Olympia Fields couple to put eye care in focus in Grenada

by JESSICA SABBAH Correspondent Jan 24, 2011

Dr. Sol Tannebaum may be in store for some warmer weather while he’s in Grenada this week, but he won’t be on a vacation.

The Olympia Fields resident will make his 16th mission trip volunteering his services as an optometrist to people in need.

“People have eye problems wherever you go, all over the world,” Tannebaum said. “All countries have poverty areas where eyesight is not cared for. These are people who don’t have good care or bad care. They have no care.”

Along with 19 other volunteers, Sol Tannebaum and his wife, Marilynn, will work from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 21-30 seeing about 200 patients a day as volunteers with Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity. Since 1971, VOSH has provided eye care worldwide to those who either don’t have access or can’t afford it.

Anyone can volunteer to help VOSH’s mission.

This will be Marilynn Tannebaum’s 14th mission trip working primarily on intake and getting medical histories. She is a retired teacher and administrator in Park Forest-Chicago Heights School District 163, where she worked for more than 34 years.

“It’s a wonderful experience,” Tannebaum said. “You get more than you give. The people are very appreciative, and you see people living in poverty situations that just would not have eye care if you were not there, so I do what I can to help.”

As an educator, Tannebaum especially has enjoyed working with children during the mission trips. A highlight for her involved an 8-year-old boy who was brought into the clinic who was thought to have a mental disability. A local convent school wouldn’t take him because of the condition.

It turned out he just needed glasses.

The couple have traveled to a number of countries around the world, including Mexico, Ecuador, El Salvador and Poland, throughout the 20 years since becoming members of VOSH Illinois.

The volunteers must pay their own way for each trip.

Sol Tannebaum works as an optometrist in Calumet City. He previously had his own practice in Olympia Fields for 21 years.

Sol Tannebaum’s most memorable experience as a volunteer involved a woman who was thought to be blind since birth.

After examining her, he found that she wasn’t blind but actually needed a -30 diopter lens. Because there wasn’t a -30 lens in stock, Sol fashioned three -10 lenses together and when she put the glasses on, she yelled, “I can see, I can see.”

“You’re giving back what you’ve taken really all your life and that’s what life is all about, you’ve got to give back,” Sol Tannebaum said.

Mel and Janet Muchnik, Park Forest residents and friends of the Tannebaums, also will volunteer their time in Grenada.

This will be Mel Muchnik’s second trip. He traveled last year to Bolivia.

It will be Janet Muchnik’s first trip.

Mel Muchnik, a retired professor and administrator at Governors State University, got involved with VOSH’s efforts through Sol Tannebaum. His favorite part of the process was seeing people’s smiles once they put on their glasses.

“You see them put those glasses on, and suddenly they are seeing the world clearly for the first time,” Mel Muchnik said.

SOURCE: SouthTown Star