Seeing Clearly
May 9, 2016
Seeing Clearly
By Haley Hanson, AmeriCorps Promise Fellow serving at Fridley Middle School
One of my students has been having trouble seeing. She lost her glasses earlier this year and her family’s insurance would not cover another pair. I talked with her about how it’s affecting her schoolwork and if it’s giving her problems. She told me how not being able to see has been giving her headaches because she has to squint in order to see. I knew that she was going to the nurse’s office a lot for having headaches which in turn was causing her to miss class. I decided it was time to try and figure this out because she was in desperate need of glasses. I contacted the school nurse and our family outreach coordinator to try see what options we had. After working with them a few days and getting together all the information that we needed we were able to get Walmart to donate a pair of glasses for free to the family! The mother of the student was thrilled and said how much of a blessing it was for her family. Now she is getting her new pair of glasses and I know that it’s going to help her out tremendously.
[From “Voices From the Field: Reflections from Minnesota Alliance With Youth’s AmeriCorps Promise Fellows.” Spring 2016.]