October 27, 2006

Jessica Mackiewicz has collected 540 Pairs of eyeglasses and 98 glass cases during October for the Lions Club Sight First program. Jessica started this project when she was selected to represent the High School at the OKC Downtown Lions Club for the month of October. Each month a senior student rep is recommended from a counselor to attend their Tuesday lunch meetings and compete for scholarships.

Jessica did background on the club before the first meeting so she'd have something to talk about with new acquaintances. On the web she found one of their international missions is providing sight. They buy trained eye dogs, surgeries, and collect eyeglasses. Jessica has poor vision and has worn glasses since 3rd grade. She loves to read and knows first hand how important sight is. She has a giving heart and just took off with the project. She saw the need and thought it was something she could do. She put collecting boxes at PV and the MS, and called local optometrists and vision care specialists, picked up the glasses and it added up fast...over 500 glasses in less than 30 days. It's an easy, worth-while and important service project.

Jessica also collects towels for animals brought into WILDCARE Foundation, our local wildlife rehabilator on an on-going basis. Rescued animals are given fresh blankets for security and warmth. Once the blanket gets chewed or torn it is recycled for a cleaning rag so there's always a raccoon, squirrel or other mammals needed a fresh blanket.

Jessica has applied early admission to MIT, and regular admission Harvard, Cal Tech, Stanford, Florida Tech, Yale, OU, and Cornell. Her aspirations are in the atmospheric physics field. Donna M. (Jessica’s Mom) says,” Moms always dream of course, so I see her on the international space station, doing physics experiments, and representing the USA using her language skills (she's fluent in Japanese, French, Spanish and English and is learning Chinese, Russian and Italian).”

Jessica is certainly a student the entire Deer Creek Community can be proud of and look at as a role model for all students. If you would like to donate either glasses or towels you can contact the Mackiewicz family at omnvolunteer@cox.net.