Eyes@Narangba in Queensland, Australia will be spinning the wheel on World Sight Day,
giving participants a chance to win a pair of Maui Jim Sunglasses. At $5 a spin, the practice
is hoping to raise $1,000 for the Challenge.

NEW YORK—Members of the North American eyecare community are gearing up once again to support and celebrate World Sight Day, along with Optometry Giving Sight and its annual fundraising campaign, the World Sight Day Challenge, held throughout September and October.

This year’s Coalition members include ABB Optical Group, Alcon, AllAboutVision.com, CooperVision, Essilor, Eyefinity, FYidoctors, Marchon Eyewear, Vision Source, VSP Global and ZeaVision.

They will be joined by A&A Optical, Acuity Pro Software, Advance Optical, Allergan, Art Optical, Bard Optical, ClearVision Optical, Contamac, DAC Vision, Demandforce, Essilor Canada, Europa, Eye Pros, Eye Recommend, Gateway Professional Network, GPLI, Heidelburg Engineering, Hilco, Hi-Tech Products, IBM Global Delivery Systems, Jobson Medical Information, Konan Medical, Kosh Ophthalmics, Match, Menicon, Modern Optical, Modo, Nikon, Oasis Medical, Ocuco, Optos, Optovue, OSI, PFO Global, POG Labs, REM Eyewear, RX Optical, Reptile Sun, Ron’s Optical, Signet Armorlite, Slack Incorporated, SynergEyes, Tech Group, Tura, Vision Ease, Vision One Credit Union, Vmax Vision, Wave Contact Lens System, Westgroupe, Zeiss (USA & Canada) and Zyloware, all of whom are participating in the Challenge in some way.

In addition to these companies, mobile vision clinics, local vision screening and testing, fundraising at individual practices and a range of imaginative donation drives and donation-matching commitments will take place to support the cause.

“It’s fantastic to see the support and commitment of so many optical companies, networks and practices as we seek to raise funds and awareness in support of people who are needlessly blind or vision impaired," said Clive Miller, CEO of Optometry Giving Sight. “We wish everyone well in their activities on World Sight Day and in support of the World Sight Day Challenge and encourage anyone who has yet to make a donation to visit givingsight.org.”

This year, the call to action for World Sight Day is: Eye Care for All. For a preview of what’s in store for Oct. 8, here is an overview of how some of the companies and organizations in the optical industry will meet the World Sight Day Challenge. A range of digital/social media hashtags and activities to spread the word will accompany on-site events and fundraising efforts.

Vision for a Nation, founded in 2011 in London by philanthropist and investor James Chen, is working to help the Government of Rwanda to train nurses in every health center across the country to provide front-line eye care and affordable glasses. Chen is also unveiling a new program on World Sight Day 2015 to build solutions for the problem affecting 2.5 billion people around the world with poor vision and uncorrected refractive error around the world with a new program, Project Oversight, which launches this week and will culminate on 2016’s World Sight Day.

Project Oversight, a new global initiative, is calling upon the world's greatest thinkers to join together to answer one simple question: "How can everybody in the world see?" Chen and his team have made a global invitation to help them find the greatest solutions to deliver eye care quickly.

Project Oversight will be running a challenge over the next year which will invite the public to reimagine and design the way the world can have access to vision correction. The three individuals or groups with the most promising ideas will each be rewarded with a $100,000 seed grant to turn their ideas into a reality.

Ultimately, these ideas will be presented as a gift to the world: to pass the world's greatest eyecare solutions on to the many great organizations already working in the development field. Vision for a Nation will begin accepting proposals later this fall and announce the winners by early next spring. The final report will be presented to the world on World Sight Day 2016.

Clear vision can fundamentally change someone’s world and unlock their potential. On World Sight Day, OneSight is asking people to help give a voice to the 1.1 billion people who need glasses, but lack access by: sharing a photo of yourself using your hands as glasses (i.e. hand glasses) with the hashtag #HelpTheWorldSee on your social media channels; donating $1 to help 1 billion people get access to glasses at www.onesight.org/worldsightday; and watching and sharing a video about how access to glasses can impact the world at www.onesight.org/worldsightday.

Leading sport performance brand, Oakley, has rallied behind the #HelpTheWorldSee campaign, enlisting several of their athlete ambassadors to help spread awareness. Ambassadors participating in the program include alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, professional skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and cyclist Chas Christiansen.

Oakely will also be featuring a World Sight Day front door campaign in over 25 stores across North America. Sunglass Hut’s global brand ambassador, Georgia May Jagger, will also show her support of the campaign posting her hand glasses photo on her social media channels. Sunglass Hut will also be activating via their social media channels. Additional support from LensCrafters, Sears Optical and Glasses.com will also be seen on World Sight day on the brands' websites and social media channels.

In addition, Luxottica associates have been encouraged to participate in World Sight Day and will have the opportunity to participate in internal activities taking place at Luxottica offices around the world as well as in the field (retail stores).

