Conexus Receives Award at BIG GIVE EVENT!

Conexus was invited as one of 4 finalist to present at the IMPACT 100 Richmond Big Give Event.  Each of the finalists were allowed 5 minutes to highlight the details of their proposal to the full IMPACT 100 membership of over 300 Richmond area women.  Following the presentation, finalists were escorted to the “green room” while the membership took a live vote to award two, $100,000 grants.

We are pleased to share Conexus was selected as one of the winners!  Conexus will use the $100,000 to bring full service vision programming to the Communities in Schools designated schools in Chesterfield and Henrico Counties (a total of 13 schools).  The project will deliver the Conexus VisioCheck program to over 5,100 student, finding nearly 1,100 in need of follow-up exams and possibly glasses. 

Conexus will then follow-up the screening program with free, onsite eye exams and glasses if necessary to referred students.  Conexus will set up a mobile vision lane in each of the participating schools and will work in collaboration with the Richmond Optometric Society to staff the clinic with local, licensed optometrists to provide the exams.

Additionally, Conexus will work with Essilor, VSP, the Robins Foundation and the Community Foundation to advance the efforts of this project.  

Thank you Impact 100 Richmond!

Kids 20/20 Campaign Receives Support from the Jenkins Foundation

Conexus is honored to receive a $25,000 grant award from the Jenkins Foundation in support of the overall goals of the Kids 20/20 Campaign.  The contribution will be used to further elevate children’s vision as a health priority as it pertains to educational success and support the science and infrastructure to transform pilot programming into a model for statewide service.  Conexus is pleased to add the Jenkins Foundation to the growing list of supporters who are investing in education by responding to the call to help remove poor vision as a barrier to classroom success.

An Update from Honduras

Our collaborative partnership with Friends of Barnabas is making a difference in remote mountain villages of Honduras. El Chaguiton, is one of the first communities to be serviced by a Friends of Barnabas medical team utilizing parts of the Conexus screening protocols.  Together we’re are working to improve the lives of children by removing poor vision as a barrier to learning success!

Maryland Legislator Confers with Conexus on Improvements in Vision Screening Outcomes

Maryland Delegate Valentino-Smith took time to confer with Conexus regarding pending Maryland legislation aimed at better tracking parental response to vision referrals stemming from school based screenings.  Conexus shared the value and importance of comprehensive vision programs for schools and advised of the recent updates to § 22.1-273 of the Code of Virginia to include language referencing comprehensive vision programming.  Delegate Valentino-Smith was interested to learn of Conexus’ work in Virginia and how our VisioCheck program would complement the efforts of her Bill.   We will talk again in late summer to explore the potential of pilot programming in Maryland.

Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation Joins Support for the Kids 20/20 Campaign

The Dominion Energy Charitable Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant supporting the work of Conexus across the Commonwealth!  Thank you, Dominion Energy, for helping Conexus to remove poor vision as a barrier to learning success.  Together, we will continue to make a difference in our communities by improving educational outcomes for our students!

Gift of Light Celebrates Record-Breaking Year

Through the efforts of Virginia Eye Institute (VEI) and Haley GMC the Gift of Light had a record breaking year raising $28,467, surpassing the $25,000 campaign goal!!

Staff at each of the 8 VEI locations competed weekly to raise donations from their patients and collectively raised $8,037 over 4 weeks.  Locations had a fundraising goal and the 30 VEI doctors pledged a match to each location reaching their goal.  The tremendous success of the individual locations resulted in an additional $18,000 pledge from the VEI doctors!!!

Additionally, Haley GMC joined in as a campaign supporter for 2017 and committed $25 for every car sold in December, raising another $2,430 towards the overall total.

A huge thank you to the staff and doctors at VEI and the sales team and leadership at Haley GMC!  Our community is grateful for your dedicated efforts to remove poor vision as an obstacle to classroom success!!

Haley GMC Buick Joins in Support for the 5th Annual Gift of Light

Haley GMC Buick General Manager, Barry Moore, has made children’s vision a top priority this season.  After learning that as many as 1/3 of the students in some of our most economically and academically challenged schools need but don’t have glasses, he wanted know how he could make a difference this holiday season.

