In keeping with the theme of Giving Tuesday, members of Aiken area Lions Clubs gave their time Tuesday to ensure school children have healthy eyes.
Lions Club members volunteered to do vision screenings for more than 500 students at Millbrook Elementary School. The screenings marked the first time the Lions Club has screened students in Aiken County Public Schools.
“This is our main goal: doing vision screenings,” said Pat Friday, a member of the Aiken Lions Club and a past district governor. “Students in all 21 elementary schools in Aiken County will be screened. It's all free at no expense to the school district whatsoever.”
The screening is a noninvasive eye test that helps identify children at risk for vision problems.
The device estimates pupil size, pupil distance and the eye-gaze deviation. The scanner also can read for near and far vision and can indicate whether children need to get their eyes checked. It also can identify a number of eye diseases.
If the device detects a vision issue, the child's chart is marked for a referral.
“We don't touch the children's eyes. The children sit in front of the video screener, and it shows what their vision is,” Friday said. “It shows if they need glasses. It they do, we print out that report, and the school nurse will follow up with the parents.”
Before this year, school nurses used eye charts for vision exams.
“This is a very scientific piece of equipment that looks into the eye,” Friday said. “In Upstate South Carolina, the screening device detected that a child needed to go to an ophthalmologist because it saw a dark spot, which ended up being a tumor behind the eye. It gives you a very accurate screening.”
The Lions Club also can help families in financial need pay for their children's glasses, Friday said.
“Often children break their glasses, but Medicaid will pay for only one pair of glasses a year,” she said. “That's what the Lions Club is about. We have funds to assist. We don't want children to go a whole school year without glasses.”
Friday said service is her passion and a hallmark of the Lions Club.
Read the full Aiken Standard article here.