Earlier today a mobile clinic pulled up outside of Brumby Elementary School, and a table with glasses frames was being set up around the corner.
Inside the 45-foot van, volunteers with VSP Vision Care, a health insurer, and the Georgia Optometric Association were screening several dozen Brumby students (as well as those from higher grade levels) who had been selected for the exams.
Those deemed to need corrective vision were then fitted for prescription glasses, which were prepared on-site while the students waited.
The mobile van, one of three VSP Vision Care vehicles that travels the country this way, was scheduled to make stops in the Cobb County School District thanks to the Georgia Optometric Association.
Around 50-60 Brumby students were selected for the screenings, and about the same number were also examined at Smyrna Elementary School. The medical services and glasses were donated by VSP Vision Care and the optometrists’ group.
“There is a need here,” said Rita Shoneye, the parent of a Brumby fourth-grader who has glasses but was examined Wednesday for a back-up pair. She and another Brumby mom, Kirti Shukla, were asked by school leaders to volunteer to help students and their parents with the exams, which will continue on Thursday.
(The screenings are not open to the public and no walk-in patients will be accepted.)
The VSP Vision Care’s Eyes of Hope project that comes to schools aims to address eyesight problems early in the school year. Many of the Brumby students chosen for the exams come from low-income or uninsured families, and some of them have not had an eye exam.
Brumby teachers and staff have been encouraged to identify students who may be having vision problems. Brumby social worker Charlene Brisco ticked off some of the signs:
“Squinting. Saying ‘I Can’t See.’ This is helping them to look more closely” to notice if a student may be having some trouble seeing.
She said another Brumby student who got glasses was in tears, as was his mother, and they were “tears of joy. We all just lost it.”
Dan Curran, a media representative for the optometrists’ group, said this is the first time the VSP Vision Care mobile van has stopped in Georgia since 2011.
The organization estimates that one in four students nationwide has an undetected vision problem. When the van rolls away, the needs for many of them will continue.
For students who require follow-up visits or additional care, Brisco said that gift certificates will provide for those services. The East Cobb Lions Club also will be coming to Brumby in October to conduct more screenings.
“Kids are getting sight,” she said.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
