Middlesex Community College Students Deliver Free Eye Care to 75 Middletown Residents

Seventy-five area residents are enjoying free eyeglasses, thanks to Ophthalmic Design and Dispensing (OD&D) students at Middlesex Community College (MxCC).  These students held their 19^th annual Community Eye Care Day at the on-campus Eye Clinic, which included free eye consultations and exams, courtesy of Dr. Duane F. Austin, M.D. (pictured, right), ophthalmologist from the Connecticut Eye Center in West Hartford and Avon.

MxCC students completed patient history interviews and visual assessments, checked for glaucoma, and took measurements prior to the free eye exam.  Following the exam, students manufactured and dispensed free eyewear to patients using optical lenses and frames that were donated by Precision Optical of East Hartford, Encore Optical of South Windsor, McLeod Optical Company of Warwick, RI, and HOYA Vision Care of South Windsor. Free refreshments for patients waiting to see Dr. Austin were donated by the Connecticut Opticians Association and John’s Café and Deli in Middletown.

The program was coordinated by MxCC students Amy Beckwith of Canterbury and Christine Same of Cromwell, and was under the direction of MxCC’s OD&D Professor René “Skip” Rivard and Jim Susco, MxCC’s OD&D lab assistant.  The students contacted Middletown-area social and human services organizations, secured lens and frame donations, and worked at the event alongside other OD&D second-year students.

“Every student who worked at the clinic was able to apply skills learned in the classroom while helping the community,” Beckwith said.  “We received a lot of support from so many groups on and off campus as well as local businesses.  It was just a fantastic experience.”

The free Community Eye Care Day event was started 19 years ago by Rivard as an opportunity to show students that being a health care provider is not strictly for financial benefits – and that they have a responsibility to use their education to provide a service within their community.   

“It is estimated that 5,000 people in Connecticut do not receive the eye care they need each year because they have no insurance or no way to pay for it,” he explained.  “Our Community Eye Care Day program helps meet some of that need, and gives MxCC OD&D students and invaluable opportunity to fully run an eye care clinic.  It’s rewarding on many different levels.”  

The OD&D students, who are training at MxCC to become nationally certified and state-licensed opticians, will ultimately be qualified to design and fit people to eyewear and contact lenses based on the prescription of an ophthalmologist or optometrist.  The two-year program at MxCC is one of only two nationally accredited Ophthalmic programs in all of New England, and graduates have a 100 percent pass rate of the national exam and a 100 percent employment rate.

Founded in 1966, Middlesex Community College (mxcc.edu) is part of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Board of Regents for Higher Education. The school offers more than 50 degree or certificate programs at its three locations:  the main, 38-acre campus in Middletown, the downtown Meriden Center, and the shoreline in Old Saybrook.  The college promotes understanding, learning, ethics, and self-discipline by encouraging critical thinking.  Current enrollment exceeds 2,875 full and part-time students, and 1,600 continuing education students.