News - Press Releases
Tucson Lions Help Davidson Elementary School Students by Testing Parents
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Vision project chairman Su-Lin Trepanitis, (520) 661-4909
Posted on: Feb. 24, 2010
Tucson Lions are working to boost the reading skills of young students by helping their parents get glasses. In late January, the Tucson Downtown Lions Club invited all parents of the 360 students at Davidson Elementary to get their eyes screened for free. About 60 parents made appointments for the free vision tests - and some brought their children along for free screening too.
Lions certified by the state to use vision screening machines handled the initial screenings January 26 and 27. The Tucson Downtown Lions have also committed to funding full vision exams and glasses for any of the screened parents who have no insurance for needed follow up care. Follow up care is provided at discounts to the Lions by Nationwide Vision and Lesco Optical offices in Tucson.
Parents and early education are key factors in reading readiness and success for young students," Davidson Elementary Principal Deborah Anders explains. "By insuring that our parents can see well enough to help with reading and homework, the Lions are helping our students to be more successful."
According to Anders, every teacher assigns reading at home on a daily basis as part of the students' homework assignments. The new math curriculum also requires reading and parents help by providing homework assistance.
Davidson School Staff helped to make the project successful by handling communication with parents and appointment slips.
To encourage parents to attend the vision screening and read to their children, Lions teamed up with the Tucson Friends of the Library and Rotary Reading Seed to send each adult home with books for themselves and their children. Friends of the Library donated books for adults; Rotary Reading Seed provided books appropriate for the elementary school reader.
"This screening turned into a real cooperative project between the school, Friends of the Library, Reading Seed, Nationwide Vision, Lesco Optical, and the Lions," Tucson Downtown President Ron Middleton reports. "It is great to see our community coming together to help these children."
Vision screening is just one of many services the Lions provide throughout the school year at Davidson. Lions also give flags to first graders, along with a short classroom presentation on the flag and patriotism. They take dictionaries to every third grader, spending time with the students to get them started using the books.
"The dictionary is often the very first book these youngsters have owned. They are thrilled with the dictionary but we have to work to convince them it is alright to write their name in the book - that they won't be punished for writing in it," Lion Lowell Fowble says of the annual dictionary give away.
Lions also provide treats for quarterly birthday parties for the entire school - an event that garners them lots of smiles and "Hi Lion" greetings on future visits. And they provide hundreds of holiday gifts and package wrapping assistance for the annual Davidson holiday store where students can buy gifts for their parents and siblings with Davidson dollars earned for good grades, good behavior and attendance.
But if you were to ask students what they like best about the Lions, the answer might be the cotton candy machine the Lions bring in for carnival and Davidson Town Days.
"Some of these kids are a little short on fun at home, so whatever we can do to make their days at school enjoyable just makes it easier for them to learn," Fowble says.
Davidson students tend to come from single parent homes with more than 89% falling below the poverty level. Many Davidson families are recent immigrants and at least nine different languages are spoken at the school, Anders reports.
The annual Tucson Downtown Lions budget for helping out at Davidson runs somewhere around $4,000 to $5,000, though that figure will be much higher this year with the added expenditure for eyeglasses for parents, President Middleton notes. Vision care for the community costs Tucson Downtown Lions club more than $20,000 each year.
Tucson Downtown earns much of its annual budget by selling food to visitors and cowboys at Rodeo - part of a partnership with Rodeo that began nearly 70 years ago.
Tucson Downtown Lions Club has been serving Tucson since 1923 and is a part of Lions Clubs International, the world's largest service organization.
The Lions International Foundation was named the #1 nongovernmental organization with which to partner and earned a 4 Star (highest) rating from Charity Navigator. 100% of monies raised from the public is returned to the public in projects ranging from local community efforts to worldwide relief. (Lions Clubs International Foundation has mobilized more than $2 million toward relief in Haiti so far.)
To learn more about the Lions, visit www.TucsonDowntownLions.org or www.LionsClubs.org. Membership in the Lions is by invitation only, but individuals interested in volunteering to help at rodeo or another Lions project may telephone (520) 743-0785.