Brian Boyce
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Hundreds of children lined up for vision checks Wednesday with local Lions Club members.
“This is the first year we’ve worked in conjunction with the Lions Club,” said Lisa Isaacs, registered nurse, inside the Terre Town Elementary School library as children stood in line to be tested.
Isaacs, who serves as school nurse for Terre Town, Rio Grande and Deming elementaries, as well as Otter Creek Middle School, said state regulations mandate vision testing in the first, third and eighth grades.
This past fall, various Lions Clubs in Vigo County approached the school corporation to see if collaboration was possible.
The Lions Club, with more than 1.3 million members in 200 countries, is the largest service club in the world and dedicates its attention to the fight against blindness.
Lions Club member Ray Collins was trafficking 110 third-graders through the library a little after 1 p.m. Five classes of 22 students each were lining up to be tested on machines purchased with a $15,000 grant.
“Things have gone really well,” he said of Wednesday’s testing, which began at Rio Grande Elementary. The corporation-wide effort kicked off in February and Wednesday was the final wrap-up, the Eli Lilly retiree said. The equipment purchased with the grant tests children ages 6 months through adulthood, he said. “And we’re beginning to get quite busy.”
Earlier in January, Collins and other Lions went to rural Mexico to distribute 6,000 pairs of eyeglasses to the poor.
Isaacs said parents will receive a referral letter if the screening results indicate that a child needs glasses. “And the Lions Club is a great resource for us,” she said, adding that the group provides glasses for low-income families.
Peyton McKenna, 9, said she was ready for her vision test. “Kind of,” she said when asked if she had good vision.
McKenna said her most recent vision screening was at Springfield Medical Center. “At my mom’s work.”
In the end, getting out of class for a while was a good thing she said, quick to note to her teacher, Lee Anne Mattick, “but not because you’re in there.”
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
