ATLANTA — The Hawks helped 150 Atlanta middle school students get eye exams and glasses this week in partnership with a non-profit.
The team said that, along with the organization Vision To Learn, it had gone to Camp Creek Middle School where star player John Collins, mascot Harry the Hawk, and team entertainment personnel including the ATL Hawks Dancers met with students.
In addition to eye exams and passing out glasses, the event helped "students collaborate with Hawks Entertainment and Collab Crib, an Atlanta-based content house made up of Black creators, to create TikTok videos."
The team's vice president of corporate social responsibility, Andrea Carter, said in a statement that the team wanted to use its Hawks Foundation to "empower the city's youth."
“This event at Camp Creek Middle School is one way that we continue to make an impact through the power of vision not just on the court, but also in the classroom and beyond," she said.
The team said Vision To Learn brings services to students using mobile clinic vans, and has helped more than 15,000 kids in the metro Atlanta area. Fulton County Schools official Chelsea Montgomery said the district's "need for vision support is much greater than we expected."
"We are working very hard to remove any and all barriers to reading and learning for ALL of our students, and Vision To Learn is now a critical piece of that solution," Montgomery said.