April 30, 2010

by Emily Matras '12

David Warren '10 working last summer with a patient in Central America.

Davidson senior David Warren is on a mission to help needy people see more clearly. Warren is founder of "Mission Vision," a non-profit charitable organization that delivers reading glasses, free of charge, to people who need them in developing countries around the world.

Mission Vision‘s appeal for donations is "one dollar, one pair of reading glasses," a motto that Warren says facilitates support. "It's very tangible," he said, "people know exactly what their money will do when they give."

The idea began in 2006 as Warren's aunt prepared for a mission trip to the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. "We shopped at the Dollar Store to stuff the crevices of her suitcase with small items," he said. "She reported back that the reading glasses were the most well received. She found that many people had lost vision simply as a result of aging, and for just $1 we were able to restore for them the ability to read or work."

Inspired by the direct impact of such a simple purchase, Warren began to raise money and awareness for glasses prior to each of his aunt's subsequent trips to Africa. He also began to send glasses to other developing countries via other mission groups. In summer 2009 Mission Vision became incorporated as a 501(c)(3) corporation, allowing donations to be tax deductible.

Also last summer, Warren and fellow "visionary" Quin Patton '10 received from Davidson a Dean Rusk International Studies Program travel grant and the Staley and McCall grants from the Religious Life Office to take reading glasses to Central America. Warren said, "We would spend a little bit of time in the city centers establishing contacts with optometrists. But we spent the majority of our time conducting optical clinics in the countryside, providing eye exams and giving out glasses. We were quite surprised by the large number of people who came to our clinics."

The trip motivated Warren to ramp up efforts. In the past year, Mission Vision has delivered glasses to more than 10 countries. The organization received proceeds from the popular Charity Denim Drive run by Turner Eating House, and Warren recently received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to study non-profit management at business school in Barcelona, Spain.

Photo of African women who received eyeglasses through Mission Vision.

Warren has also expanded Mission Vision beyond Davidson's campus. There are now chapters at 12 colleges and three high schools throughout the nation. According to Warren, starting the new chapters was as simple as sharing his vision with friends.

"Close friends asked about what I was doing and thought it was a neat experience, so they decided to hop on board and start their own chapters," he said.

Warren gives a lot of freedom to the leadership of the other chapters, and each of them plans its own fundraising events for Mission Vision.

Warren also focused this year on creating a Web site which provides background information on the organization and has a Paypal account for online donations.

The week following his graduation, Warren will fly with fellow Mission Vision members Quin Patton '10 and Baker Shogry '10 to Buenos Aires, Argentina. They will spend five weeks in South America distributing glasses. The trip is part of Mission Vision's goal to deliver 10,000 pairs of glasses by the end of this year.

Warren said the trip will make all the work back home worth it. "It's very rewarding to go on these trips," he said. "As opposed to just shipping boxes of glasses, these trips allow you to personally experience the joy of helping restore vision for less fortunate individuals."

Warren believes Mission Vision will continue to grow after his graduation. He said, "I believe the organization is sustainable, and I am confident new campus leaders will continue to establish Mission Vision networks with the common goal of improving vision across the globe."

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,800 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
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