Latest News Essilor Presents Award and Establishes Program to Posthumously Honor Mary Lou Maguire By Staff Wednesday, January 21, 2015 12:21 AM Denise Brady (c) receiving the Mary Lou Maguire Spirit of Essilor Award. Flanking her are Essilor executives Howard Purcell, OD and Ellen Haag. BANFF, Canada—Mary Lou Maguire, a well-liked Essilor brand consultant who passed away in June, 2014, is receiving posthumous recognition with an award named in her honor and a new program that will provide eyecare and eyewear to needy children in her hometown of Philadelphia. Last week, at its national sales meeting in Banff, Essilor presented the first Mary Lou Maguire Spirit of Essilor Award to Denise Brady, a brand consultant and friend of Maguire’s. The honor is awarded to an Essilor employee in a sales capacity who best honors Maguire’s legacy through their commitment to Essilor, its customers, the community it serves, and who does so with “compassion, integrity and depth of character,” according to Essilor. Maguire served as a brand consultant with Essilor from April 1988 until June, 2014. In addition to her work on behalf of the company and its brands, she actively supported the Essilor Vision Foundation (EVF), Special Olympics and other organizations that work to improve people’s vision, Essilor said. Maguire’s colleagues held a raffle at the sales meeting that generated over $11,000, an EVF spokesperson told VMail. The money will be used to fund a new EVF program called Mary Lou’s Kids. The program, which is part of EVF’s Kids Vision for Life initiative, will work with local partners to provide vision services and glasses to needy children in the Philadelphia area. “Essilor Vision Foundation is forever linked to eliminating poor vision and its lifelong consequences and we couldn't think of a better way to honor the memory of Mary Lou Maguire than to provide vision services to underserved children in her backyard of Philadelphia,” said Bob Colucci, chairman of the board, Essilor Vision Foundation. The raffle was sponsored by AccuRx, Allan DiSimone, Bruce Scott, Jean Scott, Essilor Brand Northeast, Essilor Inside Sales, Dom Parisi, ELOA Northeast, Four Seasons Maui, Marchon, REM Eyewear, Porsche and The Vision Council.