Kids Can Get Free Eye Exams, Glasses At Baltimore County Libraries This Summer
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore County Public Library has partnered with the nonprofit Vision to Learn to provide free eye exams and eyeglasses to children in need over the summer.
It's the second year the library is offering the partnership.
"Children who cannot see well, cannot learn, and at Baltimore County Public Library we are directly addressing the inequities that get in the way of residents' ability to succeed and thrive," said Baltimore County Public Library Director Sonia Alcántara-Antoine. "Providing free eyeglasses to children who need them is just another way the Library continues to serve the community."
Vision To Learn's mobile clinic will visit 12 branches over June, July and August, and any child 17 and under can get an appointment. Participants will need to identify and verbalize basics shapes in the exam.
If a child is determined to need corrective glasses, they'll be examined by an optometrist and eventually pick from a large selection of frames.
To participate, schedule an appointment between 9 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Each appointment is 10 to 15 minutes and includes an exam and glasses selection.
Each mobile clinic visit location and date is listed below:
- Thursday, June 23: Rosedale Branch
- Tuesday, June 28: Woodlawn Branch
- Friday, July 8: North Point Branch
- Friday, July 15: Sollers Point Branch
- Friday, July 22: Owings Mills Branch
- Friday, July 29: Cockeysville Branch
- Friday, August 5: White Marsh Branch
- Monday, August 15: Randallstown Branch
- Tuesday, August 16: Lansdowne Branch
- Thursday, August 18: Arbutus Branch
- Monday, August 22: Parkville Branch
- Tuesday, August 23: Randallstown Branch
- Thursday, August 25: Towson Branch
The library highlighted the importance of glasses by referencing a recent Johns Hopkins University study showing the impact of providing glasses to children at schools.
Researchers said of the thousands of Baltimore children who participated in the study, "those with glasses did better in school and the impacts were greater than more costly measures such as lengthening the school day, providing computers, or creating charter schools."