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District 24A Lions Impact Children’s Vision Screening
The Lions Clubs of District 24A working in conjunction with Lions International Foundation (LCIF) and Prevent Blindness Virginia (PBV) are bringing enhanced vision screening and equipment to local schools.
Thanks to the financial support of the local clubs and a matching grant from LCIF the Lions will bring a $55,000 screening program to 12 school systems in their District. Although the total amount of the project is $150,000 the grant award from LCIF was for $22,840. This is a direct match of the invested funds from the District. This allows for approximately 1/3 of the project to be delivered in this phase. In order to have the strongest district wide coverage the following school systems were pre-selected for implementation. This will result in more than 28,000 children receiving a certified children’s vision screening.
Before the start of the 2006/2007 school year, school nurses in; Arlington, Culpeper, Falls Church, Fauquier, Fredericksburg, King George, Manassas, Manassas Park, Rappahannock, Westmoreland, and Stafford will each receive training and national certification from Prevent Blindness Virginia in children’s vision screening. Along with their training, each of the 121 schools will also receive a vision screening kit equipped with all the necessary supplies to do a Prevent Blindness Certified vision Screening. As part of this effort, school nurses in Alexandria have already been trained, equipped and
nationally certified, and those in Fairfax and Prince William have received training and
certification. A second phase of this program will be initiated to equip Fairfax and Prince William Counties in the near future.
This Lions effort is in response to Prevent Blindness Virginia’s Project: Construction “Sight”, which began early in 2004. This project is designed to bring
Prevent Blindness certified children’s vision screening training and equipment to each of
the more than 125 school systems across the Commonwealth by the end of the 2007/2008 school year. The support of the District 24A Lions and LCIF brings the Project close to 50% completion.
The 3 ½ hour Prevent Blindness Certified Children’s Vision Screening training session will be made available at the upcoming Winter Conference. Lions who are interested in assisting their schools with the school vision screenings are encouraged to contact their schools to learn if they accept community volunteers to participate in health screenings. If the schools are interested in the “manpower” support of your club, you are encouraged to participate in this certification training.
To learn more about the progress of this grant and the training sessions for each school system, please visit the Prevent Blindness Virginia website at
www.pbv.org You may click on the Construction “Sight” link to download a customizable press release for your local publications as well as keep current on the scheduled training dates for the school systems affected by this grant.
The District support of this program has been very successful. Clubs who have not yet participated financially in this district-wide effort are encouraged to do so and
may make a contribution by contacting Dennis Brining, the Lions Project Coordinator, at
dlbent@aol.com In order to make this project a full success, equipment will need to be delivered to the additional 250 schools in Prince William and Fairfax County, in a second phase of this project. Let’s work to provide the other Virginia Lions Districts with a model of success to help make a lasting impact for Virginia’s children.
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