The Forney Lions Club, Forney Independent School District, and Dr. Larry Tarrant provided much needed assistance to 29 Forney ISD elementary students on Wednesday morning, October 10, 2012. The Lions District 2X-1 Vision Screening Bus was at Crosby Elementary where students received free eye exams and glasses.
The Forney Lions Club, Forney Independent School District, and Dr. Larry Tarrant provided much needed assistance to 29 Forney ISD elementary students on Wednesday morning, October 10, 2012. The Lions District 2X-1 Vision Screening Bus was at Crosby Elementary where students received free eye exams and glasses.
For the past couple of weeks FISD school nurses were screening students at their elementary schools to determine which students needed additional screening and possibly glasses. The campuses sent parent permission slips home with the students to get approval to take part in this event and to be bused to Crosby Elementary.
The Lions Club has held this event in the past but usually on a Saturday when most parents are unable to bring their children up to the school. This year the Lions Club asked the Forney ISD to help provide transportation for the students on a school day so that more students could participate and take advantage of the program. Dr. Larry Tarrant of Forney's 20/20 was also onsite to donate his time to help screen the students.
Lion Julia Johnson said, “The Lions Club has had a major focus on helping the visually impaired since Helen Keller challenged our organization at the international convention in 1925 to be Knights for the blind in the crusade against darkness, since 1925 the Lions Club has helped more than 15,000,000 children by providing eye screenings, glasses, and other treatments through Sight for Kids, including 29 local Forney children today.”
The Lions Club does plan to hold this event again in the spring and will announce a date when the time becomes available. Lion Darren Rozell stated that anyone wishing to donate glasses can contact the Forney Lions Club, donate at various events in Forney, and also at donation boxes in Walmart.
After the event Lion Jesse Vasquez stated, “To see the look on a kids face when the doctor finds the right prescription will change you. They light up, it's like they are seeing the world for the first time. One kid even told me that he can't wait to read a book, how often do you hear a kid say that?”