November 21, 2017 at 4:33 p.m.

Lions donate SPOT vision screener to school district

Lions donate SPOT vision screener to school district
Lions donate SPOT vision screener to school district

By Kayla Thomason-

A group of Northwoods Lions Clubs has donated a nearly $7,000 SPOT vision screener to the School District of Rhinelander. The machine will be housed at Rhinelander High School but will travel to schools throughout the district to be used to test students' vision.

School district nurse Kerri Schmidt, BSN, RN, NCSN, first mentioned the screener to the Lions in September. A few weeks later the Lions notified her that they planned to purchase the machine - which they would own - and it could be housed in her office at the high school.

"It's a portable hand-held device that can screen both eyes quickly at once," Schmidt explained.

When looking into the SPOT screener, children will see a little light show and/or hear chirping bird sounds to get their attention.

The device works beautifully with children who have disabilities or don't yet know their shapes or alphabet, Schmidt added.

Once the eyes have been scanned those trained to use the device will record the numbers seen on the display. If the numbers are failing, they will strongly recommend the child see a doctor.

"The research does indicate that one in 20 preschoolers have perhaps a visual impairment of some sort," Schmidt said.

There is assistance available for families who cannot afford corrective glasses.

"The Lions have vouchers that they give to the schools and they house some of their vouchers with me so that if they are referred or have no insurance or have some financial hardship, all they have to do is notify me and I'll have them fill out the paperwork and if needed they'll get free glasses," Schmidt said.

Vision screening is a key part of the Lions' mission. For 16 years the club has partnered with the school district to check the eyesight of local children.

The club started using a SPOT machine in 2016, drastically improving the speed and efficiency of the process.

"As an example on Monday (Nov. 13) I did Tomahawk - I did 243 kids in Tomahawk and we had eight referrals for follow-up, but I did them all with one scanner," said Tim Gengler, a Lions Club member. "Now if we had used the other scanner, if another Lion had gone with me, we could have had all those kids done in half the time."

All of the Lions Clubs in the district made donations for the machine - three Leo Clubs, 44 Lions Clubs and 11 Lioness Clubs.

"It's all paid for by the district Lions, so all the Lions clubs in our entire district contribute to the purchase of these," Gengler explained.

Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].

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