Young people who face hardships and overcome them inspire Sarah Martinez-Helfman. They motivate her to do her best as the executive director of the Eagles Youth Partnership program, she says. Every year, her program checks the vision of thousands of children by sending its Eagles Eye Mobile to schools and neighbor- hoods in the Philadelphia area. It also provides tens of thousands of free books through its Eagles Book Mobile. The program even builds a new playground annually. Ms. Martinez-Helfman says the goal of these activities is to be a “game changer” in children’s lives. It all started in 1996, shortly after the Philadelphia Eagles signed first-round draft pick Jermane Mayberry for their offensive line. He told Ms. Martinez-Helfman, who had been hired a year earlier to develop the Eagles’ community youth program, that he wanted to do something for kids. He said vision was important to him. Sarah Martinez-Helfman Getting kids into glasses and books Mr. Mayberry then recounted that as a child he had trouble learning in school. Finally, when he was 16, he had his eyes checked. He found out that the problem all along was that he had trouble seeing, not learning, says Ms. Martinez-Helfman. With a $100,000 donation, Mr. Mayberry helped launch the Eagles Eye Mobile. The big green van serves as an office with doctors on board. When they identify that a child has a vision problem, they provide two free pairs of glasses. Sometimes, children need surgery. The Eagles Youth Partnership program takes care of them, too. Vision is a key focus of the charity because 80 percent of school learning is through one’s eyes, Ms. Martinez-Helfman says. She is proud that the Eagles Eye Mobile has been so successful that other teams such as the Cleveland Browns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers now have their own mobile vision programs. Once kids could see better, they needed books, says Ms. Martinez-Helfman. She tells the story of a boy who jumped excitedly when he got his first pair of glasses because he could clearly see the leaves on a tree for the first time. But Ms. Martinez-Helfman then realized he couldn’t read.