{"id":802375,"date":"2019-12-16T16:28:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T23:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=376098"},"modified":"2019-12-16T16:28:10","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T23:28:10","slug":"local-optometrist-came-to-the-u-s-as-a-cambodian-refugee-and-returns-each-year-to-offer-health-and-eye-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/local-optometrist-came-to-the-u-s-as-a-cambodian-refugee-and-returns-each-year-to-offer-health-and-eye-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Local optometrist came to the U.S. as a Cambodian refugee and returns each year to offer health and eye care"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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Dr. Wills Vanray, owner and optometrist at Lake Dillon Eye Care, travels to his homeland of Cambodia to offer health and eye care to villagers. <\/strong>
Courtesy photo Janet Graham.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

DILLON \u2014 Unless you\u2019ve seen the 1984 film \u201cThe Killing Fields,\u201d the horror of the Cambodian genocide is unknown to many Americans. However, Dr. Wills Vanray, optometrist and owner of Lake Dillon Eye Care, remembers this dark part of history well. He lived through it.<\/p>\n

As a child, Vanray was caught in the hold of the Khmer Rouge as the regime attempted to kill all of the educated people in the country. Vanray came from an educated family, which was quickly targeted. In Vanray\u2019s family, 58 members were murdered. Vanray and his mother escaped by foot to a refugee camp in Thailand. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe made it by total luck,\u201d Vanray said. \u201cWe were shot at, bombed at \u2026 that\u2019s why I have a passion to go back and help.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was 10, Vanray and his mother came to Southern California, where an uncle was living. In 2006, he graduated from the Southern California College of Optometry. Vanray admitted he has an unusual optometry background as he chose to do a residency, which isn\u2019t required of optometrists, in a hospital-based primary care and ocular disease program with the Indian Health Services in Gallup, New Mexico. <\/p>\n

The goal was always to go into the medical field, he said, so in addition to fitting contacts and glasses, he specializes in ocular disease. During his work on the Native American reservation in New Mexico, Vanray also assisted in treating diabetic patients. <\/p>\n

Vanray began practicing at Lake Dillon Eye Care in 2013 and became the owner of the practice in 2017. For the past six years, he has gone back to Cambodia for about one month every summer to donate his medical services. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal was always to go back to Cambodia,\u201d Vanray said. \u201cI have a passion for impoverished people because I\u2019ve been there. I\u2019m glad I get to go back and help my people.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Vanray visits, he returns to where he was born, Phnom Penh, along with his wife Melissa Vanray, who also is an optometrist, and several other medical professionals and volunteers. The group stays in a recently built team center, which was constructed by LightBridge International and can house 80 volunteers. Each day of the trip, Vanray and his team drive to remote villages where people need medical care. <\/p>\n

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Vanray administers artificial tears to a Cambodian villager.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo Janet Graham.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

One volunteer this summer was Janet Graham, a local nurse practitioner. Graham said she has gone on mission trips in the past and was inspired by Vanray\u2019s story when she met him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis story is so moving and touching,\u201d Graham said. \u201c\u2026 I met him on a chairlift, and he told me he was an eye doctor. It just happened last summer that I contacted them and was able to take two weeks off and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graham assisted in treating the common ailments of the local villagers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cambodian population is very prevalent to hypertension, diabetes,\u201d Vanray said, adding that the volunteers also see a lot of need for wound care. <\/p>\n

As for eye care, Vanray said he brings 500-600 pairs of donated prescription glasses and sunglasses to give people who visit the mobile clinic. The sunglasses are especially helpful because the villages are mainly farming communities and people work without sun protection for their eyes.<\/p>\n

Vanray also gives out antibiotics for eye infections as well as multivitamins because the diets in the region are often low in vegetables. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy five-year goal is to buy land there and build a permanent hospital,\u201d Vanray said. <\/p>\n

As a new dual citizen of the United States and Cambodia, Vanray now has the ability to purchase land in the country. He plans to bring local doctors, Thai doctors and rotating American doctors to his future hospital. His wife also hopes to build an orphanage next to the hospital. <\/p>\n

In Summit County, Vanray also strives to help locals who are financially strained or don\u2019t have health insurance. He gives discounted eye exams, contacts and glasses, and he will waive the contact fitting fee for locals who don\u2019t have insurance. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs the owner, if someone really needs help, and I can tell they are financially stricken, I\u2019ll do the exam for free,\u201d Vanray said. <\/p>\n

Lake Dillon Eye Care also donates 10% of profits each year to LightBridge International, the nonprofit for which Vanray sits on the board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do all we can to help out the community,\u201d Vanray said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a passion of mine to help those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who are interested in joining Vanray on his annual trip can find more information at lightbridgeonline.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Wills Vanray, owner and optometrist at Lake Dillon Eye Care, travels to his homeland of Cambodia to offer health and eye care to villagers. Courtesy photo Janet Graham. DILLON \u2014 Unless you\u2019ve seen the 1984 film \u201cThe Killing Fields,\u201d the horror of the Cambodian genocide is unknown to many Americans. However, Dr. Wills Vanray, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-30 08:25:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}