Ever been upset that a picture came out blurry?

In truth, 80 percent of what is perceived and processed is through eyesight. Yet, far too many people have a hard time seeing and have to use some type of vision correction. A part of those people are kids. For some families, it’s hard to get the resources they need for their child or children to have healthy eyes, considering how expensive glasses can be.

Most schools offer screenings that test a student’s eyes, but 40-67 percent of these students who are identified with a vision problem don’t receive follow-up care by a professional; all they have is what is offered at school. This is a major problem for those families seeking the resources to get their kids healthy eye care.

Boling Vision, an eye care provider, believes that without sight, kids can’t reach their educational potential, which is why they created a program to get students the eye care they need to continue learning at school. Boling Vision founded Kindness to Prevent Blindness, a program that travels to schools in a mobile clinic to provide medical eye exams and two free pairs of prescription glasses for students in grades 1, 3, 5, and 8 who fail their eye exams.

This program started in September 2018 but was only accessible to 17 schools within one school system. Presently, Kindness to Prevent Blindness has expanded to six school systems and serves sixty-eight schools—one of the school systems being Elkhart Community Schools. Abigail Stout, 11, who relies on glasses and contacts, shares her opinion on Boling Vision’s program: “It’s a great thing that they’re doing this, because without my contacts or glasses, it’d be really hard for me to see and follow along with what is being taught at school.” She concludes, saying, “It’s good that Boling Vision is doing this for younger students so that they have the eye care they need before they get older and their eyes get worse.”

Boling Vision has made a visible impact on education through non-profit program Kindness to Prevent Blindness. They expect to provide four-thousand students with free glasses during the 2019-2020 school year. Sound too good to be true? The recipients sure don’t think so. In this case, seeing is believing.