In focus.

• Position: Final entry - Interview

This year's CalCPA Public Service Award winner, John Jones, CPA, has led missions with live Sunrise Rotary Club and St. Mark Lutheran Church to provide eyeglasses and vision correction to villagers in remote parts of the world. For more than 21 years, he has made eye care trips to Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala, Samoa and Vietnam. We spoke with Jones, managing partner of Linkenheimer LLP CPAs & Advisors in Santa Rosa, to leant more about his adventures in giving.

How did you get Involved with these missions?

It started in 1994 with Santa Rosa Sunrise Rotary. I've been a Rotarian since 1979. In 1994, our dub president asked if I could come up with an international hands-on service project for our members. My wife and I had recently been to Cancun to celebrate our anniversary As pan of that trip we went into the backcountry and visited Mayan villages. I was impressed with how content and happy the locals were, and told my wife I wanted to come back and figure out a way us help them. After our president reached out to me, I connected with the two Rotary Clubs in Cancun and our first eye care mission came into being in January 1995.

What are some of the places you've traveled for this work?

Southern Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala, Samoa, Nicaragua (more than a dozen times) and Vietnam. Our Rotary Club concluded after our Vietnam mission that we should work in a Country where we were needed, appreciated by the government and maybe a little closer to home Nicaragua fit the requirements.

How do the logistics of the operation work when you are there?

Planning is done by myself and our in-country coordinator, Rafael. We start with determining the timing for mission, then which villages we will assist. I then determine our eyeglass needs and place the order with Rafael to buy them in Managua so we avoid customs fees and any potential hassles carrying them into the country. Rafael will put the word out to the communities what days we will be there. This is handled via the local health centers, churches and buying ad time on the local radio station, Rafael and I make arrangements for transportation and Rafael handles the purchase of our food and water.

What's the most Interesting place you have been?

Probably Ho Chi Minh City, which was a total cultural change for us. Plus 3 million scooters in the city required "training" on our pan to learn how to survive crossing the streets with all the traffic.

What's the most remote place you have been?

That would...