It’s hard not to feel a sense of community during Vision Expo. Seeing friends and colleagues from the industry, exchanging ideas at panels and Pop Ups and networking deep into the night brings people together. Although we are all in the “business” of vision care and eyewear, at the end of the day we are all helping people see better.

We were reminded of that community feeling by National Vision’s Reade Fahs who was a presenter at our Global Leadership Summit. Reade spoke about social responsibility and the need for companies to become more collaborative, transparent and responsive to employees and customers. He chronicled his involvement in and the history of RestoringVision.org, which has provided readers to some 10 million people since its inception in 2003. And throughout he talked about the power of helping people see, one pair of eyeglasses at a time. His message was direct and powerful but it’s one a lot of us are familiar with.

More than 10 years ago, Vision Monday launched A Greater Vision, a repository for stories about people and organizations in optical who were instrumental in bringing eyecare to those in need. Scroll through the category on VisionMonday.com and you’ll see stories depicting the familiar players—Prevent Blindness, the Vision Impact Institute, Optometry Giving Sight, Orbis. But you’ll also see stories about local ODs giving back to their communities through free services as well as stories of ECPs organizing and participating in missions to places like Asia and the Caribbean. Contributions both big and small.

Reade ended his presentation by urging the audience to come together to eradicate the lack of eyeglasses in the world, calling it our “moon shot.” His words reminds us that the need for eyecare is all around us and we shouldn’t lose sight of it.

mkane@jobson.com