Successful Year of Eye Screenings

The Kernersville Lions Club will finish up with the 2017 vision screenings for local schools and daycares this month.
Lions Club member Debbie Warren noted that they will have screened 3,180 children in the Kernersville community.
“The yearly screening takes lots of pre-planning and twenty-five volunteers per screening. The Kernersville Lions Club has supportive volunteers from the Walkertown Lions Club, the Kernersville Woman’s Club, church volunteers from Love’s United Methodist, Morris Chapel United Methodist, Bunker Hill United Methodist, Main Street United Methodist, First Baptist and Union Cross Moravian churches,” she said.
In addition, Warren said PTA members volunteer from the schools that invited them in to screen their students. Those schools include Walkertown Elementary, Walkertown Middle, Kernersville Elementary, Kernersville Middle, Sedge Garden Elementary, Union Cross Elementary, Southeast Middle and Caleb’s Creek Elementary schools, as well as The North Carolina Leadership Academy.
“We hope to include other local schools next year,” she said.
Warren said the vision screening includes a $10,000 Pedi-Vision computer machine for those who are not able to read the vision chart.
“This computer machine screens for seven different problems and prints out a bar graph on the problem and how severe the issue is,” she said. “We send a letter, which is in both English and Spanish, to parents with the information highly recommending that they see a doctor.”
Warren said they also use the Pedi-Vision with local children at Triad Baptist, Main Street Baptist, First Baptist, Holy Cross Catholic, Fountain of Life Lutheran, Main Street United Methodist, First Christian and Sedge Garden United Methodist church preschools.
“Dr. Patrick Hageman, an ophthalmology doctor in Kernersville, researched and found the Pedi-Vision computer machine used for those children needing more direct screening. Dr. Amy Harper, an optometrist in Kernersville, works with the Kernersville Lions Club for financial assistance for parents if needed for exams for glasses,” she said. “Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools’ school nurses are starting a partnership with us this year with an extra level of service in a couple of schools. We hope the school nurses are available to partner with us for all the schools next year.”
Warren noted that the Kernersville Lions Club buys all supplies for the screening, supports the parents with financial needs with doctors’ visits and/or glasses if needed, updates the software for the computer and gives each participating school $400 just for allowing them to serve the children of the Kernersville area.
For more information about the Kernersville Lions Club’s eye screening, email Warren at dbwarrenchris@gmail.com or, if interested in joining the club, contact Marvin Bare at mbare@triad.rr.com.