NEW YORK—The fifth annual Great Glasses Play Day— a weekend of raising awareness of the importance of early detection and treatment of vision issues, while celebrating visually impaired children—is now set for May 7 to 8.

Founded by Kristin Ellsworth, Ann Zawistoski and Jessica Butler in 2012, GGPD now takes place in over 10 cities, with families and eyecare providers organizing and participating in the events. Cities include Dayton, Ohio, Madison, Wis., Providence R.I., Syracuse, N.Y., Minneapolis, Minn., San Diego, Calif., Jackson, Miss., St. Louis, Mo., Columbia, Mo., Poplar, Mo., Long Grove, Ill. and Miami, Fla.

Children will get the chance to partake in fun activities such as playing eye doctor with stuffed animals, reading books about vision or characters who wear glasses, smash a piñata shaped like an eye patch and much more.

“Our intentions are to connect families who share similar experiences with their children, to help celebrate and empower children to love wearing their glasses,” Kristin Ellsworth, co-founder of GGPD told VMail. “Most importantly, we want to raise awareness all over the country and around the world, [so parents] know how important it is to look out for vision issues at a young age.”

Since 2012, GGPD has garnered both local and national support. Sponsors now include ClearVision, Marco Ophthalmic, Miraflex and Kohls Cares.

“Our mission is to not only celebrate the kids, but to also celebrate the opticals that care enough about kids,” Ellsworth stated. “It takes more time to service a child than it does an adult. Getting the proper fit is so important. The follow up—children break their glasses, their faces grow quickly and their prescriptions change. Being able to honor those opticals and publicizing them on a local level is something that we are trying to do as well.”

If you want to participate, but can’t make it to any of the locations listed, you can still visit greatglassesplayday.com and sign up to organize an event in your area. For additional information visit Facebook.com/greatglassesplayday.