Alcon, the global leader in eyecare and a division of Novartis, announced its plans for the 2015 World Sight Day activities to take place at Academy 2015 New Orleans, the annual meeting of the American Academy of Optometry, to be held Oct. to10. The Alcon Foundation is partnering with the American Optometric Foundation (AOF), an affiliate of the Academy, to co-host the Cycle for Sight 20/20 Challenge.

The Alcon Foundation will make a $25,000 donation to the AOF, to be used to fund optometric education and research, when Academy attendees participating in stationary biking reach 2,020 minutes of cumulative bicycle riding. An additional donation of up to $25,000 in matching funds will also be made for any donations made directly by attendees to AOF during Academy 2015 New Orleans.

AllAboutVision.com is encouraging people to participate in the second annual #ShareForSight campaign, supporting the World Sight Challenge. Between Oct. 4 to 10, they’ll be sharing special social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google +. Each and every share, Like, Retweet, Repin or +1 helps promote eye health education and Optometry Giving Sight.

Many participating companies, via their own posts and content programs and photos are encouraging practices to share the message to patients. One such initiative is a new Instagram contest that Essilor is launching as part of its 2015 World Sight Day campaign to bring a renewed focus on vision. It aims to boost visibility of the Group’s call to action and develop a wider public engagement for vision access for all.

From Sept. 24 to Oct. 22, people are invited to share their perspectives on ‘seeing the world better.' By tagging their photos #Essilor, #Essilorwsd2015 or #seeingtheworldbetter, they’ll be sharing images across Instagram and helping spread the message. At the end of the four week contest, two winners will be selected—the photo with the most likes and a photo selected by a special Essilor jury.

VSP is partnering with Optometry Giving Sight and VOSH International to host an event to provide free eye care and glasses for those in need in New Orleans. Held in the Lower Ninth Ward, up to 750 patients will receive free eye exams and glasses on a VSP Mobile Eyes clinic, a deluxe mobile eyecare clinic on wheels. The clinic is outfitted with state-of-the-art exam rooms and a full frame dispensary so most patients receive their glasses within 15-minutes of their exam.

Adlens, the global leader in adjustable focus eyewear, is marking World Sight Day by announcing a new and exciting partnership with Fight for Sight, the UK’s leading eye research charity.

In the first year of an anticipated long-term partnership, Adlens has committed to raising funds that will go toward research into the causes, detection, treatment and prevention of sight loss and eye diseases.

The company has pledged to donate 7.5 percent of all Instant Eyewear sales to their charity partners, including Fight for Sight. This will be supported through mass employee engagement events up until the end of 2015. The company has signed up to Fight for Sight’s Feast Your Eyes event, which is encouraging people to dine in the dark from Oct. 16 to 22.

The partnership is the next step in the expansion of Adlens’ social mission program that aims to transform vision across the world. As well as continuing to design and manufacture products that allow people to see clearly, Adlens will be forming partnerships to fund eye research and bring vision correction to people across the world.
Join the fight against sight loss—sign up and receive your free Feast your Eyes pack, complete with blindfolds, by visiting FightforSight.org.uk/feast or call 020 7264 3900.

Local New Orleans optometrists are donating their time to see patients, including Dr. Jarrett Johnson, an optometrist whose practice was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. You can read about Dr. Johnson’s post-Katrina journey and dedication to the New Orleans community here. Rob Lynch, former president and CEO of VSP Global, will be in New Orleans for the occasion as well.

TOMS Eyewear is running a series of ads on Tinder and other social media reminding people “If you can’t see you can’t swipe” and is encouraging donations be made to #GiveSight.

ZeaVision will support fundraising efforts through multiple activities in September and October including employee initiatives, product promotions, and participation in the VSP Mobile Eyes Outreach Event in New Orleans. They will also make a donation on behalf of the Arizona Fall League’s 2015 batting champion during the award presentation.

As part of the challenge, ClearVision is donating 5 percent for each ClearVision brand frame sold on Oct. 8; donations will be made on behalf of those customers placing ClearVision brand collection orders in support of Optometry Giving Sight for the World Sight Day Challenge. The company is also donating $5 on behalf of each customer who shares on the ClearVision Facebook page, facebook.com/clearvisionoptical, on World Sight Day, what they do to give back to the optical community.

In addition, ClearVision will raise funds in support of World Sight Day through an employee sunglass sale. Employees are also encouraged to donate unused frames that can be repurposed to “give sight” to those who otherwise would not be able to see without glasses.

In addition to fundraising efforts throughout the month of October, A&A Optical will bring attention to World Sight Day and the importance of vision, by challenging our employees to complete tasks, related to the eyewear business, while blindfolded. One blindfold challenge will require staff to fold shipping boxes, a task that some staff find difficult with 20/20 vision.

World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment. It is coordinated by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) as part of the VISION 2020 Global Initiative. It is supported by eye health organizations around the world—including Optometry Giving Sight—and is included on the official World Health Organization (WHO) calendar. 2015 is the third year of the WHO Global Action Plan which has the rolling theme: Universal Eye Health.

For more information about the World Sight Day Challenge, call +1 888 OGS GIVE (USA); +1 (403) 670-2619 (Canada) or visit www.givingsight.org.