Russiaville Lions Club volunteer Bill Holt administers an eyesight screening for students at Western Primary School.

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It wasn’t lunchtime, but the cafeteria at Western Primary School was filled with students. They waited in line patiently as a group of volunteers called each of them over and asked them to read letters from a card.

It was a simple eyesight screening. Some of the students completed the task without a problem. But for those who couldn’t, Project Access was there to offer help.

Project Access Howard County, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides access to healthcare for uninsured and underinsured individuals in the community. Founded in 1999 by the Howard County Medical Society, Project Access coordinates support, education, and access to free and reduced cost healthcare, provided by local doctors, dentists, and healthcare specialists.

At Western Primary School on Jan. 31, the focus was on eyesight. Project Access executive director Jill Snyder explained the process to provide good vision to schoolchildren across the community.

“Project Access and the Lions Club team together to do eyesight screenings in just about every school in the area,” said Snyder. “We screen children in first, third, fifth, and eighth grades. We do that because of the physical development of the children. They change a lot over two or three years.

“We come in as volunteers, and students with potential eyesight problems are referred to us. We make sure they get to an optometrist and get tested again, and we make sure they get lenses and frames if they need them. There is no cost to the students and their families, no matter their economic level. All children are treated the same.”

Vision is one of five priorities embraced by the Lions Clubs International. The local clubs are active in the battle to prevent avoidable blindness and provide assistance to the blind and vision-impaired. At Western, the Russiaville Lions Club stepped up to volunteer their time to screen 188 students in about an hour.

“We can get through a class in about an hour,” said Bill Holt, a Russiaville Lions Club volunteer. “If the school does it, by the time they get a student and take them to their nursing department, give them the test, and take them back to class, it could take them all day to get through one class. Each one of us can do several tests in an hour.”

The volunteers from Project Access and the Russiaville Lions Club

Snyder said that Project Access and the Lions Club will complete 10 schools in February alone, administering eyesight screenings to every student in the grades identified by the Indiana Department of Health as development milestones. The organizations performed screenings in most of the rural Howard County schools in the fall and early winter.

In the past week, the organizations screened nearly 525 children at Sycamore, Bon Air, Elwood Haynes, Lafayette Park and Wallace schools. Pettit Park, Boulevard and Central Middle schools are on the schedule for the remainder of February.

“We coordinate with the nurses at each school to set the schedules up,” said Snyder. “This is just a start to get them in the door for help. We can identify a potential problem and get them to a professional at Decleene Optometry to confirm the child needs glasses.”

As a participating member of the local medical society, Decleene Optometry donates its time and expertise to the cause. It is one of many healthcare providers involved in the Project Access effort. In addition to vision screenings, Project Access provides doctor and dentist donated care, financial assistance for prescription medication, diabetes counseling and general health assessments, education on health insurance matters, hearing aid assistance, and medical equipment and supplies.

All of these services are provided free of charge or at a greatly reduced cost, but to do this work, it takes more than the medical community. Like every non-profit organization, Project Access needs financial donations from individuals, businesses, and churches in Howard County to survive.

To learn more about Project Access and to donate to the cause, visit https://www.projectaccesshoco.org/.