Eye Bank Association of America

12/10/2025

Save money and enhance your leadership skills - register for the Eye Banker Leadership Program by December 19!

This workshop taking place in Atlanta is designed for eye bankers at various levels in their careers, with different sessions and breakouts so attendees can select content aligned with their interests and goals.

Take this important step in your professional development, register today.

For more information, see our website:

https://restoresight.org/event/2026-eye-banker-leadership-program/

12/02/2025

This Giving Tuesday, we remind you that not all giving is monetary.

Give the gift of sight and life - register as an eye, organ and tissue donor at: RegisterMe.org.

11/28/2025

While we're all running around doing holiday shopping this hashtag , we think about Danny Torres, an Eye Donation Month Everyday Hero and tissue courier for Baton Rouge Regional Eye Bank.

Danny spends his days doing a different type of running - transporting ocular tissue for life-transforming corneal transplant surgeries.

Danny is known to step up in a pinch, and literally go the extra mile to help facilitate a vision-restoring procedure.

We are grateful for Danny and all the others working to hashtag worldwide.

Be an Everyday Hero yourself by registering as a donor at RegisterMe.org.

For more on our Everyday Heroes, see our website, RestoreSight.org.

11/27/2025

On this day of gratitude, we are thankful for all the Everyday Heroes who contribute to the gift of sight: donors and their families, eye bankers, corneal surgeons, and champions of vision restoration.

Happy Thanksgiving!

11/26/2025

Every kid's dream is to be a superhero, and AJ Smullen certainly achieved that.

Although his life was short, his impact was immeasurable; AJ’s donations saved five lives through his participation in the Donate Life Program, including giving the gift of sight to another individual.

We're happy to show AJ in true superhero form, thanks to the artwork of bilateral cornea recipient and professional comic book artist, Phil Hester.

Thank you to AJ's family and the Lions Eye Bank of the Northeast for sharing his story in our Eye Donation Month Everyday Heroes challenge.

To see others who go a superhero "makeover" see our website, RestoreSight.org.

Be an Every Day hero like AJ by registering as a donor at: RegisterMe.org.

11/25/2025

At EBAA, we know that all cornea donors are superheroes, because they give the life-transforming gift of sight to another person.

To highlight this, for Eye Donation Month, we asked members to submit photos of their own personal Everyday Hero for a chance to see it recreated as a comic book superhero by bilateral transplant recipient and professional comic book artist, Phil Hester.

Submitted by VisionGift, Anne Carleton is the first of our honorees.

Anne began painting kindness rocks in her donor son Hayden’s honor—a movement that has now grown to more than 10,000 rocks shared with her community. Each rock is a small act of hope, multiplying Hayden’s legacy and sparking conversations about the power of donation.

Congratulations to Anne! For the rest of the winners, go to RestoreSight.org.

To register as a donor hero, visit: RegisterMe.org.

11/24/2025

As we look forward to Thanksgiving this week, we are thankful for cornea donors - they are all Everyday Heroes for giving the gift of sight to another.

Another deeply personal donor story; this one from EBAA's Director of Regulations and Standards, Jennifer DeMatteo.

Her Father, Leonard A. DeMatteo, was an engineer and member of their local 14 VFD/EMS Board of Directors. He was husband to her Mother, Dorothy, and father of three daughters, including Jennifer.

Leonard registered as an organ donor at his DMV and made his family aware of his decision. This was very helpful, as his death was unexpected - but the family took comfort knowing they upheld his decision to give the gift of sight.

Jennifer says, "I like to think that someone is able to watch a Pittsburgh Steelers game because of my Dad's selfless gift." She also finds it appropriate that he was also able to help a burn victim, due to all his years with the VFD / EMS.

Be an Everyday Hero like Leonard this Eye Donation Month - register as a donor at: RegisterMe.org.

11/21/2025

Today we revealed the winners of the "Eye Donation Month: Celebrating Everyday Heroes Challenge" - which gave the opportunity to honor a personal hero by having their photo reimagined as a comic book superhero by bilateral cornea recipient and professional comic book artist, Phil Hester.

Thank you to everyone who submitted an image - all were worthy of recognition, but three stood out. These comic book covers are available as shareable social media graphics in the materials toolkit on EyeDonationMonth.org.

Congratulations to all the winners!

https://restoresight.org/news/2025-eye-donation-month-celebrating-everyday-heroes-challenge-winners/

This year, correlating with the 2025 Eye Donation Month theme, “Everyday Heroes”, EBAA ran the Celebrating Everyday Heroes Challenge – giving individuals the opportunity to honor their personal heroes, and […]

11/20/2025

During Eye Donation Month and all year round, everyone at EBAA is dedicated to the mission to worldwide.

But, the mission is also deeply personal.

Members of EBAA staff are directly connected to eye donation - having parents who are Everyday Heroes as donors.

Genevieve Magnuson, our Project Director, shares her Father, Joseph Casaceli's donation story.

A husband and father of six, Joseph taught his children to not only take care of one another, but help others in need. He reached out to elderly neighbors, "adopted" grandparents at a local nursing home, and actively demonstrated that giving means more than receiving. A true example of what he taught, he gave the ultimate gift at the end of his life by being an eye and tissue donor. His corneas gave renewed sight to a 72-year-old woman in California, and a 25-year-old man in Tunisia, Africa.

For more on Joseph and other donor heroes see our website:
https://restoresight.org/news/joseph-casaceli/

You can also be an Everyday Hero by registering as a donor at: RegisterMe.org

11/18/2025

This Eye Donation Month, we are celebrating our "Everyday Heroes" - those who give the gift of sight by registering as a donor.

Phil Hester is a comic book artist who makes his living drawing super heroes. When his fuchs dystrophy depleted his eyesight to the point where he could no longer work, he was saved by two such Everyday Heroes who donated their corneas. Phil's corneal transplants allowed him to see the world anew and get back to his drawings - which we are featuring in this year's Eye Donation Month campaign.

Here is his story. Register as a donor hero at: RegisterMe.org.

Thanks to Iowa Lions Eye Bank for introducing us to Phil.

11/14/2025

For Eye Donation Month, AltruVision facilitated a very important meeting during a workshop at a clay studio, where volunteers make butterflies for transplant families as a token representing the new life their loved one gave to another via transplantation.

They united a grateful transplant recipient with her donor's family, giving the two sides an opportunity to meet, connect, and bond.

Watch this emotional and touching story spotlighting the power of eye donation. You too can be an Everyday Hero by giving the gift of sight - register at: RegisterMe.org

Two families met in person for the first time in Philadelphia following a cornea transplant.

11/11/2025

Happy Veterans Day!

Today, and all year-long we show our insufficient gratitude to those who have served our country - true Everyday Heroes deserving of much more recognition than they receive.

In the EBAA community, we have a considerable number of Veterans in eye banking working to hashtag worldwide. We also have many Veteran donors who, beyond service to country, also serve others by giving the gift of sight. Here are some of their stories.

https://restoresight.org/news/ebaa-veterans/