Half Helen

Half Helen We make eye exams and glasses accessible for underserved children and families in central Texas.

Last week, we didn't just celebrate half Helen's birthday... we also celebrated Dr. Lagunas' birthday!Dr. Lagunas helps ...
06/17/2026

Last week, we didn't just celebrate half Helen's birthday... we also celebrated Dr. Lagunas' birthday!

Dr. Lagunas helps make brighter futures possible for thousands of patients each year. Whether she's providing eye exams for students during Vision Field Trips or ensuring our adult patients see the world clearly, her impact reaches far beyond the exam room.

Join us in wishing Dr. Lagunas a very happy birthday!

half Helen is officially a teenager! It's only fitting that the year leading up to half Helen's 13th birthday became ano...
06/10/2026

half Helen is officially a teenager!

It's only fitting that the year leading up to half Helen's 13th birthday became another turning point for our organization—growing pains and all!

As we expanded into our new space, we saw an opportunity to adapt once again and rethink how we deliver care. With that in mind, we launched our Vision Field Trip model, partnering with schools to bus students directly to our clinic for comprehensive eye care. The results have been incredible. By bringing students to our clinic, we're able to see twice as many students in the same amount of time it would take to provide care at a school using a mobile clinic. More students receiving care means more students getting the opportunity to succeed both in and out of the classroom.

We kicked off the school year with a Vision Field Trip Festival in partnership with Warby Parker. Along with special guest Arch Manning, we welcomed students from Austin Achieve Public Schools for a day focused on vision. Students participated in educational activities and crafts while waiting for their eye exams, and Arch even helped some students select the perfect pair of glasses.

Our adult programs continued to grow as well. Through the Vision Voucher Program, we provided care to more underserved adults than ever before. We're even starting to see familiar faces returning for ongoing care. This just goes to show the trust our community has placed in us and the quality of care our team provides.

Over the past 13 years, half Helen has evolved from a vision screening program into a full-service optometric clinic capable of providing care to patients of all ages. We've screened tens of thousands of students, provided thousands of eye exams and glasses, launched innovative technology, built mobile clinics, opened a brick-and-mortar location, and found new ways to remove barriers to care every step of the way.

But none of that happened because of one person.

It happened because of you.

To every volunteer, donor, partner, educator, healthcare provider, advocate, and patient who has been part of this journey: thank you. Your support, trust, and belief in our mission have made the last thirteen years possible.

You are the reason we are all seeing the world a little clearer.

1 day until half Helen turns 13! As half Helen continued expanding access to care, we discovered that some patients need...
06/09/2026

1 day until half Helen turns 13!

As half Helen continued expanding access to care, we discovered that some patients needed services that were difficult to provide on a mobile clinic. Adult patients often require specialized diagnostic equipment—equipment that doesn't travel well along I35.

So, once again, we adapted.

In 2024, half Helen transformed its administrative office into a working eye clinic, allowing us to provide more comprehensive care. The only challenge? Space. Our administrative team was literally working out of a supply closet.

After a few months, we knew the model was working. We just needed room to grow.
That fall, half Helen doubled its footprint and moved into a larger space within the office park. The expansion allowed us to invest in additional equipment and build two fully equipped optometry lanes. It was a whirlwind year. We launched office-based exams in the spring and completed a full expansion by the fall.

Meanwhile, our pediatric program continued to grow through an exciting partnership with Warby Parker. Through the Pupils Project, half Helen doubled its selection of children's frames, enabling us to provide 2,000 students with stylish, high-quality glasses at no cost to their families.

2024 was also a remarkable year of recognition. Chelsea was named an Austin Change Maker by Austin Woman Magazine, recognized as the 2024 KXAN Remarkable Woman of the Year, and honored with an Austin Under 40 Award for Nonprofit Service. She was also awarded the inaugural Helen Keller Knights of the Blind Service Award by the Texas Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center Foundation in recognition of her commitment to expanding access to vision care. In addition, half Helen was selected as one of the nonprofits recognized during the Travis County Medical Alliance & Foundation Centennial Celebration.

Tomorrow, we celebrate 13 years of half Helen!

2 days until half Helen turns 13! Since our founding, half Helen has screened tens of thousands of students and helped t...
06/08/2026

2 days until half Helen turns 13!

