Maple Grove, like many other American suburbs, is full of everyday luxuries that many of us take for granted: laundromats, movie theaters, coffee houses, free Wi-fi, fine dining. It isn’t until you’re immersed in a world so cut off from these modern conveniences that you truly begin to realize how lucky you are.
Gary Tonsager, owner of the Maple Grove Pearle Vision, has seen just how precious these luxuries are. As a member of the Luxottica organization—the parent company of Pearle Vision—Tonsager got involved with a program called OneSight.
Established in 1988, OneSight serves countries in need with free eye care and eyewear. Tonsager joined OneSight on a September 2010 trip to Ouida, Benin, in Africa. “Benin isn’t somewhere you would travel to if you didn’t have a reason; it’s not a vacation spot,” Tonsager says. “It’s a very poor area. The people there live just so they can exist the next day. Their leisure time consists of finding food, shelter and clothing. You don’t realize till you’ve been there how lucky we are here.”
Tonsager kindly adds that even in such dire surroundings, the people of Benin were still incredibly nice and welcoming to the OneSight crew. In two weeks, OneSight doctors and opticians gave eye exams and handed out restored eyeglasses to thousands of people.
“The people there were either very nearsighted or very farsighted. Imagine having such a handicap your entire life that could be corrected as easily as wearing a pair of donated glasses,” Tonsager says. “After we’d help these people, a lot of them were overwhelmed because they were seeing the world as it truly was for the first time. It was a really gratifying thing to be a part of.”
Benin’s official language is French, which is sometimes mixed with the local dialect of Fon. Interpreters were gathered from Benin to come down and help bridge the cultural gap between the Beninese and OneSight crew members.
Tonsager still keeps in touch with some of the interpreters he met and befriended in Benin—Arnaud Adodo, Alban Guidi and Patient Guedenon. “I am more and more convinced that even in the hardest of times, a little act can help bring joy to a whole community,” says Guidi of his experience with OneSight. “And hope can once again fill the hearts of many.”
Though a language barrier did exist between the people of Benin and the OneSight members, Tonsager noted one very big similarity that trumped any language barrier. “A lot of the people that came to us were Christian,” he remembers. “The women would tell us, ‘God bless you; thank you, I’ll say a prayer for you.’ When it’s that kind of thing, language barriers ceases to exist.”
Tonsager hopes to be involved with OneSight again, and has applied for other upcoming trips to countries in need. But he and his colleagues left a lasting impression on the country of Benin. “Personally, I’ve been positively touched by the donation of OneSight,” says Adodo. “I think there is no price to reward what OneSight has done for the Beninese people. We just pray to God that He can return tenfold all that OneSight gave to the Beninese people.”
Get Involved
OneSight provides free eyewear to people in need by people like you donating your old and used glasses. Your eyewear will be sent to a lab to be repaired and then distributed during a OneSight trip to places like Benin. Donations can be made to any Luxottica retail store: LensCrafters, Sears Optical, Target Optical, or even Gary Tonsager’s own Maple Grove Pearle Vision, 13195 Weaver Lake Rd.; 763.420.5112
