sight at East High Giving the gift of committed to the ......Democrat and Chronicle - 01/23/2017...
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Democrat and Chronicle - 01/23/2017 Page : A01 Copyright © 2017 Democrat and Chronicle 01/23/2017 January 23, 2017 10:02 am (GMT +5:00) Powered by TECNAVIA Copy Reduced to 73% from original to fit letter page I f the mark of a great teacher is helping students see their world more clearly, one of the best in the business may be at East High School in Rochester. His name is Logan Newman and he’s outfitted roughly 1,200 Rochester City School District students with eyeglasses for free through the vision care program he launched in 2010. From a laboratory classroom at East, students barely old enough to drive are practicing opticians churn- ing out eyewear for their peers on a daily basis under Newman’s tutelage. Watching them work, it’s difficult to discern who gets more out of the expe- rience. The eyewear recipients who see in focus for the first time in years, perhaps ever. Or the student opticians who had a hand in giving them the gift of sight. “Honestly, watching someone try on their glasses for the first time is the best feeling,” Newman said. “They look around the room and say, ‘I can read that! I can see that!’ It brings tears to your eyes. It really does.” There was a time not long ago that career and technical education in high CARLOS ORTIZ/@CFORTIZ_DANDC/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Fourth-grader Marquise Brooks, 9, from School 8 gets his eyes checked by East High School senior Kevin Lin, who has been with the optometry program for two years. Program outfits 1,200 students with free eyeglasses DAVID ANDREATTA @DAVID_ANDREATTA CARLOS ORTIZ/@CFORTIZ_DANDC/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Volunteer Jennifer Bateman of Brighton checks the sight of Thekrayat Alammari, 5, an emigrant from Yemen, at East High School. See EYEWEAR, Page 5A “Watching someone try on their glasses for the first time is the best feeling.” LOGAN NEWMAN, TEACHER WHO STARTED THE PROGRAM THROUGH A STATE GRANT Giving the gift of sight at East High
Transcript of sight at East High Giving the gift of committed to the ......Democrat and Chronicle - 01/23/2017...
Democrat and Chronicle - 01/23/2017 Page : A01
Copyright © 2017 Democrat and Chronicle 01/23/2017January 23, 2017 10:02 am (GMT +5:00) Powered by TECNAVIA
Copy Reduced to 73% from original to fit letter page
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If the mark of a great teacher ishelping students see theirworld more clearly, one of thebest in the business may be atEast High School in Rochester.
His name is Logan Newmanand he’s outfitted roughly
1,200 Rochester City School Districtstudents with eyeglasses for freethrough the vision care program helaunched in 2010.
From a laboratory classroom atEast, students barely old enough todrive are practicing opticians churn-ing out eyewear for their peers on adaily basis under Newman’s tutelage.
Watching them work, it’s difficult todiscern who gets more out of the expe-rience. The eyewear recipients whosee in focus for the first time in years,perhaps ever. Or the student opticianswho had a hand in giving them the giftof sight.
“Honestly, watching someone tryon their glasses for the first time is thebest feeling,” Newman said. “Theylook around the room and say, ‘I canread that! I can see that!’ It bringstears to your eyes. It really does.”
There was a time not long ago thatcareer and technical education in high
CARLOS ORTIZ/@CFORTIZ_DANDC/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Fourth-grader Marquise Brooks, 9, from School 8 gets his eyes checked by East High School senior Kevin Lin, who has been with theoptometry program for two years.
Program outfits 1,200 students with free eyeglasses
DAVID ANDREATTA @DAVID_ANDREATTA
CARLOS ORTIZ/@CFORTIZ_DANDC/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Volunteer Jennifer Bateman of Brighton checks the sight of Thekrayat Alammari, 5, anemigrant from Yemen, at East High School.
See EYEWEAR, Page 5A
“Watching someone try on their glasses for the
first time is the best feeling.”
LOGAN NEWMAN, TEACHER WHO STARTED THE PROGRAM THROUGH A STATE GRANT
Giving the gift ofsight at East High
ALBANY - New York had an unprec-edented windfall in recent years: near-ly $9 billion from Wall Street settle-ments with 22 entities.
Now it’s all accounted for.As the state grapples with a $3.5 bil-
lion budget gap for the fiscal year thatstarts April 1, how the settlement mon-ey that first arrived in 2014 is beingspent is again drawing scrutiny andcriticism.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposedbudget includes the allocation of the fi-nal $1.4 billion from the huge pot: thelargest piece being $400 million for an-other round of economic developmentfunding for Buffalo, after $1 billion wascommitted to the city in 2013.
Cuomo’s office said the money islargely going to what he promised: one-time capital expenses that include in-frastructure projects.
“The budget furthers the prudentuse of unplanned settlement resourcesby dedicating them to vital one-timecapital projects,” Cuomo’s budgetspokesman Morris Peters said in astatement.
Critics, however, said more of themoney should have gone to repairs toroads, bridges and transit systems inNew York City and upstate.
Also, a significant chunk of the mon-ey is going toward revitalizing the up-
Where isWall St.windfallheaded?Cuomo’s budget hasfinal chunk of $9BJOSEPH SPECTOR @GANNETTALBANY
See MONEY, Page 4A
Saturday’s turnout for Women’s Marchevents, whether in Washington or aroundthe globe, may have been historic, but nowthat those women are headed home, willtheir enthusiasm create a footnote to theTrump administration or a serious challengeto it? Story, 1B
What’s nextfor crusade?
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Democrat and Chronicle - 01/23/2017 Page : A05
Copyright © 2017 Democrat and Chronicle 01/23/2017January 23, 2017 10:03 am (GMT +5:00) Powered by TECNAVIA
Copy Reduced to 79% from original to fit letter pageDemocratandChronicle.com Monday, January 23, 2017 Page 5A
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taught eight students anda colleague, optics teacherPaul Conrow, whom New-man credits with firstsuggesting applying forthe grant and helping himdevelop a curriculum.
That year, they made150 eyeglasses for stu-dents who had prescrip-tions but, for one reason oranother, didn’t have glass-es.
The program proved sopopular that the followingyear the class size dou-bled, as did the output ofeyewear, and Newman ob-tained his state optician li-cense.
Over the years, the pro-gram invested in moremachinery and recruitedeye doctors to volunteertheir time in the lab to testeyesight and write pre-scriptions, relieving stu-dents from having to seekout a doctor on their own.Today, the program setsup mobile clinics thattravel to district schools,and it’s on track to make500 pairs of glasses thisyear.
In a recent week, theprogram made glasses for19 students at School 34and Edison Career andTechnology High Schooland delivered 13 pairs ofglasses to the MontessoriAcademy and School 16. Inbetween, Newman visitedseveral schools to repairglasses.
“Many of the kids re-ceive their first pair ofglasses through this pro-
school was limited to woodshop and automotivetraining, with the class-rooms equipped with ahand-me-down lathe and abeat-up Ford Escort.
In the vision care lab atEast, students use sophis-ticated machinery worthtens of thousands of dol-lars to record the distancebetween pupils. They useauto refractors to mea-sure how light reflectsthrough the eyeball.
They’re tasked withchoosing the correct cor-responding lens from hun-dreds in a filing cabinet,then cutting the glass andsanding down its sharpedges to fit the shape ofthe eyeglasses’ frame.
“It’s a good feeling,”said Kendrick Martin, a17-year-old junior. “Itmakes me feel like a pro-fessional.”
Newman, 43, foundedthe program during the2010-11 academic yearthrough a state grant.
He had been an opticianin the Navy as a youngman, making eyeglassesout of a clinic in Virginia.Upon his discharge, hewent to college and earneda biology degree, and soonafter began teachingclasses on the subject.
During the first year ofthe program, Newman
gram,” Conrow said.“Honestly, this programshould be duplicated inevery urban center inAmerica.”
The American Op-tometric Association fig-ures one in four school-age children have undi-agnosed vision problemsthat inhibit their abilityto learn. The estimatesare higher for school dis-tricts with high concen-trations of poverty, likeRochester.
On a recent day, threestudents from School 8and nine from Univer-sity Preparatory CharterSchool for Young Menvisited the lab at East tohave their eyes checkedby a doctor and to bemeasured for glasses.
When one of them, a15-year-old boy, lookedinto the auto refractormachine, a student opti-cian immediately recog-nized something waswrong. The pupil in theboy’s right eye wasn’tround. It was misshapento look like a tadpole,with a deep fissure as thetail.
The boy explainedthat he had accidentallystabbed himself in theeye with a knife when hewas 10. He recalled thathis sister had startledhim as he was making asandwich.
Another student, 9-year-old MarquiseBrooks, was there for apair of replacement
glasses. The cost wouldbe $5. The programcharges students to re-place glasses in an effortto impart to them a senseof responsibility andownership.
He chose a pair ofblack and green framesthat matched his sweat-er. He explained hischoice this way: “Mymom will be proud be-cause people will look atme like I’m amazing.”
Kevin Lin, 17, a seniorat East and a second-year student in the pro-gram, has seen that exu-berance before.
“What I enjoy is see-ing how little it takes tomake someone’s day,”Lin said. “When a stu-dent puts on their glass-es, you can see the enjoy-ment in their faces.”
A common sayingamong people who geteyeglasses for the firsttime is that they can “seethe leaves.” Trees are nolonger green blobs tothem, but made up of in-dividual leaves with de-fined veins and blades.
Thekrayat Alammari,5, an emigrant from Ye-men who attends kinder-garten at School 34, worean expression of utterwonder when she put onher glasses in the lab.
She spoke no English,but her face said shecould see the leaves.
CARLOS ORTIZ/@CFORTIZ_DANDC/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Thekrayat Alammari, 5, of Rochester, who attends kindergarten at School 34, tries new eyeglasses at East High School.
EyewearContinued from Page 1A
than 30 soldiers and car-ry 28,000 pounds of car-go.
Spc. Jeff Pieper, 30,of Hilton, said that likemany in his unit, flyingis in his blood. He attri-butes that in part to bothof his grandfathers be-ing military pilots. His92-year-old grandfather,Rolf Pieper, was on handfor the ceremony; hewas a radio operator inWorld War II and flew 35bombing missions inGermany.
“I suppose someonehas to go,” said RolfPieper, expressing hisconcern about the pres-ence of the Islamic Stategroup in Afghanistan.
This is the second de-ployment for Jeff Piep-er in his five years in theNational Guard; his firstwas to Kuwait, where heworked only on the base.He will serve as doorgunner in the helicopterin Afghanistan, and islooking forward to fly-ing and seeing the coun-try.
Concern fromloved ones
The new assignmentis more of a concern tohis mother, Jan Pieper.
“We worry for hissafety but we’re veryproud of him,” she said.She appreciated thattechnology enabled herto be in communicationwith her son almost dai-ly when he served in Ku-wait; she doesn’t knowwhat to expect of histime in Afghanistan. Shesaid she couldn’t imag-ine the experience offamilies sitting at home,waiting for a letter, dur-ing World War II.
Rebecca Rupp, Jeff
Pieper’s girlfriend of sixmonths, had few words.
“There’s no words forit,” she said. “I’m here tosupport him regardless ofmy feelings. It’s bitter-sweet.”
The ceremony ac-knowledged that deploy-ments can be harder onmilitary families, be-cause soldiers are occu-pied with their day-to-dayduties.
The unit, nicknamedThe Kong, was called a“combat hard unit” dur-ing the ceremony, as thisis its third deployment toAfghanistan. Among thecompany’s accomplish-ments is taking the lead ina 2008 air assault mission,the largest in Afghanistansince the 2002 OperationAnaconda. It also has as-sisted in several naturaldisasters including Hur-ricane Katrina, Super-storm Sandy and Hurri-cane Irene.
OLIVIA LOPEZ/@OLOPEZ4/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Many of the 20 Army National Guard soldiers said theirgoodbyes to friends and family Sunday. They will depart fortraining at Fort Hood, Texas, later this week.
SoldiersContinued from Page 3A
“There’s no words
for it. I’m here to
support him
regardless of my
feelings. It’s
bittersweet.”
REBECCA RUPPGIRLFRIEND OF SPC. JEFF PIEPER
also operating.Swain Resort spokes-
man Erich Dobson saidthe Allegany County re-sort opened for the seasonon Dec. 17 and currentlyhas 22 of the resort’s 34Alpine trails open. Bran-tling Ski and SnowboardCenter in Wayne Countyalso opened for the seasonon Dec. 17.
Despite recent rain,ski conditions at Swainare “shockingly reallygood,” Dobson said. “Themost popular trails areopen. If we were a themepark, you could say all ofour best rides are open.”
Typically, the resortaims to remain open atleast 100 days each win-ter. Last year, warmweather caused staff tofall short of the mile-stone. This year, despiterecent rain and warmweather, Dobson said theresort is on track to reach100 days.
Crews there “makeloads of snow” wheneverconditions allow. Crewsthen protect man-madesnow piles and use spar-ingly until needed to en-sure that Swain trails re-main open during warmspells.
“It’s springlike condi-tions,” Dobson said. “Thatmakes it easy to ski. Butthe hard part is to havethese conditions in Janu-ary. But it is better thanskiing on ice.”
“We have a heartygroup of guests that ski in
all types of conditions,”Broderick said. “Living inupstate New York meansbeing adaptable when itcomes to weather and out-door activities. Ourmountain operationscrew does a great job sus-taining the base and pro-viding the best conditionspossible given the weath-er that Mother Naturesends our way.”
At Bristol, employeeslead zipline canopy tours,most popular in summermonths, on winter week-ends. The three-hour tourincludes a short hike andseven ziplines at themountain’s summit, Bro-derick said.
Typically, the ski sea-son spans November toApril in the Rochester re-gion, but mild weathercan shorten the season.
Crews at all resorts ex-pect to make more snowonce temperatures dropnext week.
SkiContinued from Page 3A
“We’ve had some
great
snowmaking
opportunities this
season, so our
current base is at
a range of 12 to 36
inches.”
DREW BRODERICKBRISTOL MOUNTAIN RESORT
