A corn leaf and a scratched eye lead to a long-time career

“It’s weird to get paid to do something I enjoy doing,” Denise Reed of Broadway Vision Source said after receiving the 2018 Iowa Optometric Assistant of the Year Award.

It’s been 41 years since Reed first joined what was then known as Broadway Vision Clinic under the ownership of Dr. Gazaway.

“When he first hired me, I was looking to go into fashion merchandising,” Reed said, seemingly amazed at how things worked out.

While detasseling corn, she took a cornstalk leaf to the eye, which led to a couple of visits to Dr. Gazaway to check things out. She recalled how while she was gettting her eye checked, he kept saying how she should come to work for him. She started listening more seriously when he told her that buying frames and fitting frames was a form of fashion.

“Then he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Reed said, and she redirected her profession and joined the optometry field in January of 1977.

Dr. Gazaway also utilized Reed’s fashion sense by allowing her to have input on remodeling efforts of the building.

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