Serving others is a way of life for vision center employees

By BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Dr. Steven Shoup?s life has taken him from Indiana to Iowa. It also has taken him much farther.

Shoup, an independent optometrist, who has been serving as the optometrist at Walmart Vision Center in Mt. Pleasant, has been to Mexico, Argentina, Jamaica and Belize.

No, these weren?t vacations, although he did take vacation time to serve on missions to the aforementioned countries.

The Indiana native but an Iowa resident for 30 years returned from his latest trip (to Belize) earlier this year and hopes to return to the country next year.

He made his first trip in 1997 on the advice of his wife.

?It was really a down year for me,? Shoup reflects about 1997. ?My father died and there were several other deaths in the family. I also had a car and an airplane accident (he is a pilot).

?My aunt left me a small inheritance,? he continued, ?so I used it for a down payment on some property and also bought a vehicle. I had some money leftover and my wife saw a story about an optometrist leading a mission trip to Argentina and she suggested I go to get away for a while.?

He liked the two-week trip. He liked it so well that he has gone on four more since the initial one. Most of the trips are about a week, and Shoup sees patients of all ages except for the recent trip to Belize where he ?doctored? school children.

Shoup all of his own equipment with him and said the most common ailments he treats are asitmatism, far-sightedness and pterygium (severe dry eyes which cause scar tissue to build up).

None of the counties he has visited have practicing optometrists, he said. ?They?ve had these conditions all their lives,? he noted.

Most of the people can be helped by Shoup. He said only about five percent of the patients cannot be helped.

He has taken eyeglasses with him to all out of the countries except Belize. ?The Lions Club has an eyeglasses clinic in Belize City where they are sold for prices ranging from $3-$7.

Asked how the patients were able to get by until he came along, he flatly said, ?They didn?t.?

The mission trips, he said, have instilled in him that nothing should be taken for granted. ?I?m much more appreciative of the small things like running water you can drink. I am also thankful for our roads because many of the road in those countries are full of chuck holes.

?I absolutely love the work,? he noted. ?You gain so much more than you give.?

Shoup?s mission work is also shared by his co-workers Michelle (Ford) Collins and Nelly Latta. Both are involved in helping others in the area and also have started a ?Glasses for Kids? program. The program is an effort to see that children in the area needing glasses have them.

Collins, manager of the Walmart vision center, said she has never been on a mission trip abroad but is doing what she can here, especially helping out in Mt. Pleasant and neighboring communities. ?It is so sad that we have so many (people) in our community and there is no one to help them. There are so many people doing without. I started going to nursing homes and helping with eyecare needs there. It is a passion of my own.

?Once Nelly came on board (in September), we have gone to Fairfield and Mt. Pleasant and presented thousands of eyecare packets to help people.?

Collins said that she and Latta reach out in particular to Spanish-speaking residents and Latta, a native of Colombia, helps out with the translating.