Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
VISION TO LEARN
VISION TO LEARN. A nonprofit founded in 2012 by Austin Beutner and the Beutner Family Foundation came to Dubuque through the efforts of the COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE led by Nancy VAN MILLIGEN. The project provided vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses to children in low-income communities at no cost to the children or their parents through a mobile unit that visited schools. Originally visiting several schools in Dubuque and Jackson counties, by 2025 the program served thirty districts in 18 Iowa counties.
Van Milligen noted that school nurses were reporting that about 60% of the district's students whose school's vision screening program had indicated that they should receive a follow-up exam were not getting one. Transportation to an appointment, limited access, and financial hardships related to insurance were among the reasons. Van Milligen believed the program fit with the foundation's Every Child Reads initiative.
Tern years after the mobile clinic visited LINCOLN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in 2016, a total of 1,689 students in the DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT had received eye examinations with 1,423 receiving glasses.
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Source:
Kelsey, Elizabeth, "Nonprofit Puts Sharper Focus on Students' Eyesight," Telegraph Herald, May 1, 2026, p. 1