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The idea to catch potential eye problems at an early age is a mission the Plains Lions Club has been doing for over 10 years and this week they finished the last batch of kids in the county at Plains High School.

Members of the local club did the vision screenings at Plains Elementary and Junior High last Wednesday. "It is important. If you can detect a vision issue at an early age, it can be corrected with the child not needing glasses later in life," said Steve Spurr, president of the Plains Lions Club. Spurr, his wife, Whitney, along with Lions members Marv and Margo Tanner, spent nearly three hours screening 214 Plains School kids from kindergarten to sixth grade. The club planned to scan Plains High School students this week.

One by one the kids sat motionless just over three feet away as Marv pointed the Plusoptix P12 vision screener toward each one. "Open your eyes real big and look at the smiley face," Whitney told the kids over and over. Names were double checked by Whitney and Margo for each child before Marv screened them. Steve handed each student a sticker after each screen. Kindergarten teacher Danielle Crowe even got screened.

The device uses infrared light to make an image of the eye. According to the Plusoptix company, the transillumination test is a beam of light projected into the eye and reflected by the retina to detect eye abnormalities, such as hyperopia, which is being farsighted; myopia, near sighted; astigmatism, a asymmetrical curvature of the eye; anisocoria, an unequal size of the pupils; and amblyopia, also called a lazy eye.

Tanner said that the purpose of the screenings is to determine early if a child has eye problems so they can be treated. "If a child doesn't know they have bad vision, they are behind the eight ball. With this screening, we can give them untold help getting corrected vision sooner," he said, adding that 10% of the kids screened revealed a problem.

Tanner got the image on the first try most of the time, but periodically it takes three or four tries. It usually takes seconds to get a proper reading. "There were a couple that we could not get yesterday; their pupils were too small," said Marv, who said they even turned off the lights, which sometimes helps. Margo said the machine works on people from 6 months old to adult. The Tanners have headed the program for the last five years.

The club started this year's program on Oct. 24. They screened148 students at Thompson Falls, 44 at Dixon, 36 at Trout Creek, 135 at Noxon, and 159 at Hot Springs. Margo said they might also be doing home school students. The screening results are downloaded onto a flash drive and given to the school, which in turn informs the parents if there's a problem. The Plusoptix P12 cost more than $6,000 and was purchased with a donation from Avista.

Spurr said there are 59 Lions clubs in Montana and last year they screened more than 33,965 children. The Plains Lions Club won an award three years ago for having the most screens - 650. The screenings don't replace the expertise of an optometrist. It's up to parents to have their children seen by a professional.