Newtown College Student

Sets Her Sights On Blindness Prevention

By Jan Howard

A college student from Newtown has formed a non-profit organization that seeks to prevent blindness through free community vision screenings, public education about eye disease, a speaker series, and an eyeglass collection.

Jennifer Staple, 19, daughter of Caryn and Arthur Staple, is a pre-med student at Yale University. She is a 1999 graduate of Newtown High School.

 She said she developed a passion for ophthalmology while employed last summer at Danbury Eye Physicians. While there, she took part in glaucoma clinical research with people who had already lost their eyesight and those who had successfully been treated for glaucoma.

“Glaucoma affects vision very slowly so people don’t realize they are losing their eyesight,” Ms Staple said. “It gave me the idea to start an organization that would educate people as to the importance of eye exams and about eye disease, and provide free eye exams.”

“While working with patients, I became aware of the devastating visual effects of untreated eye diseases, and the emotional effects of vision loss,” she said. She said she has always been interested in medicine and the eyes.

Ms Staple, who plans to attend medical school to become an ophthalmologist, last fall founded and is president of Unite for Sight, a non-profit group funded through Yale and the Cure Glaucoma Foundation, through Johns Hopkins University.

These funds pay for vision screening and educational materials, flyers, and bins for the eyeglass drive.

“I’m also applying for grants,” Ms Staple said. “I’m hoping for additional support. I always want to expand the organization.”   

On July 27, from 1 to 3 pm, Unite for Sight will offer a free eye screening for children and adults at the C.H. Booth Library.

Through lectures and presentations, Unite for Sight seeks to educate the public about the effects of eye diseases and the importance of regular eye exams. It presents programs for students and gives out flyers about eye disease.

During the school year, Ms Staple arranged for ophthalmologists Dr Harry Quigley, director of the Wilmer Eye Center for Preventative Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins, and Dr Bruce Shields, chairman of the Yale Ophthalmology Department, to speak to Yale’s student body, faculty, staff members, and members of the public.

Other speakers are planned for the fall, Ms Staple said, and residents of Newtown are welcome to attend. On September 25, Dr Alfred Sommer, dean of Johns Hopkins’ School of Public Health, is scheduled to speak on his international work in ophthalmology.

In May, Ms Staple gave a presentation for biology students at Newtown High School.

Unite for Sight’s 30 volunteers offer free vision screenings at community soup kitchens and libraries to identify children and adults with deteriorating visual acuity. Ms Staple conducted 30 vision screenings in New Haven during the past school year.

“So many people have never had an eye exam,” she said.

Volunteers do preliminary screening and refer people with poor vision to an eye doctor, she said. They also provide information about the HUSKY program for children and national eye care programs for seniors that provide free eye exams.

Ms Staple is currently looking for doctors who would provide pro bono service for eye exams for adults, though most people screened are children and seniors.

In its international effort to provide the gift of sight, Unite for Sight held an eyeglass drive at Yale to collect used eyeglasses and sunglasses to donate to eye clinics in developing countries.

“About 600 glasses were sent through the American Medical Relief Foundation,” Ms Staple said. Most of the glasses were sent to Africa.

To encourage youth to learn about the eyes, medicine, and public health, Unite for Sight will hold a ScEYEnce Fair for Connecticut middle and high school students on January 19 in New Haven. Participants will design, research, and implement a scientific investigation about any public health or medical subject. The deadline for registering is October 1.

The project does not have to be about eyes or eye diseases, Ms Staple said, but can be on anything to do with medicine.

Two winners will be chosen from the state who would then participate in the Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, sponsored by the American Applied Science Association, in March at the University of Connecticut.

Abstracts of the finalists’ projects will be published in the National Student Research Center publication. The Yale Science and Engineering Association will also present an award.

The projects will be judged the morning of the ScEYEnce Fair and then will be on display for the community in the New Haven Public Library.

Ms Staple and her volunteers are busy getting out the word to Connecticut schools and newspapers.

“I’ve had good feedback so far,” she said. “I hope the students will be enthusiastic about science and enter their projects.”