Ohio Lions Club raises awareness of eye health issues

The Lions Club in Calcutta, Ohio, is attempting to raise funds and awareness with their first ever health and safety day next weekend, The Liverpool Review reports.

The event will feature a number of competitions aimed at providing the community with some much-needed sevices, including financial assistnace for eye screenings and eyeglasses.

Along with a bike race that stresses safety, one of the most anticipated competitions will be the toy duck race, for which over 500 ducks have already been purchased. One duck is $3, six are $15, and 10 are $20.

The event comes at a good time, as August marks the beginning of Chilren's Eye Health and Safety Month in the United States. According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), the visual acuity of children is especially important because frequently, problems that go undiagnosed at a younger age lead to much bigger issues when a child gets older.

The AOA claims that 80 percent of the learning a child does is through their eyes and symptoms such as frequent eye rubbing, headaches or difficulty remembering what they read can all be indictative of a vision problem.