Shop the Neighbourhood! 35% OFF

Save the date!

November 29, 2014 is Shop The Neighbourhood.

What is Shop The Neighbourhood?

A free event that supports small businesses by encouraging people to make local purchases on November 28 & 29, 2014. This initiative of Yellow Pages contributes to the prosperity of our neighbourhoods and also offers you a great local shopping alternative at the start of the busy holiday season.

Shop The Neighbourhood encourages Canadians to support the small businesses in their communities by making a local purchase. Small businesses play a key role in creating strong local economies and contribute to making neighbourhoods thriving places to live, play and work. Shop The Neighbourhood is a celebration of their invaluable contribution to our communities and a reminder for all Canadians of how shopping locally makes a difference in all our lives.

Guess what? Vision Source New Westminster is proud to be participating in Shop The Neighbourhood!

How can you help?

To participate as a shopper, we’re asking you to save one planned purchase for November 28-29^thand make it local. If we all choose to make our next purchase locally, we’re helping to strengthen our small businesses and by proxy, the neighbourhoods where we live, work and play. You can also join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter and follow #shopthehood.

Get out on November 29^th and explore the neighbourhood’s local businesses!

We will be offering 35% OFF Prescription Glasses and Sunglasses . You can check out our deal on the Yellow Pages mobile app and online at YP.ca! 

The staff at Vision Source New Westminster would like to thank you in advance for your continued support of our business.

For more information about Shop The Neighbourhood and to join the conversation on social media please visit: www.shoptheneighbourhood.ca.

For more information about Vision Source New Westminster, please feel free to call us at 604.553.3900 or visit us online at www.visionsourcenw.com.

Vision Source WINS New Small Business of the Year! 2014 Platinum Awards!

Last week, the New Westminster Chamber of Commerce handed out its annual business and community awards. The Platinum Awards are a celebration of business and community excellence in New Westminster and they recognize businesses and individuals whose achievements and contributions to the community distinguish them from their peers. 

Dr. Pavan Avinashi was honoured to have won the 2014 New Small Business of the Year Award! At Vision Source New Westminster, we are committed to improving and managing the ocular and visual health of our patients. Our attention to customer service is further enhanced by state-of-theart diagnostic equipment. We offer consultations as well as pre and post-operative management services for a variety of medical procedures and we work closely with the finest ophthalmologists to ensure the best quality of overall patient care. Our patients are our top priority. 

From May of 2014 until September 26, 2014, the New Westminster Chamber received nominations from the community. At the time of the nominations deadline we had received a record-breaking number of nominations and the adjudication work began.

Each nomination was presented to the judging team and the panel of 7 judges independently scored the nominations based on the criteria. A second team tabulated the results and last night we were introduced to the winners

"Honouring businesses and individuals for their contributions to the betterment of the community can only be achieved through the support and admiration of their customers, friends and colleagues, which speaks volumes about their characters." says Jean Hincks Chair of the 2014 Platinum Awards and Chair Elect of the New Westminster Chamber. "This group of people have shown resilience in the face of adversity, innovation in their dreams and passion in their professions."

Congratulations to all of this year's winners.

Citizen of the Year-  Amber Anderson

Business Person of the Year- Bart Slotman


Junior Citizen of the Year- Sadie De Coste


Bernie Legge Cultural Award- Trudy Van Dop


Not for Profit of the Year- Under $1 Million-  Fraser River Discover Centre

Not for Profit of the Year - Over $1 Million-  Family Services of Greater Vancouver


Customer Service Business Excellence- Family Eyecare Centre


Customer Service Individual Excellence-  Kasia Cobb, Charlie's Pet Spa

NEW Small Business of the Year- Vision Source New West

NEW Medium Sized Business of the Year-  CG Masters Academy Inc

NEW Large Sized Business of the Year- Hub Restaurant New West

Small Business of the Year- Essence Hair Design

Medium Sized Business of the Year - Royal City Jewellers

Large Business of the Year- Inn at the Quay

Creative Innovator of the Year- The Marketing Team at Douglas College


Inclusion Excellence Award - Dye and Durham Corp.

Green Business of the Year- TIED  two awards - Starlight Casino/ River Market

Corporate Community Spirit- Cartwright Jewelers

Dr. Pavan Avinashi and the Vision Source New Westminster staff would like to thank the Chamber of Commerce for this excellence award and we look forward to continuing to provide superior eyecare. For more information on Vision Source New Westminster, please feel free to call us at 604.553.3900 or visit us online at www.visionsourcenw.com.

Deering bird survives world’s first-ever falcon cataract surgery

With a huff, and a puff, and a cock of her head to the side, Banner the lanner falcon announced yesterday at 4 p.m. that yes, she had made it through her surgery just fine, thank you. Would everyone please stop staring at her now?

Banner, who belongs to Jim and Nancy Cowan at the New Hampshire School of Falconry in Deering, is the first falcon in the world to have cataract surgery. She’s had a cataract in each of her eyes for almost two years, and without her sight, she hasn’t been able to hunt or even fly.

Yesterday, a team of veterinarians and veterinary technicians carefully drugged her, cut into her cornea, removed the cloudy protein and implanted a uniquely designed artificial lens, and sewed her cornea shut again.

