Juneau Health Fair

Tis the Season!  For vision screening that is!  We offered free vision screening at the Nugget Mall yesterday  It didn't start out well and we were starting to regret it a tad when we went to set up our table the night before only to find that there wasn't a space reserved for us.  Lion Mike returned a second time later that night and still nothing.  A phone call to the Health Fair coordinator confirmed that the Nugget Mall manager had been remiss in laying out space for several non-profits.... Yet.... she didn't think she should get her check list and make sure everyone was taken care of????  It was easier to blame someone else????  That's all I'm going to say about that!

Today when we went over extra early to set up, we initially questioned where they had put us.... right outside the room where people were "checking out" from the day's activities.  Looking at the line weave next to us, my first thought was, "great.... no one is going to see us amid the crowd" but it actually turned out to our benefit as Lion Mike talked to those waiting in line and got them to step out of line for a minute for a quick vision screening!  Way to go, Lion Mike!

We screened 33 people today with 15 referrals.  Out of those were four children.  We had quite a few that we couldn't get a reading because of "dim light" or "pupils too small."  Several of the people with the worst results hung their heads in shame when we asked, "do you wear glasses."  We could tell!  The numbers don't lie!  I doubt they'll start wearing them just because we told them they should!

The new vision screener seemed to work okay except we had problems with the printer.... again.  Ugh.

I guess it was a decent day; 8 screenings an hour....  We got to talk to former Lions, one man who's father was a member of the Douglas Lions Club way back when.   We talked to one man for quite awhile before I asked...." by any chance are you an eye doctor?"  He smiled and said, "yes, I am."  More discussion took place and he expressed interest in "working with us."  Not certain what that means at this time, but we'll check it out further.

Anyway, it was a decent day.  Thanks to Lion Mike N. for taking time out of his day to do this!  I was also there, but wasn't really needed....