Did you know that the second-largest eye bank in the world is in Winston-Salem? Did you also know that the largest non-profit eye bank in the world is in Winston-Salem? Miracles In Sight holds both those distinctions. Here, in Winston-Salem, an area known for its commitment to the arts, is an organization dedicated to helping restore sight to so many in the world…and as a result, allowing them to enjoy the beauty and art in the world around them. As Dean Vavra, President and CEO of Miracles In Sight shared, “Mayor Allen Joines calls Winston-Salem a city of vision.” It truly is just that.
Miracles In Sight, one of the world’s largest eye banks, said Monday it has donated $500,000 to the Duke Eye Center.
The donation will fund a three-year pilot program to improve the availability of human eye tissue for sight-saving research.
The grant from the Winston-Salem nonprofit agency also will be used to establish a registry where people with eye disease can express their interest in donating their eyes to research. It also will help to broaden the reach of electronic medical records across Duke University’s medical facilities.
Asked to recount his life’s work, Dean Vavra casually calls it a career he “fell into.” But it is clear that fate played a part, from his growing up with three visually impaired brothers to his serving two combat tours in Iran and Afghanistan. He was an ophthalmological technician Army reservist.
Vavra today is CEO of Miracles in Sight, an eye bank that is already the second-largest in the country and growing apace. The eye bank garners revenues of more than $10 million a year and employs 93 workers, 78 of them at its Winston-Salem headquarters on West Point Boulevard.
That two nonprofit companies grew up side-by-side in the Triad is not nearly as surprising as the growth and evolution they’ve experienced in employing those who are blind.
Greensboro Industries of the Blind (IOB) has not only continued, diversified and expanded its traditional lines of commerce, but recently contracted with the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency to warehouse and deliver a wide variety of goods within 48 hours. It’s a move lucrative enough to warrant IOB inking a five-year lease of 108,000 square feet of warehouse space in Greensboro.
Meanwhile, Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind (IFB) is already the largest U.S. employer of the blind and visually impaired in the U.S., and it continues to evolve. In what one employee calls “our best kept secret,” it has installed a full-scale eyewear retail operation that follows the LensCrafters model for providing made-to-order eyeglasses in designer frames.
While Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind and Greensboro Industries of the Blind are creating jobs for people with visual limitations, Dean Vavra and his colleagues are helping people regain vision — and in many cases return to work.
As CEO of Winston-Salem’s Miracles in Sight, Vavra leads the second-largest of about 75 eye banks in the U.S., a shrinking fraternity of organizations involved in corneal transplants. The Winston-Salem-based nonprofit had about $10 million in revenues last year, and today employs 91 people, 80 of them in Winston-Salem and 11 in South Carolina.
Miracles In Sight donated $150,000 to Industries for the Blind to buy two school buses. The buses will be used to transport nearly 100 blind or visually impaired children from Kindergarten through 12 grade to Tracy’s Little Red Schoolhouse for after-school and summer camp activities. Miracles in Sight has given more than $1 million to Industries for the Blind as part of its philanthropy.
