Menu du Jour: Cooking up a Sizzling World Sight Day Challenge
by Martin Spiro, UM Trustee-Elect
Tired of your predictable microwavable optometry fundraisers? I thought so.
Here in Montreal, we pride ourselves in going outside the box when it comes to our food - we put cheese curds and gravy on our fries for crying out loud. That's not the only over-the-top thing Montreal has to be proud of these days: for the past two years University of Montreal Optometry has led all optometry schools worldwide in raising both funds (to the tune of $5,500 per year) and awareness for the World Sight Day challenge. Simply put, we have the recipe for success and unlike my grandma's spaghetti sauce, this one is not staying secret. Season and substitute to taste but give it a try this fall!
Ingredients for a delightfully delectable raffle:
1 Refractive Surgery
1 iPad
3 Pairs of Designer Sunglasses
1 Conference Room
$5/ Conference Attendee
2 Starbucks gift cards
Preparation
- In the spring, preheat a team of 2-4 students to lead the challenge (note: time may vary depending on school and season)
- Wait until after exam period to avoid bitterness and increase flavor
- Contact your OGS representative and set up a meeting
- Add some spice by reaching out to local optometrists involved in humanitarian projects at home and abroad to invite as keynote speakers
- Book an oven-safe conference room and make reservations at your favorite restaurant
- Contact industry representatives about partnering and/or sponsoring the event
- Bake a hearty batch of raffle tickets
Amuse Bouche: T-Shirt sale, clinic decoration and donation boxes
- Everyone in your school and clinic (including that guy who repairs the slit lamp bulbs) should be wearing an OGS T-shirt on World Sight Day
-Get the pamphlets out, get the posters up, and ensure donation boxes are full
-Have fun, decorate your clinic, and bring that awareness to a boil - patients love it, students love it, slit lamp guy loves it.
1st Course: Conference + Dinner
- Invite students, professors, clinicians, industry representatives, friends and friends of friends to attend an evening of vision awareness
- Begin your conference with inspirational presentations
- Meanwhile, get a silent auction for your refractive surgery simmering on the back burner. Stir occasionally.
- Announce auction winner and head for dinner. In our case we dined at a restaurant called ONoir, where dinner is eaten in total darkness and is served by the visually impaired...wild!
2nd Course: Glow Stick Party + Raffle
- Raffle off the rest of your stock.
- Announce winners at a party. Why a glow stick party? Why not a glow stick party?
Dessert
Inspired students took on their own initiatives and contacted the students at the IOTA optometry school in Mali, the only other French optometry school in the World. They shared stories of optometric student life, course notes and are even planning a joint mission in Africa between schools. Put that in your phoropter and bake at 3.25d.
Serves 670 million visually disadvantaged.