Article Contributed on: 12/27/2006 3:44:13 PM
A golf tournament hosted by Clear Creek Commons in early October, staged to support the American Diabetes Association, had an additional and unannounced, beneficiary.
Seems the tournament sponsors received more
YourHub.com ball caps than were needed, and I asked if the extras might be donated to Vision Health International (VHI) for use in an upcoming ophthalmology project in Chinandega, Nicaragua later that month.
Kathleen Trujillo graciously agreed and two dozen YourHub.com caps made their way to Nicaragua and to a like number of grateful recipients.
Ball caps are regularly distributed to post-operative patients who have undergone cataract or other eye surgeries to help shield sensitive eyes from the sun. The caps are as practical--prolonged sun exposure is a common environmental contributor to cataracts--as they are popular.
Each cap is a memento,
un recuerdo, if you will, of a special day when the gift of sight was restored.
VHI is a U.S. based, nonprofit, volunteer organization dedicated to the delivery of vision care and sight-restoring surgery--free of charge--to the medically underserved in Latin America.
Since 1985 VHI volunteers have provided over 13,000 eye exams, dispensed over 15,000 pairs of eyeglasses, and performed nearly 4,000 sight-restoring surgeries. For more information on VHI please contact Paul O'Rourke at (303) 526-1745 or mopo8@aol.com.
Paul O'Rourke is a Golden resident and Vice President of Vision Health International. He and his wife, ophthalmologist,
Melinda O'Rourke, have been frequent participants on VHI field programs to Latin America. The next VHI trip for the O'Rourkes, including daughter
Catherine, is scheduled for early March 2007, this time to Guastatoya, El Progreso, Guatemala.