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New IRIS Partnerships on Vancouver Island

IRIS, The Visual Group logo

IRIS, The Visual Group announced the partnership of Dr. Adam Reid, Optometrist and Tammy Baker Optician Manager in IRIS’ Parksville, BC location on Vancouver Island.

Under the previous IRIS partner, the late Dr. Gerald Trees, the Parksville  IRIS location has been a longstanding success for over 20 years.

Dr. Adam Reid, originally from Bowden, Alberta is a Pacific University School of Optometry graduate, and has been practicing Optometry at IRIS for 8.5 years.  He is married with 2 young daughters and spends is downtime playing hockey and looking after animals on his hobby farm.

Tammy Baker, originally from Clearwater, BC graduated from the NAIT optician program in 1996 with a dual license. She joined IRIS 29 years ago and transferred from the lower mainland to Vancouver Island in 2007. Tammy has been managing the Parksville location since December 2014.

Both Reid and Baker own shares along with IRIS in a BC registered corporation that holds the assets of the Parksville location and operates as IRIS Optometrists Opticians. 

In the IRIS partnership model each location is a separate legal entity and the shareholders only participate in dividends from that specific location.

They look forward to continuing to service their community as both professionals and local business owners.

Finalists Announced for Vision Expo’s Fourth Annual OPTImum Retail Award

The Vision Council and RX, organizers of Vision Expo, announce the finalists for the Fourth Annual OPTImum Retail Award, which celebrates independent boutique retailers by showcasing their products, stores, visions, and stories to the optical industry. 

The 2022 finalists are:

  • Black Optical (Dallas, TX; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; St. Louis, MO)
  • Eyes on Sheppard (North York, Ontario)
  • Ocean Optometry (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
  • OPTYX New York (New York, NY)

To determine the final winner, the vision care community can vote for their favorite here. Voting is open from March 1 to March 14. Social media votes will then be factored into the judges’ scores.

The OPTImum Retail Award winner will be announced at Vision Expo East 2022 on Friday, April 1 at 5:45pm at The Bridge, following the EYE2EYE Series panel, Onward with Independence.

To determine the finalists, a committee of top industry leaders deliberated and voted based on the categories of pivoting post-pandemic, community and aesthetics.

For more information on Vision Expo, visit  visionexpo.com and follow Vision Expo’s social media channels, FacebookInstagramTwitter and LinkedIn.   

Click HERE for the full press release.

Warby Parker: 10 Million Pairs of Glasses Distributed Through Buy a Pair, Give a Pair Program

Warby Parker logo

Warby Parker announced that more than 10 million pairs of glasses have been distributed through its Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program. Launched at the Company’s founding as part of its commitment to increasing access to vision care for people around the world, the Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program is simple: for every pair of Warby Parker glasses purchased, a pair of glasses is distributed to someone in need.

“We founded Warby Parker with a mission to inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style. It’s hard to put into words how we feel knowing that now more than 10 million people globally have received a life-changing pair of glasses through our Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program,” said Co-Founder and Co-CEO Dave Gilboa. “Alleviating the problem of impaired vision has long been at the heart of what we do.”

How The Buy A Pair, Give A Pair Program Works

To date, Warby Parker’s Buy a Pair, Give a Pair program has supported people in more than 50 countries around the world. Through its partnerships, the Company prioritizes communities with the most significant need around the world, many of which are extremely limited in their access to vision care. The two distribution models Warby Parker employs are:

Social Entrepreneurship: The non-profit social enterprise VisionSpring has been Warby Parker’s primary partner in this work, accelerating the uptake of eyeglasses by raising awareness about vision impairment, conducting vision screenings, and selling highly subsidized eyeglasses in low-income communities.

Direct Donation: Via cross-sector partnerships, directly giving vision care and glasses to those in need. For example, in 2015, Warby Parker created Pupils Project, a program that works with local organizations and government agencies to give free vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses to schoolchildren. Warby Parker plans to distribute tens of thousands of pairs of glasses during the 2021-2022 school year alone.

Click HERE for the full press release.

SILMO’s Optical Design Contest 2022: Explore New Horizons

SILMO dedicates a new area of expression to design students with the Optical Design Contest 2022.

The objective is to catalyse trends by stimulating and revealing the seeds that will blossom in tomorrow’s optical world. Through its visionary approach, SILMO offers students the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and highlight their conception of the optical and eyewear sphere while exploring its countless possibilities.

A panel made up of design professionals and interdisciplinary experts will gather in September 2022 to select the big winner. For this first edition of the Optical Design Contest, Emmanuel Gallina will have the honour of presiding the jury.

Design, creativity, innovation, product usage and functionality, the integration of a CSR approach, the intrinsic viability of the project… All these dimensions will be critical criteria.

A prize deserving of the challenge will be awarded to the winner of the competition at the next SILMO Paris trade fair, which will take place from September 23 to 26 at Paris Nord Villepinte. The winner and his or her school will share a cheque of 10,000 euros and will have the honour of having their designs exhibited throughout the event.

Click HERE for the full press release.

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