As 2025 comes to a close, I look in the rearview mirror to many blessings, some sadness, and several operational hurdles we have had to navigate. Even though it doesn't feel like another year has come and gone (where did the time go?), I'd like to reflect on all the year had to offer myself and the entire Icare family.
If you've read my previous recaps of 2024, 2023, and 2022, you'll notice these have become a bit of an annual tradition for me now. As with all of our lives, they have evolved over time to become a way for me to sit back and truly take a few moments to soak in all the good & not so good things we've faced this year. They also serve as part of my commitment as President of IcareLabs to provide my team and our amazing customers with transparency, accountability, and honesty.
Our team understands that without our customers, we would truly have nothing. It's thanks to your trust and business that I'm able to show up each day and work alongside the best lab team in the world (I may be biased) to help ECPs across the country provide the gift of sight. I also hope our customers understand that our business is made up of people just like them, with families to care for. Just as we support your families, you also help support ours. Seeing several members of our team reach multi-decade milestones of dedicated service over the years will never cease to inspire me to continue doing what we do.
Sad Farewells
This year it really sank in that there is a tender downside to having so many long-term team members. When you’ve been blessed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with such good people for 10, 20, and even 30 years, saying goodbye stops being just hard—it becomes genuinely heartbreaking. This year we were hit especially hard by the passing of 2 team members; Don Schoonover and Debbie Lank.
On October 12th of this year, we lost Don, who had been part of our Icare family for over 34 years. My father and uncle hired him all those years ago, and over time he became an irreplaceable part of our maintenance team. Don was instantly recognizable with his long hair and his love of classic rock, but what stood out most was his
heart. I’ll never forget when he grew his hair out to an incredible length, only to cut it and donate it to be made into a wig for a cancer patient. That was Don in a nutshell—quietly selfless, always thinking of others. He will be deeply and truly missed here at Icare.
This was sadly followed up by the sudden passing of Debbie Lank, on November 6th. Deb was a key member of our customer service team and loved by all. We were still barely beginning to process Don’s passing when our team was dealt another heartbreaking blow. Deb was gruff and lovable in the best possible way, and her accounts knew without a doubt that if you needed something pushed through, she would move the world to get your job out the door.
Deb spent an amazing 13 years with us, filling our days with laughter, stories, and the kind of everyday moments that turn coworkers into family. One of my favorite memories of her is the way she signed off at the end of every day: “Well, the clock on the wall is ticking down, girls. Another day ended with a job well done, I might add. I gotta go now, bye bye.” It was classic Deb—proud of the work, never in a rush to take credit, and always reminding us what really matters.
She reminded all of us that our time each day is limited, and that what we choose to do with it matters. Deb showed up, gave her all, and left us with a shining example of how to take care of each other and our customers while we’re here.
Both Don and Deb will be greatly missed.
Accomplishments of 2025
This year also brought several big improvements in the lab. All of our departments work tirelessly to constantly improve and 2025 was no different. One of my guiding principles is that we can always get better. We're never satisfied to rest on our laurels. I have an open-door policy for a reason, and my team knows that anyone can
bring ideas to me and our operations team if they think we can be doing something better. No ideas are ever off the table. From long-term team members to new hires, everyone brings a unique perspective that helps improve.
Our resident lens guru, IT wizard, and VP (who also happens to be a pretty awesome brother) James Payne, along with his IT team, implemented some truly amazing enhancements with our systems this year. On top of adding several new collections into our supply frame catalog, they were also able to significantly update our frame database. This is crucial for providing accuracy on our uncut lens orders. These changes greatly helped our customers reduce cut-out issues in 2025. James and his team were also able to greatly increase or data analysis allowing us granular-level capabilities to squash issues before they become problems faster than ever before.
Customer Service and Operations completely redesigned our order entry area in the lab. The goal was to increase efficiency and streamline our check in process. This has led to a noticeable decline in frame mix-ups, while also helping to further improve our accuracy and turn time for tracing frame-to-come jobs.
We also had the bittersweet joy of saying goodbye to Karen after an amazing 47 years here at the lab with us. Her retirement party was one for the books, and I can't think of a bigger accomplishment than celebrating a team member that dedicated almost 50 years of their life to help us achieve our goals. While we can never truly replace such an amazing team member, it gives me great happiness to know she got to retire in style after all she did for us. The legend truly has retired!
We also said hello to our new Production Manager, William, who brings a wealth of knowledge to our operations team. I think I speak for our whole team when I say how impressed I was when he showed up and dived into every station and position learning how we work from the floor up.
Oh and I definitely can't forget about our 57th anniversary we celebrated earlier this year! I'd say that is also a pretty big accomplishment, right? If you didn't get a chance to see it yet, check out my video message celebrating this amazing milestone.
Challenges of 2025
Much like your own practice has had to juggle staffing challenges and rising costs this year, 2025 brought one of those especially frustrating operational hurdles that eventually show up for every business. The kind that feels a bit like playing whack-a-mole—just as you get one issue under control, another one pops up. You can probably imagine how demanding it is to keep every piece of equipment in our lab running smoothly, and our maintenance team usually does this day in and day out with flying colors. This year, though, they were really put to the test with our new spin coaters. With three of these units processing a large portion of our daily volume, it was a true testament to their skill and expertise to get these machines dialed in so they consistently produce work that meets the Icare standard.
I’m proud to share that, here at the close of the year, it truly feels like they’ve tamed these beasts. We continually push for low single-digit error rates across all of our key metrics, and the maintenance team rose to the occasion while learning a tremendous amount along the way. My hat is off to them for the dedication and persistence that helped keep your work moving through our lab with the quality you expect.
New Products of 2025
While we were very proud & excited to relaunch our Legacy line of house brand progressive lenses with our new Legacy G3 lenses that are powered by Shamir designs, the biggest product news of 2025 was the launch
of the new Stellest single vision lenses. These lenses are designed to help children dealing with progressive myopia slow down the progression of the disease. The technology behind these lenses is truly mind blowing and we are happy to be able to offer these amazing new designs for all of our customers in the Icare family.
I was also excited we were able to roll out the Ultimate Warranty to all of our customers. This program provides you with a 2 year, unlimited warranty for minimal costs. When the program launched it was only offered to complete jobs. We heard the voices of our uncut customers and made it available to all with great success.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As I’ve shared throughout this recap, my guiding philosophy is continuous improvement—for myself, for our lab, and for our team. 2026 will be no different. My promise to you as our customer is that we will always look for ways to do better.
On a personal level, I’ve pushed myself beyond marathons and am now training for triathlons. In the lab, we’ve
set new goals and are holding ourselves to even higher standards. I’ve challenged my leadership team to find new ways to connect with our staff so we can support them in being the very best at what they do.
We also plan to keep working hard while having some fun along the way. Events like our “Legends of the Hidden Icare Temple” help make sure the whole Icare family comes to work with a smile. We’ll continue our weekly meetings to keep everyone informed about what’s working well and what needs a little extra TLC to get back on track.
For our customers, we’re exploring new shipping options with FedEx and staying focused on bringing you the latest lens designs and coatings as soon as they become available.
To all of our customers, you are an important part of our Icare family, and we sincerely thank you for putting your trust in us this past year. We’re truly grateful for your partnership and look forward to continuing to earn your trust and your business in the New Year. We are truly humbled by your continued support. From our families to yours, thank you.
