Brookdale Community College

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Pat Gomes' eyeglasses had snapped in half. No warning — snapped.Useless, unless she could build a magic bridge between the lenses where the frame used to be. She did the cool-man shades thing at work all day, then did what half of Long Branch seems to do in an eyeglass emergency: trucked on over to Dawn Cooper's after work on a recent Monday night."It's no problem, I can stay late," Cooper says as Gomes rushes into Dawn's Eyeware, smack-dab in the middle of the city's downtown.Some magic does indeed happen, as Cooper removes her customer's lenses from the damaged frames, roots around her shop-cum-laboratory for a temporary model that will accommodate Gomes' lenses, then — eureka! — trots back to her lab to put a new-for-now pair together. Gomes, clear-eyed and bushy-tailed again, departs, knowing Cooper will figure out a way to repair those blasted broken frames.For if frames can be salvaged, Cooper will figure out how. That's why she's a local hero to the vision-impaired. That's why Long Branch residents, and those within a reasonable shout of 639 Broadway, have, for almost 20 years, come to depend on the good-natured gal with the indomitable spirit and wizardlike ways. That's - more available