Stephanie Herrington brought her son, Gavin, 4, to play at the Chelsea TreeHouse Friday morning, but before he investigated all the play equipment, his mom took advantage of a Chelsea Lions Club free eye screening.
The screening, part of the Lions’ project called “Project KidSight,” was performed in conjunction with Dr. Paula Koch of Cherry Optometry.
In fact, the mom said, this was Gavin’s first eye screening.
“He wasn’t scared of it at all,” Herrington said.
And, once the quick picture of his eyes was taken, he headed off to investigate the safe-and-secure TreeHouse indoor play area, which includes climbing and play structures, slides, a baby and toddler area, swinging bridges, basketball hoops, and a huge tree house.
Herrington thanked both the Lions for the free eye test, and the TreeHouse for the indoor play facility.
“It’s really nice here,” she said. “The kids have lots of fun, then they sleep well at night.”
Usually, the Lions head to preschools for the free eye screenings, but they decided to try something different and see how things worked out at the TreeHouse.
Project Kidsight is for anyone, but members said the screening was focused on children 5 years old and under, because that’s a time when eye problems can be caught — before a child starts school or can even talk.
“Catching anything under the age is 5 is when the eye is developing,” Koch said, adding, “The Lions are a great organization that provides eye health; and a great service to the community.”
Sharra Evilsizer brought her 8-month-old daughter, Claire, to play at the TreeHouse, and she, too, took advantage of the free eye screening.
The Lions Club, with the help of a grant from the Michigan Braille Transcribing Fund, purchased a “PediaVision Assessment Solution,” which allows professionals to “find indications of vision problems in children as young as six months old,” according to information about the event.
The test screens for things like near sightedness, far sightedness, astigmatism, unequal refractive powers, corneal occlusions, unequal pupil sizes, and eye alignment problems.
Lions club volunteers screened each child from a distance of about 3 feet. The child sat on a couch, or in mom’s lap as in Claire’s case, and looked at a scanner that had a happy face on it, which took continuous infrared photographs.
The images are then analyzed and a “pass” or “refer” report was generated and given to each parent.
If the child was given a “refer” diagnosis, then the parent was told to take the child for a thorough eye exam and was given a packet of eye care information.
The club members performed 24 screenings for children 8 months to 5 years old with the KidSight equipment, and there were three referrals club member Chuck Armstrong said. In addition, four children between the ages of 6-12 years old were screened, and six people 13 years and older were tested.
For more information about the Chelsea Lion’s Club, click here.
