We recently had an opportunity to donate a pair of Roshambo prescription glasses to our newest customer, Nick Smith, and we are so happy to share his story! Through our sponsorship with the San Diego Padres, we donated prescription glasses to a family in need for every home run hit in the 2020 season (95!). So when Patti and Nick reached out, we were thrilled to select Nick for a pair of new glasses. In a year of tough times and struggles for many families, it is nice to share a happy story!
by: Patti Knick (aka “Patticake” Nick’s best friend!)
Nick Smith is one of the world's smallest men standing at 2ft 6in (about the size of a three year old). He is 28-years-old and has a condition called Microcephalic Osteodysplastic Primordial Dwarfism type two (MOPD 2), a condition characterized by short stature (dwarfism) with other skeletal abnormalities (osteodysplasia) and an unusually small head size (microcephaly).
He has had to go through so much in his life so far just to remain healthy, like multiple brain surgeries to repair aneurysms and bone alignment in back & legs just to name a few.
Nick takes all of these issues with such bravery and never lets it get him down!
In fact Nick has a way of making everyone around him smile and laugh and leaves you with such joy for life. He truly is an inspiration to all. We share many moments of Nick through social media to help other people feeling depressed, suicidal, or just down on life. People say they would see a video of Nick and it would just lift their spirits or literally put life into perspective for them!
Patticake (that’s me!) is a family friend who has known Nick for almost 20 years, after meeting him through a local community Special Olympics event. I noticed after high school, many adults with special needs like Nick get “bored” or just forgotten about when it comes to activities. So I started inviting Nick to go to different organizational events locally and we became instant best friends! He came up with my nickname Patticake. ;)
Just being around Nick has given me so many reasons to do more...more for him and so many!
With a shortened lifespan, I want to make every day I’m around him awesome! So I go out of my way to share his laughter and zest for life through the videos I take. Many of these videos went viral, and that’s when the comments would come in about Nick's glasses.
It’s was heartbreaking to read and I would try so hard to delete the mean messages before his mom would read them because they were so hurtful. Things like, “why don’t you get him glasses that fit”, and “his glasses are way too big”, and “someone must not know what they are doing at the eye doctor” and so many more.
But what these people didn’t realize was that even though he's 28 years old, he is mentally only a child. If you've ever raised a toddler, you know that when they get into a store they often turn into demanding fussy and say “I want this!” no matter what you’d say. So often Nick would pick out glasses in stock that were not always the right fit or custom made.
His head is the size of an infant around 3-6 months, and is so very tiny that even special order glasses were hard to fit.
Nick also gets mad at times, like many other special needs people and throws anger fits and the first thing he does is throw his glasses, which causes many to break or get scratched. Luckily Roshambo has a warranty that protects us if his frames break!
When I saw the ads for Roshambo and how unbreakable the frames are, I jumped at the opportunity to order a free try-on kit! Nick was so excited to get them in the mail (he loves mail especially if it’s for him) and the baby size (ages 0-2) glasses fit PERFECTLY!!
Nick isn’t my child and while I do love him dearly and wish I could buy him whatever he wants, I know I couldn’t buy these or ask his mom who struggles financially already due to all the many things in life with a special needs child. So I reached out to Roshambo about a way we could work together in sharing Nick’s amazing story to help cover the cost of prescription glasses.
This has truly been a blessing for all of us and Nick especially because these glasses are so awesome & unbreakable!
It’s been amazing to see all the sweet and positive comments now on Facebook and Instagram about how great the new glasses are. They also stay on and don't slide off his nose! He has such confidence with this new pair, it’s awesome to see!
So thank you so very much for these awesome glasses and for taking care of so many others with different needs. It helps families like Nick’s in many ways, but the best way is that we finally have a pair that fits so perfectly.
