The live eye-dissection demonstration at Chicago’s Griffin Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago is something you don’t see every day. And now Medline is supporting the vision.

On June 1, the company became the exclusive sponsor of Griffin MSI’s Eye Dissection Show, continuing a relationship between Medline and the museum that began many years ago with donations from Medline’s ownership family.

Two to three times each day, museum staffers blend education with entertainment, cutting into and exploring a real cow eyeball with help from audience volunteers – a 30-minute demo that teaches attendees about the parts of the eye, what they do and how they relate to common conditions such as colorblindness, astigmatism and cataracts. On the table for each show are donated supplies from Medline: gloves, protective eyewear, surgical instruments and cleaning products.

The experience is for all ages and free to attend with general admission to the museum. More than 10 presenters from the Griffin MSI guest engagement team, many of whom are professionally trained actors and scientists, take turns with the two-person hosting duties, balancing eye-related humor with the biology of a cow’s eye, which is structurally and functionally similar to a human’s.

The demo became a road show earlier this month when two of those presenters, Elisa Tipton and Jack Swokowski, accompanied by a group of museum leaders, stopped by Medline’s corporate headquarters in Northfield, Ill., for a special showing for employees. After gloving and goggling up, three Medline “pupils,” so to speak – Alan Genender, general manager, personal protection; Deondra Malone, regulatory UDI operations associate, and Jeff Kleppin, associate analyst, chargebacks – volunteered to come up and assist with the slicing, snipping and squeezing.

Now, that’s what you call unblinking support.

“Providing the important medical supplies that clinicians and patients use every day is the primary way Medline helps the healthcare field, but there are other many ways we do it as well – in this case, supporting education in our communities,” said Jenny Lee, Medline’s chief marketing officer. “Empowering people to learn more about their own health and how they can protect their eyesight is another way to make healthcare run better, and we’re thrilled to be able to support the museum as they make this fun and fascinating exercise available to the thousands of visitors who come through their doors each week.”

Pam Chen, Griffin MSI’s vice president of business services and guest engagement and its chief administrative officer, expressed excitement about the downstream effects on impressionable young minds.

“Our museum is a special place where people connect with loved ones and make lasting memories, but it’s also a powerful catalyst,” Chen said. “Many STEM professionals trace the start of their careers back to an exhibit or a show like the Eye Dissection Show, telling us that it sparked their curiosity and inspired them to follow a passion.

“We can’t know exactly how many future doctors, scientists, engineers or innovators will be put on their path by Medline’s contribution. But we know they’ll be out there. We know the impact will be lasting.”

Learn more about some of Medline’s involvement in the communities it serves.