Categorized | Featured, Volunteering

Rotary Club sponsors Keiki Vision 2010

(Photo courtesy of Rotary Club of Kona)

MEDIA RELEASE

The Rotary Club of Kona is coming to your school. Every year the Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Kona go the local elementary schools and provide vision testing and new dictionaries to every third grader.

This year, Rotarian volunteers will help Dr. Julie Honda and Dr. Frank Toscano screen approximately 470 students.

For most of these students it will be the first time they have their eyes tested. For many, the dictionary will be the first dictionary they have ever owned. Almost 50 percent of the children we screened in previous years were referred for further testing.

The screenings have been completed at Innovations, Hualalai Academy, Kona Christian Academy and Waikoloa Elementary. In November, the doctors will finish with Holualoa and Kealakehe elementary schools.

Rotary Club of Kona Rotarians believe this program is important because vision disorders are the 4th most common disability in the US. Of children ages 9-15, 20 percent need glasses, and 90 percent of those have not received them.

Every year, six Hawaii Rotary clubs do basic vision screening in every third grade class in the area. Rotary Club of Kona has been doing this since 2007. The program started with the Rotary Club of Diamond Head in 2005 by Dr. Randy Sakamoto.

According to the Hawaii Optometrist Association, only half of all children will have an eye exam before completing high school. Twenty percent of children aged 9-15 need glasses, and 90 percent of those children have not received them. Undetected vision problems could result in learning difficulties and may result in permanent damage.

The Rotary of Kona is part of Rotary International. The club meets at noon every Thursday at the Royal Kona Resort. For more information about the club, membership, or speaking to the club, please email Club Administration Chair Summer Colquette at summer.colquette@twcable.com.

Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. Rotary¹s global membership is approximately 1.2 million men and women who belong to more than 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.

— Find out more:
www.rotaryclubofkona.com

Meleana Duvauchelle gets her eyes tested. (Photo courtesy of Rotary Club of Kona)

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