didn’t know how they would feel.”

Some of their peers had made fun of them for it.

“I feel bad for them for teasing us because they might need glasses in the future,” Campbell said.

But that nervousness soon turned into excitement.

“I like my glasses so much,” Campbell said. “They’re magnificent.”

Kim Superits, administrative assistant at District 68, said Lenscrafters provided snacks, pizza for lunch a movie for the students to watch while they waited for their eye exams.

“One child said it was the best day he’d ever had in school,” Superits said.

Superits said going in a group to get glasses prevented the kids from feeling nervous or self-conscious.

“The kids who were told they didn’t need glasses this time were really disappointed,” she said. “Especially coming with their peers from the same school, it’s a tremendous booster.” 

Beverly Lezondra-Wheatley, managing optometrist at the Lenscrafters at the Bolingbrook Promenade, said participating in the program is very rewarding.

“They’re barely able to see, and then they’re able to give you that smile,” she said. “They’re able to see the world differently now.”