Students at Columbia Middle School were delighted Oct. 16, 2018 when San Jose Sharks player Evander Kane and SJ Sharkie helped them try on their brand new glasses. The glasses were provided by non-profit Vision To Learn, which kicked off its fifth year serving students in Santa Clara County by providing free glasses to 80 students at Columbia. Vision To Learn has served students throughout Santa Clara County since 2014.
To date, Vision To Learn has provided almost 4,800 students in the area with eye exams and 4,300 with glasses. A multi-year,
$100,000 sponsorship from the Sharks Foundation has helped fund a mobile clinic dedicated to Santa Clara County. The Sharks clinic was on display at the Columbia event. In the coming school year, Vision To Learn will provide more than 3,000 students in Santa Clara County with glasses, including more than 400 in Sunnyvale School District.
Vision To Learn, a non-profit charity, started with one van in Los Angeles in 2012 and now helps kids in low-income communities in 256 cities in 13 states. Vision To Learn serves the needs of the hardest-to-reach children; about 90% of kids served by Vision To Learn live in poverty and about 85% are kids of color. Since its inception, Vision To Learn has helped provide vision screenings to over 550,000 kids, provided over 150,000 kids with eye exams and almost 120,000 with glasses, all free of charge to students and their families.
