A man with vision

Roy Lesher Roy Lesher, 71, of Camano Island, has lived a pretty sharp life.

Born in Norfolk, Va., he graduated from College of William and Mary before launching a 23-year career in the U.S. Air Force at posts around the world. Four of those years were spent with the White House Communications Agency during the “very turbulent times” of Nixon’s final six months as president, President Ford’s two years, and the first year of Carter’s presidency.

“I served as a communications presidential trip officer when traveling, and, lucky me, I was a few feet from Squeaky Frome in Sacramento when she tried to shoot President Ford,” Lesher recalls in his blog. “Two weeks later I was helping the motorcade leave the St. Francis Hotel when Sara Moore started shooting at President Ford.”

After that, Lesher jokes, traveling companions were hard to find.

VOSH members clean up and organize a 5,000 pair “library” of glasses for a clinic in Puerto Vallarta. Lesher left the Air Force in 1985 and spent his GI educational funds pursuing two master’s degrees from Old Dominion University: one in international studies and one in business administration. Over the course of earning the second master’s degree, Lesher landed a job with a manufacturing firm. He retired after 16 years, at the age of 65. His last years with the company were spent as an international tech consultant, getting people throughout the U.S. and around the world back into service.

Now, in his retirement, Lesher is helping other’s live a sharp life too. Or, at least, a life with sharper vision.

And it should come as no surprise that this work, too, is taking him abroad.

Lesher volunteers with the Stanwood Lions Club, which, as everyone knows, he said, serves the Stanwood Camano community.

What many people don’t know, Lesher continued, is that Lions International has supported sight and hearing conservation for 85 years, since Helen Keller addressed the Lions’ convention in 1925 and asked them to champion for the blind and deaf.

Lesher chairs the sight and hearing programs in Stanwood. Four years ago, the Lions contracted with the school district to perform annual state-mandated sight and hearing screenings for K through 3rd, 5th and 7th-grade students.

More recently, Lesher said, the Stanwood Lions started working with the Seattle chapter of Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity (VOSH).

It’s a complicated but efficient partnership that involves a mixed bag of doctors, interns, students, volunteers and far-away places. Basically, it works like this:

The Stanwood Lions collect about 2,000 pair of eyeglasses each year, Lesher said, by setting up collection centers around the area.O

nce rounded up, the glasses head south to Lacey, where they’re refurbished, sorted by prescription into men’s, ladies’ and kids’ styles, and put in boxes of 50.

Meanwhile, VOSH coordinates vision clinics in Mexico and Central and South America. When a team leaves, they leave lugging suitcases packed with boxes of eyeglasses — a total of 5,000 – 6,000 pair each trip. The suitcases are checked as luggage; for personal effects, including clothing, each teammate gets a single carry-on bag.

And then they’re off.

Lesher recently returned from Mexico, where he worked at a weeklong clinic in Puerto Vallarta.

Every day, Lesher said, the team showed up at 8 a.m. And, every day, 200 – 300 people were waiting to get it.

“We had to close the doors at 3 p.m. so we had time to process everyone already inside before we left for the evening,” Lesher said.

Lesher worked the sight acuities station — the vision test. Because of oftentimeshigh illiteracy rates, the clinic uses the same charts that are used for pre-reading children in the states, he said. Instead of letters, the chart pictures” a table with three legs,” and patients can use their fingers to show whether the legs are pointing up, down, or to the right or left.

“We also screen patients for medical issues, such as glaucoma and cataracts,” Lesher said. “We can’t help them, but local social services try to.”

After the vision test and screening, pupils are dilated, corrections are estimated and patients move to the dispensary, the last and largest station. Here, seven to 10 people rely on the suitcases full of glasses to find the best possible fit for each patient.

With such a vast “library,” Lesher said, “we’re usually right there. We take only the best pairs with us on each trip, so most people get first-rate glasses.”

The entire experience, Lesher said, left him feeling invigorated. There was only one downside:

“On the last day, we were still turning people away. Shame.”

But they’ll be back — to another city in Mexico next year, and to Puerto Vallarta in two years — to do it all over again.

He paused.

“Wow. Busy 10-day trip. But, that’s what we do,” he said.

Well, it’s what some people do.

Staff Reporter Jeremiah O’Hagan: 629-8066 ext. 125 or ohagan@scnews.com.