Excited clusters of first graders swarm the long wooden table, pointing at the
various sets of colored headphones and loudly talking with their friends as
they hand the volunteers their paperwork and take a seat.

They were told that they were going to play “the hearing game” – a nickname
given to the hearing screening test by Lions Club members all around the
state.

Elementary schools throughout the Oregon Trail School District were screened
for vision and hearing during the months of February and March with the help
of parent and high school volunteers, Lion Club members, and most
importantly, the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation (OLSHF).

The OLSHF is the nonprofit arm of the Lions Club, an organization dedicated
to serving and assisting the blind. The foundation sponsors a variety of
programs throughout the state, their largest being the mobile health
screening program.

“The mobile health screening program’s goal is to screen as many children as
possible throughout the state of Oregon,” program manager Mara Steen said.
“Last year we screened about 50,000 kids in one school year. This year our
estimate is that during the school year, we would have screened about 70,000
kids. Really our wish is to leave no child unscreened.”

OLSHF’s mobile health screening program traces its roots back to 1997, when
members of the Lions Club board saw a large screening truck acting as a
portable clinic. Inspired, the board members purchased a semi-truck, painted
it with the Lions Club logo, and began traveling around the state to screen
students for their vision and hearing.

“We did this for years, but we noticed that we were not able to screen as
many kids as would like on the truck,” Steen said. “So somebody had the
amazing idea to actually set up the equipment and do the screenings inside of
the schools. We were able to screen so many more kids much more quickly
than on the truck. Teachers were excited because kids were out of the
classroom for less time, and so were the nurses.”

Over time, mobile screenings began to accelerate in speed, outreach, and
efficiency, especially as technology started to improve. Last year, the OLSHF
became aware of Spot, a new, easy-to-use vision screening device that takes
a picture of the student’s eye and quickly produces data based on the
photograph – making vision screenings much more objective than the vision
light boxes used before.

“Sometimes it’s more subjective working with a student with the vision light
box. This Spot device takes that away, and makes it much more objective
because the camera just takes a picture and it immediately tells you what is
wrong with that child’s eyes,” Steen said. “It checks for nearsightedness,
farsightedness, gaze deviation, all of these things that the light boxes could
never check for. So now we are able to screen tons more kids because it is so
quick. And the idea is that if we are screening more kids, more kids are
covered throughout the state of Oregon.”

The school district values its connection with the foundation, especially for the
fact that the OLSHF provides resources and manpower that most public school
districts can’t provide.

“We have been working with them since I took over as district nurse three
years ago,” District Resource Nurse Brie Leiblein said. “Previously, the district
nurse would do the vision screenings herself, and the speech language would
do the hearing screenings. We decided to go with the Lions Club because they
have the capability to screen several more kids at once, which has saved the
school staff and myself countless hours of our time. They also have access to
newer and better technology. It has been a great partnership for us, and I
plan to continue building a relationship with the Oregon Trail School District
and the Lions Club foundation.”