Members of the Perry Lions Club conducted their annual vision screenings in September at local daycare centers in Perry 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 Jim McCauley, who has been involved with the program since it started in Perry 18 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 use a screening camera to take a close-up picture of the youngsters’ eyes and send the pictures to the Iowa Children’s Hospital Department of Ophthalmology for analysis.
The Lions will test about 60 children on Monday at the Perry Elementary School and another 30 Tuesday at the Gingerbread Preschool in Perry. They will round out the week with tests at the Perry Child Development Center and the Head Start program at New Opportunities.
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.
