Prevent Blindness Nebraska is a statewide affiliate of Chicago-based Prevent Blindness America which was founded in 1908 and is the nation’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness America touches the lives of millions of people each year.
The Nebraska affiliate serves 93 counties in the state, working since 1970 to save the sights Nebraskans lose when they lose their vision…the sunsets, the clouds, the faces of loved ones. Half of all blindness and vision loss is preventable- but only through education, screening and advocacy.
Prevent Blindness Nebraska is an affiliate proud Member of Community Health Charities of Nebraska (formerly CHAD), empowering Nebraskans to support the health charities of their choice through workplace giving.
Prevent Blindness Nebraska is a member of the Nonprofit Association of the Midlands, who’s mission is to maximize the capacity of members, individual and collective, to deliver programs and services efficiently and effectively to meet organizational and community needs.
As early as 1908, the National Society to Prevent Blindness (now Prevent Blindness America) was dedicated to prevention...the "wellness" concept which only recently has been widely recognized as an essential component of health care.
Prevent Blindness Nebraska provides important, much needed services for our state—through screening, education and advocacy, and has done so since 1970. Programs and services provided for Nebraskans enable us to translate sight saving knowledge into real life success stories, as highlighted below with Morriah’s story.
8 year- old Morriah Nelson couldn't see the leaves on trees.
This was a very sad reality for little Morriah until she visited Prevent Blindness Nebraska's vision screening booth at Kidz Explore in January of 2003. She begged her mother, Michelle Marshall, to let her get her eyes screened. Her mother agreed and Morriah was asked to read the chart. As Morriah struggled to read it, the screener for Prevent Blindness Nebraska came to the conclusion that Morriah couldn't even read the top line of chart, making her vision 20/200, which is legally blind.
The screener urged Michelle to get her daughter's eyes examined by an Ophthalmologist as soon as possible. Michelle contemplated the idea since her daughter recently had a vision screening 3 months prior at school and had received no information about vision problems with her before.
Michelle took Morriah to the doctor regardless and found that she had 20/200 vision in both eyes and Amblyopia, or lazy eye, in one. Michelle was shocked to hear the news since Morriah hadn't complained about vision problems in the past.
"I was so glad Prevent Blindness Nebraska was at Kidz Explore," said Michelle. "My kids wanted to try it and had fun with the screenings. I would have never had known to take Morriah in to the doctor had it not been for you. It was great!"
"Morriah was also very excited about her new vision correction. When Morriah was fitted with her new glasses she exclaimed, Mommy, you're so pretty now that I can see you!"
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