Ferris State optometry students heading to Dominica to bring eyeglasses – and hope – to a struggling nation

May 9, 2024

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — 

When professor Daniel Wrubel and a team of 15 students from the Michigan College of
Optometry at Ferris State University fly into Dominica, they’ll be bringing 35 duffel
bags filled with thousands of eyeglasses, readers and sunglasses, cartons of eye drops
for various purposes, portable equipment for eye exams and more.

Dr. Rita Messing is pictured here treating a patient.

But the team will carry with them something even more intangible. They’ll be bringing
hope.

“What these trips do is establish normalcy,” Wrubel said. “A nurse down there once
told us, ‘When you’re here, it says there is hope.’”

Dominica is a small island in the Caribbean that is about 90 minutes by air south
and east of Puerto Rico.

Wrubel and his students, plus other volunteers, will leave on Sunday, May 12, flying
from Detroit to Charlotte to Miami, where they will stay overnight before the last
leg of the journey the next day.  

This will be Wrubel’s last trip as a Michigan College of Optometry professor. His
students are part of MCO’s Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity chapter, one
of only 25 such student chapters in North America.

The MCO chapter is, in turn, part of VOSH Michigan, which is connected to VOSH International.
VOSH chapters at every level work to provide eye care and glasses to people in need
in developing countries.

MCO student Daria Laisure will be returning to Dominica for the second time.

A 2016 graduate of Kingsley High School, Laisure went to Ferris State for her bachelor’s
degree in biology, drawn both by its proximity to Kingsley and her interest in going
to optometry school.

“MCO is the only optometry school in Michigan,” she said. “I never really considered
any other school. And all the optometrists that I worked with as a technician or shadowed
while I was exploring the career had attended MCO and held it in high regard. With
small class sizes, great faculty, an updated facility, it was very hard for me to
choose any other school.”

She also was attracted to being able to help others through the VOSH chapter.

 “I have always had a passion for helping others,” Laisure said. “I don’t think you
can choose a healthcare career without having that conviction. Upon learning the work
that our VOSH chapter does, I knew I wanted to help. I was able to join the 2023 team
to Dominica and was invited back to join the 2024 team. And I hope to continue to
support VOSH throughout my career.”

Laura Schnepf had a similar experience, graduating from Holt High School in 2017,
finishing her bachelor’s degree at Ferris State in 2021 and graduating last week from
MCO. In July, she will begin a residency in ocular disease and geriatrics at the Wyoming,
Mich., Veteran Affairs clinic.

But first comes a return trip to Dominica, and she can’t wait.

“I went on many mission trips while I was in high school with my church,’ she said.
“I have always wanted to continue that work in an optometry-based way. I want to use
the gifts God has given me to serve his people and these mission trips are the perfect
combination. Hearing so much about Dominica from past students, I knew it was going
to be a trip of a lifetime, and I truly loved it last year.”

Wrubel said the sentiment is true for hundreds of MCO students who have been to Dominica.
A 1980 MCO graduate, Wrubel has served as a team leader and student liaison for Ferris’
VOSH chapter for 30 years and has led 29 trips in the past 30 years (missing one year
because of the pandemic) to Dominica.

Wrubel notes that the Michigan Foundation for Vision Awareness has generously helped
fund the student portion of the mission trips for the past 25 years. However, each
trip still costs each student around $2,500, and the students also give up vacation
or break time at work or at school.

It is a substantial commitment, he said. Still, team members, including MCO students,
make the sacrifice because they believe in the VOSH mission to work towards assisting
those among the estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide who have vision impairment
who cannot afford to treat that problem.

VOSH estimates that of those 2.5 billion people, approximately 1.1 billion lack access
to glasses, with the majority living in low-income settings.

Wrubel added that helping people see has a direct connection to improved quality of
life. He has seen this repeatedly on his trips to Dominica, a former British colony
that gained its independence in 1978 and was on an upward trajectory before Hurricane
Maria in 2017 destroyed much of the island’s buildings, roads, and agricultural operations.

Many of its 75,000 people live in poverty, with one World Bank report suggesting a
rate as high as 43 percent. Something as simple as a pair of reading glasses is often
out of reach.

On a typical trip, the team, including MCO students, will have more than 1,000 patient
encounters; dispense some 1,000 pairs of prescription eyeglasses; give out another
1,000 pairs of over the counter “readers” and 1,000 pairs of sunshades; make 100-plus
referrals for severe hypertension and other medical and eye care; and coordinate more
than $100,000 worth of donated equipment, supplies, and eye drops (thanks to Allergan).

 Though the trip itself is a highlight for Wrubel and the students, much work needs
to be done in Big Rapids before the team departs.

Donated glasses come to Ferris State through West Michigan Lions Clubs to the tune
of about 250,000 pairs per year.

Once on campus, they are first sorted and categorized by members of the VOSH student
chapter, work that is part of the required volunteer hours for the students to be
able to participate in a VOSH mission trip.

The sorting process involves disposing of unusable glasses, lenses and frames with
usable glasses then sorted into male, female, child, sun, reader, and specialty glasses.
The glasses most appropriate for whatever mission trip is on deck. Teams from VOSH
go to several different countries annually to provide their services.

Sunglasses are always needed, Wrubel said, especially because so many mission trips
are to locations near the equator. Beyond that, glasses in good condition are in high
demand with glasses and frames for children in short supply. And as common as readers
are in the United States, they are a precious commodity in Dominica.

As he looks ahead to this year’s trip, Wrubel also is looking back with amazement
at the impact of past trips: almost 50,000 patient encounters; more than 100,000 pairs
of prescription glasses, readers, tinted bifocals, and sunshades dispensed; some 2,000
Patients referred for medical eye care services; almost $2 million dollars in donated
equipment and supplies; and more than 125 MCO optometric interns.

Beyond that, he said, there are simply “countless precious moments and priceless educational
experiences.”

He said that he and the MCO students often hear one simple little phrase from the
people they serve on the trips, and it is a phrase that never gets old. When they
can help someone see again, their patient will often look at them, break into a broad
smile and say, “Plenty better, Doctor.”

Written by Phil de Haan for Ferris State University