Eyeworld

EW IN OTHER NEWS 102 February 2011 trauma, and complications from LASIK. According to Mr. Austin, choosing among the photos was ex- tremely difficult. "It was a very hard decision," he said, noting the judges spent more than 3 hours going over the submis- sions. "Even though some pictures were mundane, a photo of some- one's truck for example, the fact that the person could drive that truck again is the story behind it. All the photos have a story to tell about the people and about their lives." Michelle McAuley, who was di- agnosed with keratoconus in both eyes at age 18, was one of the pho- tographers. Ms. McAuley had her first corneal transplant in 2005 and her second in 2007, noticing the rapid improvements in her vision after each surgery. Vision improvement "was al- most an immediate thing," she said of her second surgery. "The first thing I saw was the look on my chil- dren's faces when they knew that mom can see, she can go outside and do things." Ms. McAuley was using rigid gas permeable corrective lenses, which were very sensitive to dust and de- bris. "If the wind was blowing, I couldn't go outside because dust could get in and irritate my eyes," she said. "But now I can go outside and do things with the kids." Ms. McAuley submitted a few photos for consideration featuring landscape scenes, but it was her pic- ture of an old barn that made the cut. When Ms. McAuley saw the barn in her exhibit photo off an old country road near her home in Col- orado, it reminded her of the barn from her past. "We used to have a barn like that where my husband grew up and it fell down," she explained. "I al- ways loved that barn, where I could go out and sit and reflect on life." The exhibit was extremely suc- cessful, raising more than $7,000 in one night. All proceeds will be do- nated to the Lions Eye Bank, but fundraising isn't the point of the show: education is. "Our goal is to show people the impact organ donors have on people in our community, and hopefully it will inspire them to become organ donors themselves," Mr. Austin said. Attendees of the traveling ex- hibit can pick up informational brochures about organ and tissue donation, which dispel many com- mon myths. "Many potential donors rule themselves out," he said. "Our mes- sage to people is that all of us have the power to restore someone's sight. No one should rule himself out because of age, health, or lifestyle." The photos will travel to driver's license offices, shopping malls, and libraries around Colorado and Wyoming through the summer of 2011. All of the photos submitted will be featured in an online gallery on the eye bank's website, www.corneas.org, in the coming months. EW Contact information Austin: 720-848-3940 McAuley: 719-349-0632 660789Pi_7x10.pgs - Wed Sep 15 08:28:09 PDT 2010 Viewing continued from P. 101

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