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Chicago Tribune
04-07-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Aurora Lions Club event featuring vision and hearing screenings focuses on seniors
The Aurora Lions Club, in conjunction with DeKalb-based Lions of Illinois Foundation, turned its attention to seniors on Wednesday by offering free screenings for hearing loss and retinal eye diseases in Aurora. The four-hour event was held at the Senior Services Associates parking lot, 2111 Plum St., in Aurora. The event was formerly held at Lutheran Social Services at 31 S. Edgelawn Drive in Aurora. Mary Leifheit of Aurora was able to get free vision and hearing screenings at the event, 'I've never had a screening from the Lions Club and I know I could spend $100 with an optometrist but this won't cost anything,' she said. 'I was having problems seeing and the hearing – I don't remember how long it's been. I found out about this at our senior center. As a senior – having this available – I'm getting older and you never know. My mother had hearing problems.' Aurora Lions Club President Randy Brown noted that the screening services 'remain part of the Lions' mission' and that it is something important to offer to the community. 'The screenings are one of the main pillars of Lions International. A lot of time (seniors) don't have the ability to get out and go to an eye doctor,' Brown said. 'This gives them an idea if they need to reach out further to an eye doctor to follow up from what we give them.' Former president of the Aurora Lions Club Susan Koepke said a traveling van was on hand Wednesday to conduct the vision and hearing screenings at the Senior Services Associates site. '(Senior Services) actually scheduled the appointments for us, so people know when they are supposed to be here and won't have to wait around,' she said. Koepke said the Lions of Illinois Foundation vehicle on site was a brand new one that was just secured last year. 'This mobile unit we are bringing in, it is geared more toward adults because it's looking for macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, up to four or five things,' she said. Koepke said the hearing test portion of the unit, in particular, has been significantly updated. Senior testing, she said, 'fell down a little bit for a while but we've picked it up again,' adding that 'last year, we did it twice and we're targeted to do it twice again this year.' 'If I can find a place where I can get a group I will do it as many times as I can fit it in the calendar,' she said. In addition to the screenings, eyeglasses, cellphones, hearing aids and sneakers were collected for recycling at the event. Frankie Fisher of Aurora said she heard about the screening event through a local Bingo program and said while she isn't having any issues, 'I wanted to get things checked out.' 'I know most of the screening the Lions do are for kids, and I was surprised there was something like this for seniors,' Fisher said. 'It's a good opportunity and I'm glad they offer this. It's nice this has been added too.' Verna Corbin, also from Aurora, said she had a screening done a year ago and wanted to follow up 'because sometimes, I get blurred vision.' 'I'm concerned about both hearing and vision – my mom had glaucoma, so I want to know what's going on. It's good to get tested every year,' Corbin said.
Chicago Tribune
01-04-2025
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Aurora Lions Club taking critical ‘baby steps' in early vision screening
I can smile about it now. But back in the day when I was trying to keep glasses on an 18-month-old, there were times I was in tears. Like the already-hectic Christmas Eve spent tearing the house apart in search of tiny red wire rims, which later turned up inside a Fisher-Price 'Little People' garage. Or the Sunday afternoon at Brookfield Zoo when his eyewear was flung into one of the primate cages. Or that Thanksgiving road trip to my hometown when I sent his father into a burning vehicle to retrieve the toddler's glasses after the engine caught on fire. I can remember at least one tearful phone call to his pediatric ophthalmologist declaring 'I give up … I can't keep these darn glasses on his face.' I also recall his answer. 'Be patient. It will come. It is important that he wear them.' The doctor's last sentence pretty much sums up why people like Gabby Gaytan, parent educator at Family Focus, and Susan Koepke, past president of the Aurora Lions Club, are so passionate about the service organization's push to grow the preschool numbers of its Children's Vision Program. Awareness is definitely on the rise, both women insist, with Koepke describing the past few months in particular as 'exciting' in terms of community partnerships. Those not only include Aurora City Council members, several schools, Family Focus and the Aurora Public Library, where screenings for children are held monthly, but more recently Aurora University, which has supplied graduate interns to help with the website, flyers, letters and other outreach efforts; Midwestern University's Doctor of Optometry Program; and Companeros en Salud (Partners in Health). The goal is to increase the number of screenings in the 0-3 age group, which remains low in large part, Gaytan suggested, because it's tough to keep eyewear on children so small. 'The main challenge,' she said, 'is getting past the notion they are too young to wear glasses.' Plus, parents often don't understand the importance of early screening, or believe there is a vision problem with children so young, Gaytan continued. Adding to the issue, there are fewer doctors who do screenings on children younger than 4 because not only is that age group not covered by Medicaid, the little ones are harder to work with. All the more reason the Aurora Lions Club, which has historically been known for its focus on vision health for kids, continues to aggressively promote its 0-3 screening and follow-up program, especially targeting the community's immigrant Hispanic population. Over the past year that push includes creating the nonprofit Aurora Lions Club Foundation, which allows the group to accept sponsorships and donations, having access to the newest screening camera model and raising awareness about a Congressional bill targeting early detection of vision impairments for children. Studies indicate this screening is so critical because 80% of what we learn is through the eyes, and sight is the most imperfect sense at birth. Simply put, both women insist, if children are not able to see well, they will not learn and develop as they should. According to Gaytan, 'we are working to find more doctors to take those (younger than 4)' and are hoping that this campaign will not only see an uptick in screenings but awareness in general about the importance of testing for all ages of children. 'The hope is that families spread the word,' she said. In addition to community health screenings, the Aurora Lions Club, which will showcase this local program at the district convention this month, continues to focus on the elementary schools. But as Koepke pointed out, at a parent presentation in January only one mother showed up, and she did not speak English. Still, Koepke described it as a 'fabulous experience' because 'I learned as much' from this event as did the mother, whose child ended up needing glasses. In addition to now using split-screens, with English on one side, Spanish on the other, Koepke noted that using translators is critical. 'One child at a time,' said Koepke, who remains convinced that screenings and follow-up play vital roles in helping children succeed in school and in life. 'It is still baby steps,' she added, 'but we are making progress.'
