Head Start children get eye exams

FocusFirst and Auburn University student volunteers finished screening the eyes of approximately 340 Lee County children Wednesday at the Darden Head Start Center.

“Today we’ve probably done about 50 or so (children),” said Alana Dickie, regional coordinator for Impact Alabama: A Student Service Initiative.

FocusFirst is a project of Impact Alabama, a non-profit that provides service opportunities to high school and college students in the state.

The volunteers for the screenings were four students in a social work class at Auburn University.

“We each (the groups in the social work class) got to pick something (a service project) of interest to us,” said Nicole Smith, a senior social work major at AU.

For three days, they set up a 35 mm camera and took photos of children’s eyes at the Smiths Station, Darden and Boykin Head Start Centers. The pictures are then sent to a doctor that screens the photos for medical issues including, near sightedness, far sightedness and early signs of cataracts.

“It’s just a starting point,” Dickie said. A potential problem has been found in about 12 percent of screenings so far, she said.

If a problem is discovered, the child receives fully subsidized follow-up care.

Children as young as six months can be screened, she said.

The program focuses on pre-school aged in Alabama, she said.

In addition to the screening program, Impact also does tax returns for people who are in need.