Screening tool keep jokes to a minimum

City Editor

Carson High School's nurses screened about 1,000 students for eye problems with a little help from the Carson-Douglas Medical Society Alliance.

District nurse Marena Works said the screenings, which are mandated by state law, went a lot faster thanks to a $2,200 gizmo donated by the Alliance.

"It is a little hand-held machine you use to look into the eye and it gives you a reading," Marena said of the SureSight Vision Screener. "It means you can screen children who don't speak English or can't speak at all."

Before having the screener, students would look into the kind of vision tester they have at the Department of Motor Vehicles and read the smallest line they could.

The device also insures the joker who insists he can't read line 2, even though it is as big as a billboard, won't have quite as much fun at the nurses' expense.

Karyn Clemmensen of the Alliance was helping the nurses Thursday. The Alliance consists of Carson doctors' spouses and has been in existence for many decades.

Karyn has lived in Carson for 24 years and is married to dermatologist Charles and is a substitute nurse at the high school.

Alliance membership chairman Pia Parapid credits Lucille Petty as one of the Alliance's founding members.

Lucille and husband, Dr. Richard Petty, arrived in Carson City in the early 1950s.

"We used to be known as the Doctors' Wives, but that's not correct anymore," Pia said.

Two of the 70 active members of the Alliance are men, for one thing. Pia said the alliance has donated more than $100,000 over the years to such charities as Advocates to End Domestic Violence, the Dr. Ross Memorial Clinic, the schools, the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada, Carson-Tahoe Hospital and they are presently raising money for the Carson-Tahoe Cancer Center.

Pia has been a member of the group since 1973. Her husband was Carson City OB GYN Nick Parapid, who passed away.

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Ken Beaton reports finding 20 Millennium coins while doing some cleaning at the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada.

He said they moved some cash register tapes and found 20 of the coins sealed in plastic.

The coins were minted at the Nevada State Museum and are no longer available. They were originally worth $25 apiece, but Ken said he asked the folks at the museum, who estimated their present worth at $30.

By Friday, all the coins were sold, with the Children's Museum Board snapping up 16. The other four went Friday.

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Speaking of the Nevada State Museum, I noticed Thursday the price of admission went up 67 percent. But since the original cost was only $3 I'm not complaining much.

Bob Nylen said the entrance fee went up Oct. 1 after a vote by the museum board of directors. At $5, it is still a bargain.

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Education reporter Teri Vance tells me two Carson City children will be featured on Nickelodeon tonight. Matt and Ashley Standridge were interviewed in March by reporters doing a series on homeless children.

They told how their family lived in a Chevrolet Blazer near the Carson River for six months in 1999. Since then, they have moved from the river into a hotel room, then to an apartment. They are now living in a mobile home on 3 acres near Dayton.

"It made us stronger because when we were living on the river, we knew we wanted to make what we had better," Ashley said in an earlier interview. "We did."

Matt said he wants to give hope to others who may be in a similar situation.

"If you are the way we were, just don't give up," he said. "It will get better. Don't let anybody tease you, just walk away.

"It isn't your fault what's happening to you. Your parents just chose the wrong road to go down."

Kurt Hildebrand is city editor at the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 881-1215 or e-mail him at hildebrand@nevadaappeal.com.