“It amazes me how strong she is,” Nancy Cowan said as she watched Banner’s clear dark eyes scan the crowded hallway. “Lanners have a reputation as quiet birds, and I think it works for her, that temperament, that she’s a bit sweeter than other falcons.”

Banner’s ground-breaking surgery was originally scheduled for February, but was postponed several times as the team worked to perfect the shape and size of the artificial lens, and battled health problems of their own. George Messenger of Fisherville Animal Hospital, who supervised the anesthesia, underwent heart surgery this summer, and Ruth Marrion, a Massachusetts-based veterinary ophthalmologist, performed the surgery yesterday seated, because she broke her leg last month.

Seven people hovered over Banner in the operating room yesterday, and dozens more – in Montreal, California, Ohio, Germany and Abu Dhabi – were involved in designing the artificial lenses, which had to match precise measurements.

I-Med, a Canadian ophthalmology supply manufacturer, donated the lenses, which are about 6 millimeters wide. Capital Area Veterinary Emergency Services in Concord donated the operating room and supplies. Messenger and Marrion both donated their time yesterday and at several appointments over the summer preparing for the main event.

A lens has two parts: a thin covering called the capsule, which is like a baggie, and the contents, which are normally clear like a raw egg white. The dense contents help the eye focus light and draw crisp images to the optic nerve.

A lens with a cataract is like a baggie filled with cooked egg white, letting only limited light through to the nerve.

Marrion cut a tiny hole through the baggie and vacuumed out the opaque contents. Then, she folded the flexible artificial lens, slipped it through the small hole and placed it in the baggie, which should hold it in place as if it were spring-loaded.

The hourlong surgery went smoothly and the vets and technicians chatted as each step went exactly according to plan.

But Messenger wasn’t ready to celebrate until after the very last step – extubating, or removing the breathing tube in Banner’s throat that allowed them to pump anesthesia to her. The process is crucially important and incredibly delicate, he said.

“It’s called last stitch syndrome: You’re suturing someone up and on that last stitch, it could all go wrong,” he said.

He had to suck on the tube as he withdrew it to ensure mucus that had built up inside it wouldn’t fall into her throat and block her airway. Then, veterinary technician Shaela Messenger wrapped the bird in a pink towel and carried her out into the hallway. The Cowans and all of the veterinary staff smiled and chatted.

But a few minutes later, Shaela calmly whispered to George Messenger that the bird wasn’t waking up, and the two walked silently and purposefully to the incubator. In the dark heated cage, Banner could stay warm without being held, and might be more likely to wake up, they said.

Cowan pulled on her falconer’s glove and shifted her weight impatiently from one foot to the other. Banner, still wrapped in the towel, opened her feathered eyelids halfway and waggled her head side to side. Then, she stood, wobbling a little, puffed out her chest and stretched her wings, filling the cage.

Within minutes, Cowan reached into the incubator and loaded Banner onto the glove.

They’ll have to give her anti-inflammatory eye drops for a few weeks and make sure her eyelids don’t become too irritated by the sutures in her corneas. The Cowans both cried with relief at the first sign Banner had survived the surgery.

“When we first started looking for help, we heard a lot of anecdotal, ‘well, it can’t be done,’ ” Jim Cowan said.

As Nancy held the bird on her glove, he shook a leather tassel a few feet away, and smiled gleefully when Banner turned toward it.

“You can see something all right,” he said. “You can see something.”

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First Sight: Sonia and Anita

Sonia and Anita, two sisters living in India, have been blind since birth, but a simple eye operation makes it possible for them to see their mom for the first time. The nonprofit organization 20/20/20 provides free operations to these sisters--as well as thousands of other people in developing countries. These procedures empower people in impoverished communities to create better futures. In this short film, Blue Chalk Media shares the sisters’ poignant story and captures their initial experiences after the bandages come off.

While blindness is rare in developed countries, it is 500% more prevalent in the developing world and it can strike AT ANY AGE. From babies who are born completely blind, up through every age bracket, all the way up to 80-year-olds, blindness is the biggest global health problem you have never heard of. The amount of pain and suffering caused by blindness is staggering.

You see, in a developing country, when you go blind, your eyesight is just the first thing you lose. Some say it is like dying with your eyes open. When a 35-year-old farmer goes blind, he loses his farm, all of his income and his family becomes beggars. When a 25-year-old mother goes blind, she loses her marriage and her children as her husband throws her out and marries someone else. Blindness hurts women much more than it hurts men. And when a child goes blind, they pretty much lose everything. The chance to go to school, to get a job, to lead any kind of a normal life. For many children, blindness can be a death sentence. The WHO reports that 60% of children die within 1-2 years of going blind. Whether you are 8 years old or 80 years old, in most developing countries they say a blind person is like a “mouth with no hands.”

The saddest part of this massive blindness problem is that most of this pain and suffering is completely unnecessary. Half of the blind children and adults in the world could have their eyesight restored through a simple, 15-minute surgery that costs as little as $300. The only problem is, for the poorest people in the world, who live on $1 a day, they could never afford to pay for a $300 surgery. So they will remain blind for the rest of their lives – unless someone helps them. 20/20/20 is your chance to be that someone.

For more information, please visit the 20/20/20 website HERE.