Mindful Eyes Foundation

Wednesday was a bit slower this week, but we still helped folks with 2 glasses repairs, 5 frame selects and 8 dispenses! Here's a photo of our Wednesday team doing our best to practice social distancing, while still helping people get vision services. Big thanks to crew this week -- Dr. Michelle J Hoff, Scott Balestreri and all our student volunteers: Kayle Edwards, Nina Wang, Linda P. Vang, Morgan Ichimoto and Surina Khurana. Our next event is scheduled for April 8 at the one and only Berkeley Free Clinic.

From our event last night! With the help of everyone we did 10 dispenses, 9 frame selects, 1 vision screening and 1 Rx check! We were grateful to have all the hands on deck. Quite the night!!

Some clicks from our event on Jan. 22! Scott Balestreri and the students had to hold the fort down while Dr. Hoff was out. They were able to get through five frame selects, twelve dispenses and a little celebratory Yogurt Park afterward. Thanks to everyone for their help!

Making this earth a better place! Thank you to the volunteer doctors, opticians, and UC Berkeley students who have been helping us through these very busy events. Thank you to Dr. Michelle J Hoff, Scott Balestreri, Surina Khurana, Madi Sachs, Zita Alamparambil, McKenna Turrill, Emmy Tian, and Kellie Melton.

One of our favorite parts of our events is hearing the stories of the people we help. Last week we met a wonderful soul who told us, "I need new glasses because I'm starting a new life." After being released from prison, he detailed the beginning of his inspirational work with Black Men Speak, Inc. & Men of Color. Please check them out.

We are overjoyed to have heard his story, and help an additional 20 people that day. We dispensed 11 brand new prescription glasses with the help of Bad Ass Optical Lab, selected frames for 9 more, and performed 1 vision screening. Of course we could not have done this work without the one and only Scott Balestreri, the magical Dr. Michelle J Hoff, and our extraordinary student volunteers. Thank you Surina Khurana, Joanna Toner, Michelle Yoshimoto, and Divya Reddy.

On August 24th Berkeley The Berkeley Free Clinic had their 50th anniversary celebration. With the help of one of our long standing volunteers, Michael Hahn and I manned the Mindful Eyes table.
Mindful Eyes Foundation started a partnership with BFC in 2017. At our first event we helped 5 people. Now we see between 20-25 people in about 2 hours twice a month. Since that first event, we’ve made glasses for 267 people and performed 54 vision screenings and referrals for ocular health treatment.
Our Quality to Care goal is not about serving large numbers of people. It’s about making sure we serve the needs of each person to elevate their quality of life.
I’m so proud of what we have accomplished and I excited to see what we can do in the future.