World Sight Day
The UMSL optometry students donned World Sight Day t-shirts on October 8, 2014, in support of their profession. World Sight Day is an annual international event to raise awareness for the importance of ocular health. It was first implemented by the Lions Club to be an advocacy and awareness tool. Today, many organizations support it, such as the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, which affiliates with the World Health Organization (WHO) in their fight for the elimination of preventable blindness around the world. Approximately, 80% of visual impairment is avoidable (i.e. readily treatable and/or preventable), and WHO has initiated a global action plan in hopes of extending visual health care worldwide by the year 2020.
UMSL optometry students became involved specifically by fundraising for Optometry Giving Sight. They are a global fundraising organization that targets the prevention of blindness and treatable impaired vision. The Optometry Giving Sight organization asked all optometry colleges to take part in the World Sight Day Challenge, an annual fundraising campaign. The College of Optometry Student Volunteers of Optometric Services to Humanity(VOSH) organization is responsible for initiating the challenge, and member Allison Schafers was elected to head the challenge this year. She sold World Sight Day t-shirts to students and faculty to raise money. The group will be donating all proceeds to Optometry Giving Sight so that they can continue on in the fight to eradicate preventable blindness.