John Raynar (senior-telecommunications) was looking forward to a Spring Break in Miami and a chance to relax, to take in the tempered heat and warm waters of Miami Beach — until Raynar and a friend were attacked, leaving Raynar without his right eye.

Raynar and friend, Penn Weis (sophomore-letters, arts and sciences) were planning to attend a drum circle concert on Miami Beach on March 10, the evening before they were to head back to Penn State. Around 2 a.m., Raynar, Weis and two other friends began walking back to their car when two men approached them.

One of the men asked Raynar and Weis for a cigarette and proceeded to punch Weis in the face. To assist his friend, Raynar jumped into the fray, and subdued the other man by throwing him against the windshield of a car, Raynar said.

"I thought he was pretty subdued," he said.

The man who Raynar thought was knocked unconscious, however, came up from behind Raynar and gauged his face with a broken beer bottle.

The two men immediately ran from the scene as friends assisted Raynar into a car and to the South Shore Hospital, where he waited five hours before being seen by a doctor.

At about 9 a.m. the next morning, Raynar was finally admitted into the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, where he spent six hours in surgery and was told that he lost his right eye and that a prosthesis would replace it in two months.

Raynar said police told him they believe the incident to be gang related, perhaps an initiation right taken out on a couple of tourists.

"They didn't take any money, any of that . . . all they did was rip my friend's chain off," Raynar said.

The detective working on the case could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Raynar's attack was not the only trouble he faced in Miami. Raynar said that the first night in Miami, trouble foreshadowed his trip when his car was broken into, resulting in the loss of $3,000 worth of items.

Reflecting on the incident, Raynar said he has spent his time adjusting to his visual impairment, knowing the attack could have produced more horrific consequences.

"I'm trying to be positive about it . . . I could have died from the attack," Raynar said.

Weis agrees the adjustment will take time, but complemented his friend on the way he is handling his situation.

"I'm real proud of him . . . when it initially happened, I thought it would devastate him and ruin his entire life, but he's not letting it do that," Weiss said.

Weis said Raynar's been handling the situation even with a touch of humor.

"We played some pool last night and he beat me . . . we just joked about it," Weis said.

Raynar's friend, Mike Walsh (senior-English), said Raynar was dealing with his situation amazingly well and surprised his friend hasn't let the injury interfere with his school work.

"I'm impressed. I would have ditched the rest of classes this semester," Walsh said.

Weis added, however, that despite the rapid time in which Raynar and he are adjusting, his thoughts of Miami will always be tainted with memories of the attack.

"It changes your outlook," he said. "I would rather be taking tests all week in my least favorite class than go on Spring Break, be beaten up and have your friend lose his right eye."