October
2006
The RSVP office recently received
a call from Prevent Blindness Texas – Panhandle/South Plains Branch.
I made a visit to meet with the local director and find out more about
the organization. Prevent Blindness Texas has been in Lubbock for about
ten years. The Lubbock office serves both the South Plains and the
Panhandle area, so you can see they cover a lot of territory and need
volunteers everywhere they go. The Lubbock office is run by Nancy Nail
and Nancy Smith. Prevent Blindness Texas – Panhandle/South Plains
Branch, a division of Prevent Blindness America, is the oldest national
voluntary health organization that works to prevent blindness through
community service programs, public and professional education, and
research. The mission is to preserve sight and prevent blindness.
According to Nancy Nail, “One person becomes blind every 11 minutes, and
nearly half of all blindness can be prevented.” Prevent Blindness works
to preserve the precious gift of sight with a variety of outreach
programs and services.
Where you will
see Prevent Blindness Texas most active is doing free vision screenings
for adults and children, and aiding those in financial need to receive
free eye exams and eye glasses from local eye care professionals.
Nancy Smith
told me that Prevent Blindness needs volunteers to assist at vision
screening events. For adult screenings they need volunteers to prepare
registration forms, control vision screening equipment, and administer
one or two types of eye exams and record results. For child screenings
volunteers assist the child, point to letters on the eye chart,
administer an eye test, and record results. I thought some of these
tasks sounded rather technical, but Nancy assured me that with just a
little training, the volunteers become quite competent. She said there
is always Prevent Blindness staff at all screening. Nancy Nail told me
they could also use volunteers to help with mailings.
When I asked
Nancy what she was looking for in a volunteer, she said, “Someone who is
outgoing and able to talk to adults and/or children. They need to be
able to speak clearly and hear well, be patient and have good
comprehension skills with adequate mobility.”
Prevent
Blindness Texas needs volunteers to help with upcoming screenings on:
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Wednesday,
October 4th at Catholic Family Services
-
Tuesday,
October 10th at Adult Day Activity Center
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Saturday
October 14th, at St John Neumann Center
-
Tuesday,
October 24th at Shadow Hills Residency
-
Friday,
October 27th at the Lubbock County Employee Health Fair
-
Wednesday,
November 8th at the Civic Center for Covenant Senior Care’s
Thanksgiving Dinner
If you have any
questions or would like to help out with any of these screenings or any
upcoming mailings for Prevent Blindness Texas, please call the RSVP
office at 742-2423.
OTHER
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES:
Friends of
the Library is having a book sale on October 13th – 15th at Mahon
Library. Volunteers are needed to help with the sale. All volunteers
must be members of Friends of the Library, but can join on October 13th.
The October 13th sale is for members only. The sale on October 14th and
15th is open to the general public.
The Mothers
of Preschoolers (MOPS) Ministry needs volunteers to help with child
care while mothers are attending monthly programs designed for mothers
with preschool children. The children range in age from infants to five
years old. Volunteers may request a certain age group to work with if
they so desire. MOPS need volunteers from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on the
Fridays of October 6th, November 3rd, December 1st, January 19th,
February 2nd, March 2nd, and April 13th.
Volunteers are
needed for Shalom Readers, an after school program held at Asbury
United Methodist Church for children who attend Dupre Elementary School.
The program encourages students to read, provides homework assistance
and individual tutoring, a nutritious snack and meal, and a safe place
where kids of the community can come after school. The program is held
on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. You can volunteer one
or both days, and you do not have to be a former educator to
participate.
To
volunteer, or for more information about these or other volunteer
positions, please call the RSVP office at 742-2423.
HOW do I join RSVP?
Becoming a member of RSVP is simple as long as you are at least 55 and have some time to volunteer. Just call the office at 742-2423 and chat with Ronda Casey or
Dana Bear about your interests. If you are not certain what you would like to do, we can mention several current volunteer opportunities and send you a list of the sort of jobs which RSVP members are presently doing to whet your appetite. If you have a special skill or talent that you would like to utilize, we will search to find just the right job for you. Just mail in the
enrollment form
(requires Adobe Reader) and we will call you!
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