For several decades. Eye Screenings have been provided to thousands of school children in La Porte County by members of La Porte Service League, assisting local optometrists.
Doctors Kathy Sommer, Dennis Sommer and Michael Komasinski brought in the equipment and volunteered their time to administer preliminary tests to assess whether a child needed to be referred for further vision testing.
For 30 years, Dr. Dennis Sommer provided retinoscopy, which screens for high levels of farsightedness. This test also revealed if the child had astigmatism, which can make it difficult to learn to read. Nearsightedness can also be detected by this test. It’s estimated that Dr. Sommer has screened more than 50,000 children.
His wife, Dr. Kathy Sommer, also worked at the screenings for 19 years, looking for pathology such as cataracts, pink eye, pupil abnormalities, drooping lids, types of glaucoma and other ocular pathologies.
Dr. Komasinski volunteered for 26 years, testing the child's ability to fixate on a target and follow it - a skill needed to read. He also tested for crossed eyes and the child's ability to focus their eyes to read.
La Porte Service League members assisted by registering the students and helping with the testing. The organization actually started the screenings a few years before the doctors joined them, and at one time they screened up to 16 elementary schools each year.
Long-time member and screening volunteer Suzanne Schafer recalls: “I remember taking both my kids to the basement of the Methodist Church for Service League Eye Screening when they were pre-schoolers - and my son is 40. Back then there were no doctors, just League members, and it was just the basic "E" test.”
With the addition of the doctors, additional comprehensive tests were offered. Kathy Sommer, who also is a Service League member, said that roughly 14% of the children fail the vision screenings. They then were referred to seek additional testing or treatment.
She noted between 800-1,200 students per year were screened, depending on which schools were included. Screening locations through the years included La Porte, South Central, La Crosse, Wanatah, Westville, Le Mans, New Prairie, St. Joseph’s Catholic and St. John’s Lutheran.