Waroona Lions Club have eye-tested 1044 children and visited six schools from South Perth to the South West.

Deemed the “knights of the blind” by Helen Keller in 1925, the Lions are continuing their legacy, eye-testing 1044 children from South Perth to the South West. The Waroona Lions Club has visited six schools over six months and found more than 350 children with eye issues who have since been referred to optometrists. Using different testing techniques as well as a Welch Allyn spot precision eye test camera, the Lions can determine problems with colour blindness, depth perception, near-sightedness and far-sightedness. Waroona Lions Club vice president John Clare said he was happy the program could finally expand, with the Leo’s taking on the testing at St Joseph’s School in Waroona. “One of the Lion’s trainers at a conference gave the Leo’s a challenge to take on a project for vision and my Waroona guys just took it and ran with it,” he said. “There’s a team of eight, and more if we can find them.” Mr Clare said the students at St Joseph’s loved being a part of the tests and he would recommend any school in the region get involved. The Waroona Lions have another 17 schools lined up to take part in the tests and hope to maintain their vision of helping prevent sight impairment issues.