FIRST BENEFICIARIES OF TRANSITIONS® HEALTHY SIGHT FOR LIFE FUND
COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM ANNOUNCED
Five Organizations Receive Funding to Promote Healthy Sight, Submissions for Additional Grants Now Being Accepted
NEW YORK, April 11, 2008 – Transitions Optical, Inc. has awarded one-time grants to five community organizations as a complement to the national efforts of its Transitions® Healthy Sight for Life Fund. Butler County Association for the Blind, Camden Eye Center, the Center for the Partially Sighted, Deicke Center for Visual Rehabilitation and Vision Health International each received funding in support of their programs to promote healthy sight. Submissions for additional grants are now being accepted.
The community grant program was created with the purpose of providing one-time funding and other support for eyecare professionals, optical laboratories, local charity groups or regional associations that are seeking to promote healthy sight in their communities. Proposals for community grants are accepted and awarded on a rolling basis year-round through the “For Professionals” section of the Fund’s Web site, www.HealthySightforLife.org.
“We are so impressed by the plans of the selected organizations and are anxious to see the fruits of their efforts,” said Mary O’Hara, regional giving officer and communications specialist, Transitions. “Through our common goals and dedication to eye health, we are looking forward to amplifying the voice of the eyecare industry.”

Grant Recipients

Butler County Association for the Blind facilitates a Prevention of Blindness program that provides screening for approximately 7,000 children a year at 83 sites, including preschool, kindergarten and first grade, and through programs geared toward Head Start participants and special-needs children of all ages. The organization, located in western Pennsylvania, will use the grant from the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund to purchase new, updated equipment to help maintain accurate screenings. Plans also include the expansion of free screenings to additional schools and improvement of educational programs.

Camden Eye Center’s (CEC) SIGHT FIRST FOR KIDS program provides free and low-cost eye care to the economically disadvantaged residents of Camden City and surrounding areas of New Jersey. Camden City now ranks as the poorest city in the nation, with 44 percent of the city's roughly 80,000 residents living in poverty. Of the 30,400 children in Camden City, 50 percent are living at or below the poverty level. Since 1961, approximately 236,000 patients have visited CEC's three main offices and Mobile Vision Clinic. To this day, the CEC is the only free-standing, non-profit facility of its kind in the State of New Jersey.

The Center for the Partially Sighted provides public education about maintaining healthy vision in Southern California via health-care and social workers. Through the community grant, the organization hopes to develop a program that includes presentations to the public, both in person and through print, radio and television news media. The program’s mission is to educate about eye disease risk factors, including exposure to sunlight, a contributing factor in macular degeneration and cataracts. It will target 1,000 individuals living and working among the culturally diverse population of Los Angeles, including health care professionals, case managers and consumers.

Deicke Center for Visual Rehabilitation travels to schools throughout Illinois, offering low-vision clinics for children in grades K-12 with severe visual impairments. Annually, 350 children are provided with a free low-vision exam and devices including magnifiers, telescopes, prescription glasses and sunglasses. Through the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund grant, the organization will provide children with wraparound sunglasses to protect their eyes from harmful ultraviolet rays and prevent dust and other objects from entering the eye. In addition, the grant will support the printing of educational handouts.

Vision Health International (VHI) is a U.S.-based, non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to the delivery of free vision-care services and sight-restoring surgery to the medically underserved populations in Latin America. VHI conducts semi-annual field programs to selected communities, the most recent of which was last year to Guastatoya, El Progreso, Guatemala, where VHI volunteers saw 1,569 patients, dispensed 1,259 pairs of eyeglasses and performed 107 surgeries. This spring, VHI's one-week field program, Restoring the Gift of Sight to Guatemala: 2008, will strive toward similar results and is made possible exclusively through donations like the one provided by the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund.

Preserving Healthy Sight for Life
Transitions Optical created the Transitions Healthy Sight for Life Fund to centralize and strengthen its corporate giving endeavors, unifying them with the mission to “help preserve healthy sight for life.” To achieve this goal, funding and educational resources will be provided to global, regional and local charitable organizations or efforts whose purpose is to help create awareness of the need for eye exams, eye protection and the enhancement of visual quality, and who are striving to help eliminate preventable blindness.

While funds for annual grants are limited, in cases where monetary assistance is not possible, Transitions can still support the efforts of local groups by supplying marketing and educational materials. These materials address the importance of healthy sight at every stage in life and provide information on the steps people should take to protect and optimize their vision. An educational video and brochure are available in English, Spanish and French Canadian. A toolkit with educational materials and marketing tools will also be available to help charity and trade professionals reach out to consumers within their local communities.