November 13, 2000 - 400 Cincinnati Public School Students to Receive Free Eye Exams and Glasses
CINCINNATI -- A special optical clinic will be held at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati, Nov. 14-15, 2000, to deliver free eye exams and glasses to 400 Cincinnati Public School (CPS) students.
The event is the first large-scale, cooperative effort between the following organizations: the Abrahamson Pediatric Eye Institute at Cincinnati Children's, LensCrafters Give the Gift of Sight program, Prevent Blindness Ohio and the Optician Association of Ohio, Cincinnati Division.
"About 80 percent of the information children learn at school is learned visually, yet there are many kids who can't even see the front of their classroom," said Connie West, M.D., director of the Ophthalmology Department at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati.
"That is why community vision screening events are so important. To facilitate seeing so many children during this two-day blitz, we've transformed our department, nearby hallways and other rooms into a mass optical clinic," Dr. West said.
Preselected CPS students, who need eye exams and glasses but would otherwise not have access to this type of medical care, will be bussed to Cincinnati Children's from 20 different schools during the two-day event.
Busloads of approximately 40 children ranging in age from kindergarten to high-school age will arrive throughout the day. After a quick registration, each child will be escorted by volunteers through a series of three different evaluations and tests. Children needing glasses will be escorted to a fitting room where they can select from a variety of quality frames donated by LensCrafters Gift of Sight program before returning to the bus.
More than 50 volunteers per day, including ophthalmologists, optometrists, opticians, trained technical staff, nurses and lay people, will be on hand to staff the event and manage everything from traffic flow to entertaining children. Volunteers are composed of Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati staff, LensCrafters associates, other community optical professionals, and members of the Cincinnati Rotary Club. Food and equipment are being donated by: local Papa John's Pizzas, Kraft Foods, Topcon and Canon U.S.A.
Following the event
LensCrafters will provide lenses and manufacture glasses for each child who needs them. Volunteers from the Optician Association of Ohio, Cincinnati Division, and LensCrafters will deliver the glasses to the children at their schools on Dec. 6, 2000, in coordination with LensCrafters' national "Hometown Day" effort, a day when associates and doctors at stores across the country provide free eye exams and new glasses to those in need.
Prevent Blindness Ohio will follow up with parents following the event to coordinate and schedule appointments for those children who are in need of additional treatment or evaluation.
"Hopefully, this is just the beginning of large-scale cooperative efforts that will enable us to reach all of the children in our community who otherwise might not receive eye care," said Dr. West.
Contact Information
Brenda Yablonsky (brenda.yablonsky@chmcc.org), 513-636-4420
