According to Lions Club president, Joe Bullock, the Lions Club has been working on the project for quite a while, saving the necessary money. Bullock said the club received matching funds from the State Lions Club through Greg Hall, the District hearing and speech representative. According to Amazonia School Nurse, Pat Dickerson, the machine which is used for children up to first grade, can be used on really young children. She said with the new audiometer, all the child has to do is point to the picture that corresponds to the word they hear. She said another good thing about the machine is that she can test each ear individually.
Some machines only test both ears together.
The school plans to use the audiometer with kindergarten and first grade as well as any preschoolers it might have. One advantage to having the machine is that by using words, she can tell if the child can't hear words, but can hear sounds by pick up on the tones. Dickerson said the purchase of the machine would not have been possible without Bullock, who spent lots of time at the school. The machine can be used throughout the district, however, the agreement was that it be housed at the Amazonia school.