Sight for sore eyes

When nursing students at Newman University (KS) volunteered at a local school to perform vision and blood pressure screening, they uncovered disturbing results. Some of the low-income children demonstrated a visual deficit year after year but weren't getting corrective lenses -- and no programs offered aid.

"These kids fall through the cracks. I heard about a little girl who borrowed the secretary's glasses to take her exams," said Amy Siple, the NCF Faculty Advisor at NU. Moved by this clear need, Amy launched a vision service project that has already provided glasses and exams to more than a dozen children.

Amy started by calling several Christian optometrists she knew and all were willing to provide free eye exams. "God put a Newman graduate in my path -- a new optometrist -- with time to see several children if I could just pay for the glasses," said Amy. "When I spoke to the NCF students, they were ready to help. Some raised $143 to cover three pairs of glasses, and others sought help from local optical distributors and got vouchers for three more."

"Two NCF students agreed to help coordinate the effort and they created a chart of other optical programs in the city to determine where the gaps were. They also agreed to sort out which program would best suite those kids with identified deficits," said Amy.

As the service project grew, Amy learned that Newman University would provide resources if a student organization took responsibility for the project. "Of course, I picked NCF," Amy said."I am excited that this will help give our NCF group some publicity and give the members a chance to serve others. "

Amy has also purchased and wrapped Bibles to offer to the children after their check-up. When the children ask who their benefactor is, she instructed the optometrists to simply say, "God wants you to see."

Amy Siple, MSN, FNP-BC, is Associate Professor of Nursing at Newman University, Kansas. She is also the Faculty Advisor for the NCF student group.