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a crucial, but costly cataracts surgery
that would have weighed a heavy
financial burden on the family. The Vision
Foundation secured funding for not only
the surgery, but also related medical
expenses including follow-up care at no
cost to the family.
The Mackies have observed an amazing
power of giving and a domino effect of
charity. “We have found that many of the
specialists we work with don’t even bill us
for their services,” said Sarah Mackie, a
North Carolina native who relishes long
runs through Emerson Preserve and
cheering on UNC basketball. “Many just
give from the heart.”
They don’t really know which kids
scattered across Manatee County schools
are truly in need of their in-kind services
and rely heavily on the people who do:
school nurses.
“The nurses are the ones who really know
the kids,” said Michael Mackie. “They
know who is in need. They know the
families. We give them vouchers for our
services to then disperse to those they feel
can really use them. We let them do all the
vetting. And then it is no questions asked
– no questions asked at all on our end.”
Often clues a child might need an eye
exam lie in poor performance at school.
Spearheading a three-year pilot program
analyzing the relationship between vision
and reading scores in Baltimore schools
in 2017, Professor Robert Slavin of John
Hopkins University’s School of Education
and his team discovered remarkable
increases in scores for students who
received needed glasses.
“If you can’t see, you can’t learn,” said
Sarah Mackie. “And if you can’t learn,
you may act out with disruptive behavior.
So many kids have many issues on their
plates that we can’t fix. This is one we can.
Nobody wants to see a kid suffer.”
Drawn to kids like a high school student
who resorted to snapping pictures of
the board, so he could review it later
because he needed glasses, the Mackie’s
discovered this young man was also
struggling to play his beloved game:
soccer. Through the Vision Foundation,
the couple not only got him a set of
glasses for school, but also sport goggles
for the field.
When the Mackies are not advocating for
their community or seeing patients, they
seize the opportunity to detach from the
city hustle and embrace the outdoors with
their two elementary-aged daughters.
Escaping to their cabin home on Lake
Okeechobee, they leave behind phones,
Wi-Fi, and antennae and gain jigsaw
puzzles boasting thousands of pieces,
gator watching, airboat rides, and intense
family matches of Monopoly.
“If we have to stop a Monopoly game,
we’ve been known to take a picture of
the board, so we can continue the next
time,” said Michael Mackie with a chuckle.
Bonding extends to friends and neighbors
at the lake home where the Mackies
famously fly in 50 pounds of crawfish from
Louisiana for crawfish boils.
Dr. Doug Black, Dr. Michael Mackie, Dr. Sarah Mackie, Dr. Brad Laudicina,
Dr Paige Laudicina, and Dr. Madison Easterling at the Manatee County CCA Banquet