Locally, the Fort Dodge Noon Lions Club travels to area schools and daycares to perform vision screenings for children from 6-months-old through kindergarten. In the roughly 20 years of the program, club members have screened thousands of children for eyesight problems.

“This is such a great service that is out there, and it’s free,” said Steve Rehmann, Iowa Kidsight coordinator for the Fort Dodge Noon Lions. “I just don’t know how to describe it other than it is a gift for us to do it.”

The Iowa KidSight program is a joint project of the Lions Clubs of Iowa and the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

The Noon Lions have nine KidSight volunteers who go into local schools and daycares with a specialized camera that takes a close-up photo of the child’s eyes, which is then sent to Stead Children’s Hospital to be analyzed. Then each child’s family is informed whether their screening was clear, if their vision needs to be monitored or if they need a referral for further care.

-Submitted photo
Lion Nancy Weldon inputs data while Lion Jess Lewis runs the camera during a KidSight screening at Head Start earlier this year.

The KidSight program as a whole averages about a 5 percent referral or monitor rate, but the Fort Dodge Noon Lions have a rate of 7 percent for the area.

“So it shows that the need is there,” Rehmann said. “So out of every 100 kids that we test, seven or eight maybe weren’t going to an eye doctor when maybe they should.”

Occasionally, the initial screening photo isn’t clear enough to analyze, so the KidSight team will go back to the school or daycare to do a retake. Out of every 100 screenings, fewer than two need retakes, Rehmann said.

The $10,000 camera used in the screenings was purchased through generous support from the Fort Dodge Community Foundation and the Fort Dodge Noon Lions, Rehmann said. Overall, the screening events take about 90 minutes to get all the children through. Most are fascinated by the camera equipment, Rehmann said.

They screen infants and children at 25 sites in Webster, Calhoun and Hamilton counties from late August through Thanksgiving. While most testing is done in the fall, it is a year-round program and schools and daycares in the area can contact the Noon Lions Club to schedule a screening event.

-Submitted photo
Lion Cliff Weldon gets ready to take a photo for a KidSight screening during registration at the Early Childhood Center earlier this year.

Participation in KidSight is voluntary and free.

“We enjoy doing it because it’s a quality of life thing,” Rehmann said. “We enjoy the interaction with the kids, we have excellent rapport with the nurses, the administrators, the daycare directors. It just flows so smoothly.”

The Lion’s Club motto is “We serve” and KidSight embodies that mission, Rehmann said.

“To me, this is service,” he said. “Providing something to someone is what drives me and I feel that’s what drives our club.”

Since the program began in the early 2000s, the Fort Dodge Noon Lions have tested more than 12,000 children and have been recognized for being some of Iowa KidSight’s most active volunteers.

“We feel that, as a club, this is probably the most valuable service that we provide, and we’re just glad to do it,” Rehmann said. “We want to find a way to grow the program if we can because there’s daycares out there that may not use us and we want them to be aware of what we do.”

On Oct. 16, the Noon Lions reached the milestone of testing 1,000 kids for the third consecutive year. They were projected to reach 1,175 by the end of 2023.

Rehmann personally feels that KidSight is an important service for area children and families.

“Having had two daughters who are now adults, we always wanted to make sure that their health was good and that things were going well for them,” he said. “This gives the kids a step up on making sure that they can stay with their peers and not fall behind.”