GLAUCOMA SERVICE FOUNDATION TO PREVENT BLINDNESS

Following our mission of community outreach and medical education, the Glaucoma Service Foundation (GSF), has hosted a series of public patient directive conferences which aim to explain exactly what glaucoma is, encourage screening for this devastating disease, and if identified, stress the importance of medical follow through and treatment. April 29, 2017 we held our 10th Annual CARES Conference. CARES stands for Committed to Awareness through Research, Education, and Support. This is the fourth year our CARES venue was in the Dorrance Hamilton Building of Thomas Jefferson University, located at 1001 Locust Street , one block from Wills Eye Hospital. Dr. Daniel Lee from Wills Eye Hospital Glaucoma Service gave the opening remarks. Guest speakers included Councilman David Oh, Mary Sue Boyle, Community Outreach and Services Liaison (VisionCorps), and Deb Robinson, MSW, LSW, Wills Eye Social Worker. A select group of medical students gave a special power point presentation to the attendees from the Chinese Senior Center in Mandarin. After the one hour presentation, there was a Q & A session and participants were encouraged to get a free glaucoma screening. This year we had approximately 400 attendees due to a more aggressive marketing and communication strategy in place. Will Harley, our sponsor, engaged the PR firm, Parlee Stumpf, for a third year to handle the marketing and communication. We also attended Outreach meetings throughout the City to capture and encourage more attendees. This effort continues to be fully funded by a generous grant from the Harley Research Foundation for Glaucoma Education and Support. We anticipate continuing support from the Harley Foundation for the 2018 CARES Conference. The next CARES Conference is targeted for May 2018. We anticipate over 400 attendees.