Lions Club organizing eye screenings

In association with the Juneau Mendenhall Flying Lions Club, the Wrangell Lions will be bringing in a plusoptiX vision screener to the borough to mark World Sight Day and National White Cane Day this week.

Tomorrow screening will be available to the children of Evergreen Elementary School. Screenings open to all comers Saturday at the Wrangell Children's Fair from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., also at the school. Adults can be screened, though the focus is on children ages six months and up.

“It's an awesome tool,” Lions President Janet Strom explained. The device is designed to screen for refractive error, anisocoria and strabismus, and is of particular use for diagnosing pre-verbal children. “You might not know they have a vision problem without this.”

Screening takes only a second and entails screening both eyes from about a yard away. The “pass” or “refer” result then displays automatically. Though the Lions are not optometrists or eyecare professionals, the screener can alert parents to potential vision problems early on, making possible a successful corrective intervention by a specialist.

“We have used it in Wrangell on several occasions,” Strom said, adding that 10 preschool-aged children have been diagnosed so far.

The Juneau chapter owns its own device, taking it to communities around Southeast for screenings.

“It's a very expensive piece of machinery,” Strom commented, and the program makes such evaluations available to people that otherwise would not have access to the technology.

With 45,000 clubs and 1.3 million members, Lions Club International is the largest service club in the world. Active since 1968, Wrangell's chapter has been around for nearly half a century.

The service organization is a project-oriented one. Among its activities, Lions Club collects aluminum at bins around town to raise funds for various charitable projects.

It also maintains eyeglass-collection boxes at First Bank, the Public Health Office, and Wrangell Medical Center. The eyewear gets sent to the regional office in Fairbanks, where Strom explained the glasses and lenses find new usage with people otherwise unable to afford them.

“It's a great club to belong to if you don't want to go to meetings regularly,” she joked, explaining the group puts greater emphasis on action in its approach. People interested in taking part can contact Strom at 305-0629, or email her at stroms@gci.net.