Haley GMC Buick has teamed up with our friends at Virginia Eye Institute to bring some additional support and recognition to the Conexus holiday fundraiser, Gift of Light.

Haley GMC Buick has issued coupons for a free “Pit Stop” where their team will check air pressure, alignment, and fill windshield washer fluid!  Haley is donating $1 to the Gift of Light campaign for every coupon redeemed, and customers will receive a $10 service card from Haley towards their next visit! In addition to donations from the Pit Stop, Haley GMC Buick will donate $30 to the Gift of Light campaign for every car sold during the month of December!

Thanks so much to our friends at Virginia Eye Institute for helping us to grow the Gift of Light Fundraiser, and welcome aboard to our new friends at Haley GMC Buick!  Together we can make a great difference this holiday season!

Virginia Eye Institute Sponsors 5th Annual Gift of Light Campaign

The 5th Annual Gift of Light campaign is underway at all Virginia Eye Institute locations. VEI has sponsored this important fundraising effort for Conexus since its first year, and the campaign has grown each year thanks to the amazing support of VEI administration and staff.

Conexus is grateful for VEI’s support of our children’s programs throughout the year!

Horst and Gloria Arfert Making a Difference

Celebrating our 100,000th student served through our technology based children’s vision screening program is a significant milestone and we have many people to thank for this achievement.  However, there are a handful of pivotal moments that really created turning points and opportunities to reach these heights and on this path to 100,000 a key investment from longtime supporters Horst and Gloria Arfert is one of those moments.

In 2015 Conexus established a scholarship fund to help defray costs and support VisioCheck programming to some of the more underprivileged Virginia communities.  Horst and Gloria made the first sizable donation to this fund which allowed us to reach 22 diverse school divisions and 30,000 students across the Commonwealth. 

This was the first large scale “statewide” VisioCheck delivery.  This gave Conexus the opportunity to collect extensive data, identifying trends and service needs across Virginia.  Successful programming at this level helped Conexus to be successful in the 2017 General Assembly, making changes to the VA Code to support improved children’s school based vision screening, and encouraged the development of a study with VCU to recommend VisioCheck as best-practice programming.

The scholarship fund is fully expended each school year to reach the maximum number of students possible.  We are making great progress through the investments of those who believe that no child should unsuccessful in school simply because they need a pair of glasses.  We hope you will be as inspired as we’ve been through people like Horst and Gloria, to make a difference. 

Success at Redd Elementary

The results are in on the first school to be fully serviced through Richmond Mobile, a collaborative effort between Conexus and California-based Vision To Learn.  Services to this school not only confirmed the tremendous need for vision services in Richmond, but also demonstrated the value of this collaborative partnership!
 
Conexus programming identified 126 students in need of follow-up vision care (32% of enrolled students). Redd staff immediately went to work to encourage participation in the mobile clinic and were able to secure 104 (83%) returned parental permission slips!  For two and a half days the Vision To Learn team delivered 104 onsite eye exams and prescribed 97 (93%) pair of glasses.
 
The success rate of this launch school has been overwhelming!   Through the efficiencies and effectiveness of VisioCheck, more of the “right” students were identified for the services of the mobile clinic.  The visiting Vision To Learn optometrist from Detroit said on the first day, “not only did we see 34 students, we prescribed 34 pairs of glasses – that NEVER happens!”  One of Vision To Learn’s most difficult challenges in their service delivery across the country is getting the right kids to the clinic and that all starts with the screening — a process that is normally handled through the services of the host community.  “The first thing I did when I got finished today was call my boss to tell him, ‘we need this!’”, said Dr. Megan, VTL optometrist.
 
Conexus purposefully and meticulously designed the VisioCheck program with some of the most common challenges of school based vision screenings in mind and watching VisioCheck operate so effectively in conjunction with a mobile clinic has been very rewarding.  We are excited to be a part of such a dynamic partnership and one with such potential for growth and service!