Presbyopia - many of us know the effects of this age-induced inability to focus our eyes, especially for reading. Sometimes you can’t hold that book or newspaper far enough away so the words are seen clearly. Guess what, our older homeless adults suffer this same aging problem.
Our LIFT tutors have now been working with their students for over a month. Our team recently met to review everyone’s progress. It was truly exciting to hear the enthusiasm of not only the tutors, but also the enthusiasm of their students as well. The recurring reading lessons seemed to be the most important event in the student’s life!
A common observation by the tutors was their student’s difficulty in seeing the printed word clearly. More than one commented to their tutor a need for glasses.
Today I gifted one of my multiple pairs of reading glasses to one of our reading students. It made an immediate difference in his ability to see words more clearly and resulted in a very genuine “thank you.”
If you’d like to help - stop by a drug store and pick up a simple pair of reading glasses. Glasses of 1.50-2.00 strength would be perfect! You can donate them to LIFT via MLF commissary. Or, simply donate them to MLF, as many folks receiving food from truck runs suffer from this problem too.
Happy reading!
-Dave Sekel, Director of LIFT