COA Member Helps Hondurans See

COA member Fred Stellhorn is working to give the gift of sight to those who are less fortunate. In fact, his efforts were featured in an article in the Manteca Bulletin.

“We talk about how important literacy is, but people can’t read if they can’t see,” said Stellhorn, who has served Manteca as an optometrist since 1971, in the October 5, 2015, article.

Stellhorn, a member of COA’s San Joaquin Optometric Society (SJOS) founded contactsforgood.com, a website where you can buy a year’s supply of contacts, which creates funding for prescription glasses for people in Honduras, Mexico and other countries.

Stellhorn’s effort began in 2003 through the Manteca Rotary with the help of businessman Jeff Liotard, according to the article. Since its inception, Stellhorn has given eye exams to almost 75,000 poor Hondurans and has equipped another 50,000 with eye glasses.

Stellhorn, Liotard, and others visit Honduras twice a year to administer eye exams and distribute glasses. Stellhorn also goes to Mexico with this sister, according to the article.

Stellhorn also makes sure to help those less fortunate locally. According to the article, he is the only OD in Manteca taking Medi-Cal patients and is even expanding his practice to take on more.

He told the Manteca Bulletin that his motivation is simple: He wants to pay back California, a state that made it possible for him to be educated as an optometrist.

“I paid my tuition and expenses,” said Stellhorn, who graduated from the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry in 1970 with a student loan debt of $9,400, in the article. “But I didn’t pay the entire salary of my professors nor did I pay to build the campus and the facilities. The people of California did.”

See Dr. Stellhorn’s full story here.