Since our founding, half Helen has screened tens of thousands of students and helped thousands of children and adults receive the eye exams and glasses they need to thrive. In 2023, we celebrated a major milestone: half Helen's 10th anniversary.

To commemorate the occasion, we hosted Spectacle, a special fundraising event inspired by our original Glow Ball. We kept the golf theme but moved the celebration to Topgolf, allowing supporters to enjoy an evening of fun without having to worry about Austin's unpredictable weather.

The year also brought well-deserved recognition for Chelsea’s leadership. She received the Civic and Community Leadership Award from the Austin Chamber of Commerce and was named a McBee Fellow by the Austin Area Research Organization.

Meanwhile, half Helen continued growing. Construction began on our second mobile clinic, optical Prime 2, a renovated vintage Airstream trailer that launched just in time for our anniversary celebration. We also expanded access to care by accepting Medicare and Medicaid patients, allowing even more members of our community to benefit from our services. As our programs continued to grow, so did the need for community support. With thousands of pairs of glasses needing to be sorted, organized, and prepared for delivery to schools, volunteers stepped up in a big way. They donated countless hours to help ensure students received their glasses as quickly as possible.

2023 was a celebration of how far we had come and a reminder that every milestone was made possible by our community who has been part of this journey every step along the way.

3 Days until half Helen turns 13! By 2022, half Helen was fully in its vision care era.With the launch of optical Prime,...
06/07/2026

3 Days until half Helen turns 13!

By 2022, half Helen was fully in its vision care era.

With the launch of optical Prime, we were able to provide eye exams directly at schools and community centers, making care more accessible than ever before. Our expanded mobile clinic model also allowed us to serve a new population: adults. When the school year wrapped up for the summer, we continued providing care by visiting community and health centers throughout Austin, ensuring patients could access services year-round.

Optical Prime stayed busy throughout the year. Through our school-based program, our optometrists provided comprehensive eye exams to 660 students. Through our community-based program, we provided comprehensive eye exams to 1,072 patients, helping children and adults alike access the care they needed.

2022 also brought recognition for Chelsea's leadership and vision. The Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce named Chelsea Elliott its Outstanding Female Entrepreneur. We were also honored to welcome representatives from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation aboard optical Prime. Their support played an instrumental role in making the mobile clinic a reality, and it was a privilege to show them the impact of their investment firsthand. During their visit, they observed eye exams, glasses dispensing, and frame fittings, seeing exactly how their support helps transform lives through access to vision care.

4 Days until half Helen turns 13! Once Optical Prime Jr. proved that bringing care directly to students worked, Chelsea ...
06/06/2026

4 Days until half Helen turns 13!

Once Optical Prime Jr. proved that bringing care directly to students worked, Chelsea was already thinking about the next step. After watching a marathon of Tiny House Nation, an idea began to take shape. What if we built a fully functional eye clinic inside a tiny house? Instead of simply creating a mobile solution, we could create a true clinic experience that traveled directly to the communities we serve.

With that vision in mind, half Helen partnered with an incredible group of supporters to bring Optical Prime to life. We worked closely with John King Construction to ensure the unit was built to withstand the demands of constant travel throughout Central Texas. Since we knew this would be the first eye exam experience for many of our students, every detail was designed with patient comfort and care in mind.

Additionally Chupik Designs, HCB Health, and Cox Plumbing donated their expertise to the project. Viki Chupik of Chupik Designs created the welcoming interior experience to help patients feel comfortable and cared for, while Kerry Hilton and the team at HCB Health designed the iconic exterior wrap.

We officially unveiled Optical Prime during half Helen's 8th birthday celebration, inviting supporters, partners, and friends to see firsthand what their generosity had helped create. Just a few months later, the clinic was on the road, visiting schools and providing comprehensive eye care to students across the city.

5 days until half Helen turns 13!While COVID-19 temporarily paused our ability to provide direct care, it didn't pause o...
06/05/2026

5 days until half Helen turns 13!

While COVID-19 temporarily paused our ability to provide direct care, it didn't pause our mission. Children still needed access to vision care, and half Helen spent that time looking for new ways to reach them.

