A Marion, Ohio optometrist aims to provide improved medical care and spiritual enrichment to an impoverished population in western Jamaica.
Dr. Doug McCloy, of the Marion area, returned a month ago from his latest Work and Witness program trip to the Caribbean island nation for the Church of the Nazarene. McCloy, whose office is at 254 S. Main St., lives with his family five months of each year in Jamaica, providing optometric care.
“It’s like a calling in my life,” he said, adding patients may wonder why he’s not in Marion all year long. “It’s so rewarding down there because you really are dealing with people who have less ability of taking care of themselves than we do. Glaucoma, cataracts, diabetes are often going undetected or untreated.”
Optometrist Dr. Doug McCloy poses with some of the glasses that have come in from around the country to be cleaned, recycled and sent overseas. (Photo by Bill Sinden/The Marion Star)
As the Nazarene church’s ambassador for North America, McCloy has welcomed the responsibility of helping to coordinate mission teams to complete construction of Gamertsfelder Mission Centre in Frome, Jamaica. He carries the torch first picked up by the medical facility’s namesake, Dr. Paul Gamertsfelder, a Gahanna optometrist who made more than 60 mission trips. His first was in 1973 to Panama; one of his latest was in 2009 to help build a three-floor medical facility.
McCloy said the mission center honors Gamertsfelder for his selfless service to those in need.
“The mission will meet the physical needs of the people at the same time reaching their spiritual needs, as well,” he said.
The medical facility will have child care on its first floor, primary care – including treatment for vision, dental, medical and obstetrical-gynecological needs and a surgical area for removal of cataracts and general surgery – on the second floor, and conferencing, education and banquet facilities on the top floor.
McCloy described it as an “all-inclusive mission center.”
He also delivers to residents in the Jamaican community used eyeglasses donated from across North America to his Marion office, where the eyewear is cleaned and sorted.
“He’s awesome. He’s very enthused about whatever he’s doing. He’s just one of a kind. I can’t find words to describe him: Very committed, very hard-working, very innovative, easy to get on with. He has a heart, compassion, and he is one of a kind. I don’t think we could have too many Doug McCloys around.” said Rev. Jennifer Brown, assistant superintendent for the Jamaica West district for the Church of the Nazarene.
Brown said McCloy was responsible for rejuvenating mission team work in the Frome area “after we had not had many for more than a decade.”
The experience has been spiritually rewarding for his family, McCloy said. Wife Rhonda and their children, Griffin, 11, Max, 9, Kyla, 7, and Abbi, 8, a Jamaican child he and his wife adopted, receive home-schooling as they divide their lives between Jamaica and Marion County.
While he could operate his office full time in Marion, he said the mission work is too important.
“This last time we got to see a 9-year-old boy who was blind get his sight back because of cataract surgery,” he said.
Similar results for other Jamaicans bring similar rewards.
“To see these people’s faces when that patch comes off …,” he said, adding he doesn’t take his eye off the Marion practice. “I can’t walk away from that. It’s worth the sacrifice.”
Meanwhile, the Gamertsfelder Mission Centre adds to the legacy of its namesake and McCloy’s, too.
Brown said, “It’s going to create a very big impact.”
by John Jarvis
The Marion Star
Kenmark is launching a new campaign for its Timex collection: My Timex is… The campaign is an extension of Timex’s corporate campaign to show consumers the diverse offering of products available to fit everyone’s lifestyle. 
Replacing a missing temple screw 
and you notice Mrs. Williams (who ordered a $650 pair the other day) has arrived to pick up her glasses. She is forced to stand and wait since all your dispensing chairs are occupied. You hand the gentleman his newly repaired glasses and say, “Here you go.”
“Sure will keep it in mind…thanks again.” The man, who lives in Bangor, Maine and is vacationing in sunny Florida, gets up to leave. You will never see him again. Sound familiar? Perhaps it’s déjà vu? 
away for free. I HATE it! I know that most other ECPs hate it too. How do I know? I know because they bemoan it to me as I teach CE hours all across our country. I also know, however, that I cannot be the only ECP in my county, for example, that charges for adjustments, minor repairs, etc. It would take an almost 100%, industry wide, unified move to accomplish that; and that’s never going to happen.
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