FY EYE September 2009 Newsletter

The SUNY State College of Optometry has received a $100,000 bequest from the estate of Dr. Leo Hurvich, the former Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hurvich received an honorary degree from SUNY at our 1989 Commencement. The gift will fund a scholarship endowment named for Dr. Hurvich and his late wife and research colleague, Dorothea Jameson. They received joint recognition in the research community for their major contributions to how we perceive color and how our visual systems operate. They were both elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

We are grateful for this very generous gift.

OCNY Receives Three Grants Supporting the College and the UEC

The Optometric Center of New York received the following grants over the Summer:

The Allene Reuss Memorial Trust: $25,000 for the Indigent Patient Fund

Access to quality vision care is a major public health issue. Factors like lack of adequate health insurance and changing Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement protocols are making it increasingly difficult for New York's most vulnerable residents to receive essential eye care services. A generous grant has been received by The Allene Reuss Memorial Trust to ensure that anyone in need receives high quality eye and vision care, regardless of their ability to pay.

In addition to the eye care services that they receive through the UEC, patients supported by the Indigent Fund also have access to social workers who provide referral assistance and advocacy support for additional benefits and entitlements that the patient may be unaware of, for themselves and their families. They may also receive information about other health care services in the community that they can benefit from.

Rose M. Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust: $8,500 for Unrestricted Support.

Edith C. Blum Foundation: $2,500 for Unrestricted Support

The UEC is one of the largest outpatient vision care facilities of its kind in the country, providing life-enhancing services and support for approximately 75,000 patient visits in-house annually, and another 60,000 at partner clinics across the New York metropolitan area. Educational and research efforts provide the underpinnings of our unique structure, which offers an unmatched professional training ground for students seeking their OD degrees at the State University of New York, State College of Optometry, as well as the Schnurmacher Institute for Vision Research, which is dedicated to studies about the visual system and methods for improving visual function.

The generosityi of the Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust and the Edith C. Blum Foundation will help support a variety of patient care initiatives and SUNY College programs. Unrestricted support offers the OCNY the freedom to allocate funds at their discretion for projects ranging from patient care efforts in the UEC, to student scholarship funds to other areas of need as they are identified.