FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information:
Prevent Blindness North Carolina
Edwin Jeffords
President & CEO
Phone: (919) 755-5044
[email protected]

Prevent Blindness North Carolina Joins 2026 World Sight Day Activities to Help Encourage Americans to ‘Love Your Eyes’

 – Prevent Blindness North Carolina joins with the global organization, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, on “World Sight Day,” offering a variety of free public eye health events and programs –

Raleigh, NC (October 8, 2026) – Prevent Blindness North Carolina is joining with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) for its annual “World Sight Day” initiative. In keeping with the annual theme of “Love Your Eyes,” Prevent Blindness North Carolina will be engaging in a variety of advocacy and eye health education events leading up to World Sight Day on Oct. 8, 2026.

This year, a team from Prevent Blindness North Carolina, including several students from the NC State Delta Gamma chapter had lots of fun kicking the campaign off in Raleigh by combining an annual vision screening with an opportunity to interact with the Southeast Raleigh Head Start children and teach them about eye health. The team utilized materials from the World Sight Day Toolkit, such as stickers, printable activities and interesting fact sheets about the eyes of humans and animals.  A similar screening event will take place on October 9, 2026 at Crosby Head Start, in Raleigh. Additionally, Prevent Blindness North Carolina distributed World Sight educational materials to fifteen other local centers to encourage center participation in the campaign.

These World Sight Day activities are generously supported by funding from Amgen and Alkeus Pharmaceuticals.

On a national level, the new “Safeguarding Sight: Pediatric Optometry Lecture Series” from Children’s Wisconsin, sponsored by the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health at Prevent Blindness (NCCVEH) and Prevent Blindness Wisconsin, is kicking off on Oct. 8, 2026. Open to optometrists across the United States, through case-based discussion and expert clinical insights, the new program is designed to enhance the confidence, competence, and clinical readiness of community-based optometrists in providing exceptional care for young children. Registration is free, and participants can earn up to 1.5 CE credits.

And, the NCCVEH continues to offer the World Sight Day toolkit in partnership with the National Association of School Nurses. The comprehensive resource for teachers, parents, school nurses and staff provides a variety of downloadable materials including bookmarks, stickers, coloring pages, and more.

On the advocacy front, Prevent Blindness is mobilizing the more than 115 organizations that support the Early Detection of Vision Impairments for Children (EDVI) Act (H.R. 2527) in a coordinated push to build support for the bipartisan legislation. As Congress will be in recess for the upcoming U.S. election, Prevent Blindness will be launching a grasstops campaign that emphasizes how the EDVI Act would strengthen children’s vision and eye health at the state and local level. Through this “ask and amplify” initiative, Prevent Blindness is inviting partners to show their support for the bill across social media, urge their members of Congress to cosponsor the EDVI Act, and connect new organizations to information about the EDVI Act. Prevent Blindness will further elevate these efforts across its own channels and networks.

If passed, the EDVI Act, led by Congressional Vision Caucus co-chairs Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12) and Marc A. Veasey (D-TX-33), would create the first federal program dedicated to children’s vision and eye health through coordinated systems of care.

Longtime Prevent Blindness partner Delta Gamma will once again be launching its annual “Do Good Week,” October 8-15, encompassing both World Sight Day and White Cane Awareness Day (Oct. 15, 2026). Delta Gamma members may access free educational resources from Prevent Blindness and Delta Gamma through the “Service for Sight” online portal.

“Prevent Blindness North Carolina and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness share the same important mission of saving sight through education and awareness, breaking down barriers to access to care, and engaging policymakers to ensure healthy vision is afforded to all,” said Edwin Jeffords, President & CEO, Prevent Blindness North Carolina. “World Sight Day provides a tremendous opportunity for groups like ours and others around the world to work together toward the common goal of improving vision and eye health for all.”

For details on Prevent Blindness North Carolina and World Sight Day events, please call (919) 755-5044 or visit https://nc.preventblindness.org.

For more information on World Sight Day, please visit iapb.org/world-sight-day.

About Prevent Blindness North Carolina

PBNC was organized in 1967 as a nonprofit health agency and an independent affiliate of the national organization, Prevent Blindness (established in 1908). The daily mission of PBNC is to prevent blindness and preserve sight through direct services and programs, education, and advocacy.  Each year, over 450,000 people in North Carolina receive vision screenings, treatment, or direct financial support because of PBNC’s life-changing programs. Learn more at: https://nc.preventblindness.org.

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