Optical Prime Jr. had already proven that bringing care directly to schools worked. However, one challenge remained: space. Our portable clinic required an available room where equipment could be set up, and not every school or community center could accommodate those needs.

So we began asking a new question. What if the clinic itself was mobile?

During the pandemic, we started designing what would eventually become a fully mobile eye clinic. Instead of transporting equipment into a building, we envisioned a clinic that could park right outside a school or community center and provide care from within the vehicle itself. As the months passed, the idea went through multiple iterations and our team worked tirelessly to build partnerships and secure funding to turn the vision into reality.

When schools eventually reopened, half Helen returned to the field to continue providing direct care. With students spending more time than ever on computers, tablets, and digital devices, clear vision became increasingly important for learning and success.

6 Days until half Helen turns 13! In 2019, half Helen entered a new era.Up until this point, our work focused on identif...
06/04/2026

6 Days until half Helen turns 13!

In 2019, half Helen entered a new era.

Up until this point, our work focused on identifying students who needed follow-up care and glasses. But identifying a vision problem was only part of the solution. Time, transportation, and cost remained major barriers that prevented many families from accessing the care their children needed.

As always, Chelsea began looking for ways to bridge that gap.

The answer was simple in concept: if families couldn't get to the eye doctor, why not bring the eye doctor to them?

The idea of a portable optometry lane began to take shape. To make that vision a reality, Chelsea pitched the concept during Impact Austin's annual grant cycle. After demonstrating how this innovative model could create immediate, measurable impact, half Helen was awarded a $100,000 grant to purchase the necessary equipment. With that support, Optical Prime Jr. was born.

A sprinter van was transformed into a mobile eye clinic, allowing half Helen to bring comprehensive eye exams directly to schools across Austin. For many students, this was their very first visit to an eye doctor.

7 Days until half Helen turns 13!After five years of conducting vision and hearing screenings and recording results on p...
06/03/2026

7 Days until half Helen turns 13!

After five years of conducting vision and hearing screenings and recording results on paper, Chelsea recognized another opportunity to innovate. Working alongside the screening team, half Helen began developing a digital solution that would streamline the screening process and make reporting easier for schools. The result was Swift Screen—an app designed to digitally record screening results and provide schools with access to reports that met state reporting requirements.

What started as a tool built to solve our own challenges quickly transformed the way half Helen worked. Teams no longer had to spend hours manually entering screening data, allowing them to focus more time on serving students and less time on paperwork.

The first version of swift Screen was simple, but our school partners immediately saw its potential. As interest grew, Chelsea realized this solution could benefit organizations far beyond half Helen. That realization led her to pitch swift Screen at Philanthropitch, a social impact competition that connects promising nonprofits and social enterprises with funding and support.

The idea resonated. swift Screen won big, bringing home more than $64,000 in funding to support further development and expansion. That investment allowed half Helen to transform a practical internal tool into a platform that could help schools and organizations improve their screening programs, extending our impact far beyond the students we could reach directly.

8 days until half Helen turns 13!2017 was a year of growth, advocacy, and recognition for half Helen.As our vision scree...
06/02/2026

8 days until half Helen turns 13!

2017 was a year of growth, advocacy, and recognition for half Helen.

As our vision screening program expanded, half Helen began serving schools across Central Texas, reaching communities as far south as San Antonio. One of our most significant partnerships was with KIPP schools in San Antonio, helping ensure that students received the vision screenings they needed to succeed in the classroom.

Beyond screenings, Chelsea worked closely with the Lions Club to advocate for better vision screening practices across Texas. These efforts contributed to the passage of Texas House Bill 3157, which expanded state vision screening requirements by authorizing the use of photoscreening technology in public and private schools. Chelsea's work through half Helen was recognized by the Texas State Board of Education when she was named a Hero for Children for helping provide vision screenings to more than 15,000 students. She was also honored as an Austin Young Chamber ChangeMaker for her commitment to improving children's access to vision care.

2017 also marked another fun milestone: half Helen hosted its first major fundraising event. The inaugural Glow Ball invited supporters to spend an evening playing night golf while raising funds to help expand our programs and reach more families in need.

Address

7801 N Lamar Boulevard Suite D 80
Austin, TX
78752

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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