03/13/2025
Recap from iSee Ohio - Canton City Schools
On March 5-6, iSee Ohio visited the Timken Career Campus at Canton City Schools. During the two clinic days, organized by iSee Ohio Board Members, Dr. Samantha Zaczyk and Dr. Tracey Needham, optometrists were able to provide comprehensive eye exams to 39 students. Of those, 37 were prescribed glasses. The doctors were able to diagnose 5 students with amblyopia and recommended an additional student be observed for being at risk of developing amblyopia.
iSee Ohio thanks the following optometrists for volunteering their time to provide this much needed service to Canton City School students:
- Dr. Emma Reynolds
- Dr. Lisa Testa
- Dr. Larry Roth
- Dr. Linda Dawson
- Dr. Katie Greiner
- Dr. Jim Raymondi
- Dr. Laura Knight
- Dr. Christine Beiling Sheerer
- Dr. Cheryl Archer
- Dr. John Archer
iSee Ohio also thanks additional staff and volunteers:
- Terry Kammer
- Joy Elliott
- Terina Griffen
- Jessica Knox
- Lydia Rockich
Running a successful clinic depends largely on the participation of doctors and volunteers, but it is the school staff that can make or break a clinic. For this one, iSee Ohio thanks Caitlin Nichols RN, BSN, Health and Wellness Coordinator for Canton City Schools, for her exceptional organization and communication. Students showed up when they were scheduled and with all the paperwork they needed to be seen by the doctors.
Drs. Needham and Zaczyk shared a few memorable moments from the students:
“We did have two students that were hearing impaired and required a sign language interpreter. Vision plays an especially vital role in communication, social interaction and learning in children with hearing impairment... if there is also a vision problem it can make things much more difficult to learn and can make the child more socially isolated. The little girl I saw will be able to see her teacher across the room when she gets her new glasses.”
“I saw a very sweet little boy that would say "no comment" when he couldn't see the small letters on the eyechart. Once we checked his eyes, he could see all of the letters on the chart... even the small ones.”
“One other cute thing that happened, I thought, was that we saw twin girls. They both needed glasses and had picked them out separately after their exams. We realized later they had picked out the exact same frames! So, we got them both to pick out different pairs that they loved and they were happy that they weren't getting the exact same frame.”
“One older student told me her glasses broke a while ago and she was wearing a very old backup pair. She said ‘I cannot wait to be able to see again!’”