September is Our Month of Giving

Proceeds go to Assistive Technology Catalyst Project

September is Insight Eyecare’s inaugural Month of Giving, an annual event benefitting a local or locally founded charitable organization. This year, we’re supporting Assistive Technology Catalyst Project, a wheelchair charity founded by East Texans. Throughout September, $10 of your eyeglasses purchase gets passed along to this charity.

Here’s a personal note from Dr. Pinkerton about this year’s Month of Giving recipient.

If you can’t see, you can’t easily get around. So, when eyesight fails, some people become socially disconnected, leading to isolation and loneliness.

Luckily, in most cases poor or failing vision can be corrected. That’s one of the reasons I chose optometry as my profession—I can make a big difference in many patient’s lives just by fitting them with corrective lenses.

The Assistive Technology Catalyst Project’s mission speaks to me because founders Phil and Karen Rispin, who are patients of mine, are similarly trying to make a big difference in people’s lives—but in their case wheelchairs are what does it.

According to studies, Americans regard blindness as the worst possible ailment. But imagine not being able to move for lack of a wheelchair. Imagine being confined to a corner. School, a job, and a social network would not be possible. Talk about disconnection, isolation, and loneliness!

In their mission work overseas, Phil and Karen saw that well-meaning donors would ship wheelchairs to Africa, but wheelchairs are like eyeglasses in that you can’t hand them out randomly and expect they will work. Wheelchairs must be fitted for each person’s body and disability, and properly made for the environment.

The Assistive Technology Catalyst Project works with mission hospitals and other nonprofits to match those in need with long-term care including wheelchair provision.

Your East Texas neighbors, Phil and Karen, feel called to do this work, and I feel compelled to support it.