The Troy Lions Club will offer free vision screenings for children ages five through 12 during the Back-to-School Bash at Troy Elementary School Saturday. The screenings will be from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. The Back-to-School Bash is sponsored by the Pike Regional Child Advocacy Center and Troy Church.

Dr. Elizabeth Hitchcock, Troy Lions Club member, said the free vision screenings offered by the Troy Lions Club at this time are focusing primarily on elementary age children, including pre-K.

“Vision screenings are very important for young children,” Hitchcock said. “Too often a vision diagnosis goes untreated and often because children don’t know what normal vision is. They might not know that what they are seeing is blurred.”
Hitchcock said it is also most important for a lazy eye to be diagnosed.

A lazy eye is a condition where one eye does not develop as it should and, as a result, becomes continually weaker.

“A lazy eye can be corrected but, if it goes untreated, it can reach a point that it can’t be corrected,” she said.

Hitchcock said the primary purpose of the Troy Lions Club’s visual screenings for young children on Saturday at Troy Elementary School is to find problems and make referrals.

The Troy Lions Club was officially chartered May 13, 2019. As a new club, Hitchcock said the members are considering fundraising projects that will make it financially feasible for the club to provide assistance with follow-up exams and the purchase of glasses.

Jan Murry, Troy Lions Club secretary, said the Troy Lions will have gifts for the children who participate in the vision screenings.

“The children will have opportunities for their pictures to be taken and we’ll have cute props for them to use,” Murry said. “We’ll also have coloring pages and sunglasses for them.”

Murry said the Troy Lions Club is proud to be able to offer the free vision screenings for the elementary school children.

“And, we are proud to be a part of Lions International that has a worldwide membership of 1.5 million,” Murry said. “We currently have 32 members and we welcome those ages 18 and up who are plugged into community service. The main focuses for the Troy Lions Club are vision and childhood cancer.”

Those who would like to become a member of the Troy Lions Club are encouraged to contact the club via email, troylionsclubsecretary@gmail.com or to attend a meeting at 6:30 p.m. the second Thursday of the month at Julia’s Restaurant.