Members of the Perry Lions Club are conducting vision screenings at local daycare centers in Perry this week as part of their annual participation in the Iowa KidSight program, a joint project of the Lions Clubs of Iowa and the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
The project aims to provide free, objective vision screening for infants and young children in all of Iowa’s 99 counties. They also seek to educate the public about the risk of undetected vision loss and identify ways to sustain similar vision screening programs across the state.
“The idea is to catch these vision issues before the kids get into school,” said Perry Lion Phil Stone, who has been involved with the program since it started in Perry 9 years ago. “Correcting their vision early prevents interrupting their development later on, once they’re in school,” he said.
The program’s target population is children 6 months of age through kindergarten, but the Perry Lions focus on preschool-age children. They work closely with Perry Elementary School Nurse Shelly Thompson.
“We take a close up of the kids’ eyes and send the pictures to the Iowa Department of Ophthamology,” Stone said. He said the Perry Lions screen the vision of about 120 children yearly, with about 15 percent of the children either needing retesting or later receiving a notification from the University of Iowa that further medical examination is called for.
The Lions tested about 40 children on Monday at the Headstart Program at Crossroads Church in Perry and another 40 Tuesday at the Perry Elementary School. Thursday found them testing another 40 pairs of eyes at the Perry Child Development Center, and Friday they set up in St. Patrick’s School for a further 22 screenings.
The screening camera is a precision instrument costing about $10,000, Stone said. The camera is on loan from the Panora Lions Club.
The Perry Lions Club also finances eyeglasses for low-income students lacking other sources of support, and they have a hearing aid program for older area residents.
