Community Involvement

Donate Your Glasses

Did you know Medical Eye Center provides eye exams and prescription glasses to people in need?

Our doctors and technicians regularly donate their time at La Clinica, offering vision care to low-income patients. We also partner with La Clinica’s annual Migrant Outreach Camp, as well as United Way’s annual Project Community Connect which is dedicated to helping the homeless.

Many of the patients just need simple over-the-counter reading glasses. There are some people, however, who have poor distance vision and can’t afford glasses. With a supply of donated glasses, we can closely match corrective lenses to provide people with a pair of glasses they can use to improve their vision.
Recycle your old eyewear and make a meaningful difference in someone’s life.Join us in helping others in our community by donating your unwanted glasses. It’s easy—simply donate your unwanted eyewear, and we’ll give them new life by carefully matching them with a low-income patient in need of prescription lenses. Together, we can ensure better vision is available to everyone in our community.

ACCESS Inc. has been helping Jackson County residents break the cycle of poverty since 1976. With a focus on education, ACCESS helps seniors and low-income families survive economic crisis by helping them become self-sustaining. Programs are researched and designed to address problems ranging from one-time emergencies to longer-term issues. ACCESS is a local non-profit and has one of the highest efficiency rates when compared to other non-profits providing the same level of service. This efficiency is due in large part to the efforts of community volunteers. Medical Eye Center has had a sustaining relationship with ACCESS for over two decades. We’ve helped raise over $200,000 for local elders and low-income families.

The team from Medical Eye Center has volunteered to provide eye exams, optical services and surgery for low income and uninsured patients served locally by La Clinica. Through our work with LaClinica more than several hundred patients have received eye care and over 25 vision-restoring surgeries have been performed—several on patients who were blind and could not otherwise afford treatment. For more information, visit the La Clinica website.

EyeCare America offers medical eye exams, often at no out-of-pocket cost. Since 1985, this award-winning program has helped more than 2 million people get sight-saving care and resources from volunteer eye doctors (ophthalmologists) across the United States.
AGS Cares is a new public service program of the AGS Foundation that is dedicated to providing surgical glaucoma care at no cost to uninsured patients who qualify for such care. The glaucoma care is provided by members of a national network of volunteers comprising glaucoma surgeons who are AGS active or provisional members.

Sparrow Clubs not only provides financial and emotional support for children and their families in medical need, but also empowers kids (elementary to college age) to help others through charitable service in their communities. 

The Sparrow Clubs program teaches life lessons in compassion and selflessness through building relationships between a Sparrow family, a school student body, and our community. Sick kids get help, healthy kids become heroes and communities experience change. 

In 2007, Medical Eye Center received an out-of-the-blue bequest: funding to provide indigent adults and children with necessary eye care.  The Klinghammer Fund originated from a generous endowment from Irma Klinghammer.  While visiting the center one day, Mrs. Klinghammer overheard a mother telling a staff member that she couldn’t afford the glasses her child needed. Mrs.Klinghammer then offered to purchase
the glasses for the child. This first action eventually led to thousands of other children having their needs met through her generous bequest to Medical Eye Center—Klinghammer Memorial Fund at OCF. Money from the fund, which is administered by the Oregon Community Foundation, goes to assist third parties like La Clinica and the Himalayan Cataract Project.

All of the art work in our building was printed from photos taken by a provider, staff member, or spouse of a staff member.  These canvas prints are for sale to the general public and $100 of the purchase price goes toward the MEC/Klinghammer fund, which goes toward providing eye care for children in need. 

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