The Kiwanis Club of Findlay helped change the lives of 46 people in Hancock County. Thanks to an initiative taken by the Kiwanis Club, 46 people can now experience the vibrant world of color like never before.
These 46 people all received EnChroma Glasses, speciality glasses that help alleviate the challenges of color deficiencies. These glasses improve vision for those with red-green color blindness.
The Initiative Begins
Shannon Connelly, a former Kiwanis president, initiated the program in 2021, with the idea to provide EnChroma glasses to students with color blindness in the Hancock County area.
“I had seen a video on Facebook from a kid that was receiving glasses from a family member that EnChroma had created, and it just really touched me, and I thought that that was something that we could do for students locally, so that it can help them be able to see color,” Connelly said.
“And because it makes such a huge difference for their education to be able to see things properly, such as, learning the colors, being able to read a map and being able to see a scientific chemical structure. There’s just so many things that color entails that you just really don’t think about.”
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A Unique Partnership
The Kiwanis Club of Findlay partnered with Enchroma, a California-based company, receiving a discount of 25% off each pair of glasses they order. The Kiwanis Club of Findlay is the first Kiwanis Club in the country to partner with EnChroma.
So far, the club has gifted 46 EnChroma Glasses, including a donation of 4 pairs to the Mazza Museum most recently. The Mazza Museum received 3 child pairs and 1 adult pair of Enchroma Glasses so cold blind museum attendees can see the museum in full vibrant color.
According to Enchroma, one in 12 men and one in 200 women are color blind. With an estimated 11,250 students in Hancock County, 500 students are likely to be color blind.
Expanding the Effort
The Kiwanis Club of Findlay hopes to spread their effort and donate even more Enchroma Glasses to students in need.
“If they know of somebody that is colorblind, they can reach out to us on our website and they can email us and tell us, ‘hey, I’ve got, my neighbor, my granddaughter, my daughter, my grandson, whoever,’ so that we can, you know, help out as many kids as possible,” Connelly said.
The Kiwanis Club is particularly looking for more girls to donate Enchroma Glasses to. According to Connelly, schools currently do not test girls for color blindness as it is more prevalent in boys. So far, the Kiwanis Club has only donated glasses to one female student.
“We would love to be able to get more girls with EnChroma Glasses,” Connelly said, “because we know that they’re out there. It’s just not as prevalent and they’re not getting tested.”
Another way to help the cause is to donate directly to the project. Donations can be made to the Kiwanis Club of Findlay with a special notation to the Enchroma Glasses project.
For more information, visit findlaykiwanis.org/service-projects.
