News
Who Inspires You?
Tue, 17 Mar 2009Although there have been many great inspirations to us in the profession of optometry, we asked our members to Think Big, to keep with our 100th theme of Focus on Tomorrow.
In keeping with that focus we catalogued a series of inspirational leaders and profiled each one’s view in a banner presentation for our 100th Anniversary Gala on April 3 – an event attended by Ontario Minister of Health, Hon. David Caplan.
In marking OAO’s 100th Anniversary, we asked our members "Who inspires you?" The results were noble, interesting and perhaps surprising in equal measure.
Agnes McPhail - The first woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons and one of the first two women elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Mahatma Gandhi - Political and spiritual leader of the Indian Independence Movement and a pioneer in resisting oppression through non violent means
Martin Luther King Jr. - A leader of the American civil rights movement and in 1964 the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation
Nelson Mandela - The first President of South Africa to be elected in a fully representative and democratic election, anti-apartheid activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993
Barack Obama - 44th President of the United States and the first African American ever to hold the office; making him an inspiration to all those who hope and dream for the future
Our Students - We believe that our students are our future; they bring new ideas, new goals, new commitments and will help us give back to our communities in the decades to come
Is it surprising that we chose to highlight social and political leaders rather than optometric leaders of the past? Perhaps.
But we are keenly aware that OAO’s leadership has been humble in its work to forward the profession and that by doing our small part for society we seek to live the vision of tomorrow defined by those with greater dreams.
If greatness can be wrought from humble beginnings then we each aspire to do all that we can to make the world a better place in the next 100 years.
