Over 1,500 students in Comox Valley Schools had their eyes checked this year, thanks to help from the Comox Valley Monarch Lions Club.
The club had another successful year doing vision screening in local elementary schools. Thirteen schools were screened, with 35 classes made up of grades 2, 4 and 7 students. In all, 1,574 students were tested, with 81 of them being referred for further eyesight evaluation.
The testers used a Welch Allyn Spot Vision Screener. The device is used to test eyesight without direct contact. Testers actually stand several feet away from their subjects. The scanners were purchased — at a cost of $7,000 each — by the Lions Clubs on Vancouver Island, with half of the cost covered by the Lions Club International Foundation. The scanners are brought to different communities on the Island, with several Lions Clubs sharing the devices.
The Comox Valley Monarch Lions Club introduced this Vision Screening project to the school district in 2017 and have carried it out each year, other than 2020 during the pandemic.
