Friday, Nov. 21, 2008

Clear Vision

Colleyville Club, GRACE Work with Optometrists to Provide Vision Screening, Identify Diseases

By Scott Price

Staff Writer

The Colleyville Lions Club and Grapevine Relief and Community Exchange (GRACE) worked with local doctors in Southlake and Colleyville to provide comprehensive eye exams and eye glasses to 39 people on Nov. 15.

Dr. Kasey Holdridge and Dr. Beth Digby at the Clearview Eyecare and Laser Center in Southlake hosted the event, and they were assisted by Dr. Richard Driscoll with Total Eye Care in Colleyville. Holdridge and Driscoll are also members of the club.

Colleyville Lions Club member Larry Kainer helped coordinate the event.

"One lady said she had to borrow her landlady’s glasses so she could drive to the clinic," Kainer said. "It’s remarkable to see how appreciative they are, because some of them have never had eye exams."

This was the third year for the club’s adult vision screening. Last year, 42 people received comprehensive eye exams and eye glasses.

"This is not just read the chart on the board," Kainer said. "This is a complete eye exam."

The Colleyville Lions Club paid for the frames and lenses.

"They are fitted for their personality and looks," Kainer said.

The doctors donate their time and equipment to make the glasses, and about 20 Lions Club volunteers assisted with coordinating the event and even operated some of the equipment, after receiving training.

Dr. Holdridge said she and the other two doctors spent about eight hours on Saturday providing the comprehensive dilated eye exams and fitting the patients with glasses. She said almost all of the patients on Saturday needed glasses.

The testing revealed that some patients could have even more pressing health issues.

For example, one was found to have glaucoma. Glaucoma, which can be treated if caught in time, as this person’s was, is the leading cause of blindness worldwide. Another patient was asked to come back for further testing related to diabetes.

"For numerous patients, that was the first time they had eye exams," Holdridge said.

Holdridge said she has participated in the project all three years.

"We are happy to do it," she said. "It’s a pleasure. It’s a neat experience. It reminds us why we choose to be in the profession we are in."

The 158-member Colleyville Lions Club collects used eyeglasses throughout the year. These glasses are provided to those in need around the world, Kainer said.

"We had a goal to collect 10,000 glasses this year," he said. "We have already surpassed that and gone over 13,000 glasses."

Kainer said there are donation boxes for eyeglasses at eye clinics in the area. He said he encourages people to donate their eyeglasses for a good cause.

Helen Keller, who was both deaf and blind, spoke to the Lions Club International Convention in 1925, urging the club to help the blind. Since that time, Lions Club International has focused considerable energy on helping those with vision problems.

The Colleyville Lions Club has three annual fundraisers xSIGHTment Run 5K in the spring, the Hole-in-One Shoot Out in the summer and Breakfast with Santa, which will be on Dec. 6 this year, from 7 to 11 a.m. Dec. 6. See section BB for more information on this year’s event.