Free child eye exams and glasses available at Hillsborough County Tax Collector locations

TAMPA, Fla. — Young children are visual learners; relying on their eyes to navigate the world around them. This means clear and normal vision is crucial to their learning success.

However, one in four children in the United States are impacted by vision impairment, which occurs when a person’s eyesight cannot be fixed to a “normal” level, according to the CDC. This may happen due to a loss of the ability to see clearly or see as wide an area as usual without moving the eyes or head.

To combat this issue, the Hillsborough County Tax Collector will offer free eye exams and glasses to kids in June. To provide this service to families, it will partner with Lion’s Eye Institute – the largest combined eye bank, tissue recovery and ocular research center in the world. The office will also team up with the Glazer Vision Foundation, which is a mobile vision clinic.

The clinic will be available to children ages 5 to 17. It will provide eye exams and prescription glasses all under 3 hours using advanced medical resources and technology, Hillsborough County Tax Collector Nancy Millan said.

Vision impairment is one of the most common conditions faced by children in the US., and it often goes undetected, according to Glazer Vision’s site.

This creates a serious issue as most of childhood learning is done through the eyes, according to the American Optometric Association, meaning vision impairment directly impacts a child’s ability to learn.

“80% of all vision impairment can be prevented or cured, however 1 in 5 children cannot afford eye care,” The Glazer Vision Foundation writes on its website.

Millan says that’s why the tax collector’s office decided to partner with the local vision organizations.

Interested families can visit bit.ly/glazer-glasses to sign up their children.

According to a press release, the Glazer Vision Foundation Mobile Vision Clinic will be at the following tax collector sites between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on the dates mentioned below.

June 9: Brandon – 3030 N Falkenburg Rd.
June 10: Drew Park – 4100 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
June 16: East Tampa – 2814 E Hillsborough Ave.
June 17: North Tampa – 3011 University Center Dr.
June 23: Plant City – 4706 Sydney Rd.
June 24: Southshore – 406 30th St. SE, Ruskin

See story from WTSP here.