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Volume 23, Number 34
Friday, November 22, 2019
Lions offer free eye screenings for youngsters
SEASON OF GIVING
By Everett Bishop Town Times
For the Middlefield Lions Club foresight can also be 20/20. On Wednesday, parents and daycare operators brought their children to the Levi E. Coe Library, and once there, the Middlefield Lions Club conducted eye screenings for the kids at no cost to the parents. 3-year-old Brian and 5-year-old Leah Checko worked to collect hundreds of food items for those in need this holiday season. Photo by Everett Bishop, Town Times
Siblings’ effort benefits Middlefield food bank By Everett Bishop Town Times
The holiday season is all about giving and spending time with family. For many, however, financial strain can make the final months of the year more stressful than enjoyable. But two Middlefield siblings are doing their part to ensure that their community is taken care of. Leah and Brian Checko, age 5 and 3, respectively, donated nearly 300 items to the Middlefield food bank on Thursday, Nov. 14, including stuffing, canned foods, roasting pans and much more.
“We want everyone to have food and a great Thanksgiving,” said the eldest Checko sibling, Leah. “We gave notes about it to our whole neighborhood, then they dropped stuff off to our driveway.”
Director of Social Services, Susan D’Orvilliers, recalled the phone call she had with the Checko family when they told her about their mission.
“They called and left a message and said ‘We have little kids and we would like to do The two started passing out fliers just before Halthis’ and they asked what I loween, and in the ensuneeded,” she said. “And it reing two weeks collected hun- ally worked out perfect for dreds of items for those in us.” need. After delivering the items, 5“We want to thank our Whis- year-old Leah said she felt per Wind and Hubbard “good” about what she and her brother were able to acStreet neighbors. They dropped off and wrote notes complish. “We like being to us thanking Leah and Bri- able to help other people,” she said. an for this act of kindness,” said the youngsters’ mother, ebishop@record-journal.com Katie Checko. 203-317-2444
“This fits in perfectly with us, the fact that we’re picking up on children’s vision issues much sooner so that we can help them get to full screenings, glasses or any kind of adjustments they may need,” Lions Club member Lynn Johnson said. According to Johnson, the Lions Club began as something as a “gentleman’s club” when it was founded in the early
1900’s. It wasn’t until Helen Keller spoke at a Lions Club International Convention in 1925 that the group began to champion sight-related services. “There’s so many programs worldwide we’re trying to do to prevent blindness,” said Johnson. Nationally and internationally, the club is working to prevent river blindness, an infection created by a parasitic worm, as well as collecting and recycling used glasses and providing access to tools and services for those with vision issues, free of charge. For the Middlefield Lions, eye screening programs are still incredibly new, with the pediatric screening at the library being only their third go around. See Lions, A10
Derek Saraceno sits on his mother's lap, ready for an eye screening with a Spot Vision Screener, at the Levi E. Coe Library in Middlefield on Wednesday, Nov. 20. Photo by Everett Bishop, Town Times