VIDALIA, La. &045; When sixth-grader Lauren Secrest put on her new wire-rimmed glasses in the Vidalia Junior High School gym she immediately exclaimed, &uot;I can see again.&uot;

For Secrest glasses aren’t a new thing &045; she’s had them since the second-grade &045; but it was obviously time for a new pair. And this pair came without a trip to the eye doctor’s office and without her parents’ money.

Secrest is one of 135 Miss-Lou students to receive a new pair of glasses in recent months courtesy of the ChildSight program, a branch of Helen Keller International.

All students at VJHS in Concordia Parish and Robert Lewis Middle, Morgantown Elementary and McLaurin Elementary in the Natchez-Adams district have received the free vision screenings, and glasses if needed.

The program will head to Ferriday Junior High and high school and schools in Madison and Tensas Parish in coming months.

Students at the schools are screened regardless of their parents’ economic status because the districts have qualified as rural areas and meet poverty standards.

ChildSight signed contracts with both Miss-Lou districts last year and hired a local coordinator, Joan Marshall, and a local optometrist, Bryan Jeanfreau of Family Vision Center, to run the program.

Marshall and a team of local assistants visit the schools and run preliminary vision tests on the students. Those failing the basic tests are referred to Jeanfreau, who joins the team at the schools two days a week.

At VJHS Jeanfreau has a makeshift office set up in a spare classroom where he can turn off the lights and give the typical optometrist’s office exam.

If a student needs glasses, Jeanfreau gets their prescription and returns within a week with the glasses, which are made in his office.

Students pick out their own frames from about 10 choices.

If a serious problem is detected the students are referred to a specialist to receive treatment beyond what the program can provide.

Jeanfreau uses donated equipment to provide the screenings. Other materials are provided through ChildSight. He said he was contacted through the organization to take the job. ChildSight pays him for his work, but requires that he leave his office for the majority of two days each week.

&uot;It’s a worthwhile project and it’s in my field,&uot; he said. &uot;It’s hard not to volunteer.&uot;

The ChildSight program funds all costs in the first year, but in the second year the necessary funds must come from the community. Concordia Parish schools are providing office space this year for the program.