Contact:
Anna Garcia, VPE
(626) 403-3200 ext. 221

Charlie Padow, TCWF
(818) 702-1900

TCWF GRANTEE OFFERS FREE VISION SCREENINGS AT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES’ KIDCITY EVENT

The Los Angeles Eye Institute’s Mobile Eye Coach To Serve Youth at Event on July 19 and 20 at Exposition Park

Woodland Hills, CA – In partnership with the Los Angeles Times’ Reading by 9 program, The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) will sponsor the Los Angeles Eye Institute (LAEI) to provide free vision screenings at the Times’ KidCity event at Exposition Park on July 19 and 20, 2003. Reading by 9 will also offer free books and bilingual parenting guides, donated by Scholastic Inc., to all youth who receive vision screenings.

“We are pleased to partner with the Los Angeles Eye Institute and the Los Angeles Times on this inaugural KidCity event,” said Gary L. Yates, TCWF president and CEO. “These organizations are demonstrating their commitment to improving the health and wellness of underserved Los Angeles children.”

LAEI was founded in 1999 by five African-American ophthalmologists who were alarmed at the lack of access to vision care and the high incidence of preventable eye problems and vision loss among low-income children and adults in the South Los Angeles area. The founders created LAEI with the goal of preserving and restoring vision for underserved and economically disadvantaged people.

“Many building blocks are required to help children read in English by age nine,” said John P. Puerner, Los Angeles Times publisher and president. “The free vision screenings sponsored by The California Wellness Foundation at the Times’ KidCity event will help children establish a healthy foundation for reading success.”

"We have worked diligently to bridge the gap between the community and eye care services,” said Nicholas V. McClure, LAEI’s executive director. “Our Mobile Eye Care Coach allows the Institute to reach even further into the communities we now serve and to touch the lives of those who in the past were unable to obtain regular eye care treatment.”

LAEI’s 40-foot Mobile Eye Care Coach will be stationed at the “Beach District” of the event, located in the central area of Exposition Park. Youth between the ages of 5 and 18 are eligible for the free vision screenings. In addition to LAEI’s vision screenings, KidCity will feature seven city-themed areas, six outdoor stages, and more than 150 youth-related exhibitors.

The event is a weekend celebration of learning and literacy, and a showcase for the literary and creative arts, culture and history, science and technology, and sports. It is the first major children’s event at Exposition Park involving all five of the park’s venues. They are the California African-American Museum, California Science Center, City of Los Angeles’ Exposition Park Intergenerational Community Complex, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Launched in 1998 by the Los Angeles Times, Reading by 9 is a multiyear campaign designed to help kindergarten through third-grade students read at grade level in English by the age of nine. Its activities include public awareness campaigns, information resources, book drives, volunteers who tutor struggling readers, reading incentive programs for children and literacy leadership training for elementary school principals and volunteers.

“Reading by 9 is proud of its two-year partnership with the Los Angeles Eye Institute to ensure that no child is inhibited from learning to read because of a vision impairment,” said Lani Lattin Duke, Reading by 9 program director. “Early vision screening of youngsters is critical because statistics tell us one-third of preschool-age children have vision problems. Children who cannot see properly cannot learn to read proficiently.”

The California Wellness Foundation is an independent, private foundation created in 1992 with a mission to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention. The Foundation prioritizes eight issues for funding: