Mission Cataract is an annual two-week event where Center For Sight surgeons and staff provide free sight-saving cataract surgeries for people without means to pay for treatment. The Center For Sight surgeons, optometric physicians, nurse anesthetists, medical technicians and administrative staff donate their time and expertise to the cause, performing an average of 100 vision restoring surgeries every year.
What is Mission Cataract?
There is no way to prevent cataract formation; a condition where the lens of the eye becomes clouded and eventually results in vision loss. Surgical treatment is necessary to replace the clouded lens and restore lost sight. However, for the thousands of adults living below the poverty level in Florida, many have neglected their vision care needs out of financial necessity.
David W. Shoemaker, M.D., Founder and Director of Cataract & Lens Replacement Surgery at Center For Sight felt that no one should succumb to a life of blindness due to a treatable condition. That’s why, over 25 years ago, he established Center For Sight as a Mission Cataract partner. The rest is history: For over two decades, Center For Sight has performed thousands of free cataract surgeries. Surgeries are performed for people living in Southwest Florida, and across the nation. Recently, Center For Sight partnered with the ASCRS Foundation and Operation Sight in order to expand our reach and provide this sight-saving service to even more individuals in need.
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SURGERIES EACH YEAR0
% FREE“We’re proud to participate in Mission Cataract every year to provide the necessary care and treatment for those who would otherwise go through each day struggling to see. It’s very gratifying to know how vision restoration becomes such a life-changing experience that can open new doors of opportunity for the people of our community.”
Founder & Director
The Center For Sight Foundation: Restoring Vision. Transforming Lives.
To ensure ongoing funding for Mission Cataract, Dr. Shoemaker established the Center For Sight Foundation in 2012, a donor-advised fund maintained by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation. The Foundation’s primary initiative is to support Mission Cataract. The mission of Center For Sight Foundation is to see beyond the financial circumstances of those in need and to deliver sight saving surgery, so that no one suffers visual loss due to a surgically treatable condition.
100% of every dollar contributed to the Foundation is used towards purchasing medications, surgical and post-operative supplies, and the artificial lenses that are implanted in the patients’ eyes during the Mission Cataract event. With the support of donors near and far, Center For Sight will continue to provide sight-saving cataract surgery through Mission Cataract for years to come.
The Center For Sight Foundation networks with civic organizations, social service agencies and other service groups to identify individuals who are at risk and suffering from vision loss due to cataracts. If you are involved in an organization that would like more information about Mission Cataract or the Center For Sight Foundation, please call us at 941.480.2143.
Vision Restored
Hundreds of patients have received the remarkable gift of restored vision through our Mission Cataract program.
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