POLAND — Students in all Poland schools will view the upcoming solar eclipse safely, thanks to the Poland Lions Club.

The club provided 2,000 solar eclipse viewing glasses this week and saw to it every student received a pair.

“Looking at the sun at any time can cause retinal damage,” said Poland Lions member Judy Young. “Since our main purpose is to prevent preventable blindness, our club entertained the thought of providing glasses to the schools.”

She said a few Lions members attended the Lions Clubs International Convention in Boston. At this convention, an eclipse glasses provider shared ideas on promoting safe viewing of the eclipse.

“We presented the project to Superintendent Craig (Hockenberry), who immediately was on board,” Young said. “Our club then voted to proceed and ordered over 2,000 pairs of glasses for the students and staff.”

The goal of doing this, according to Young, was to bring to the kids and families the fact that viewing of the sun is dangerous and can lead to vision loss. She said one must wear special viewing glasses that carry the NASA ISO Transmission Rating.

Hockenberry received donations to make viewing kits that include a moon pie and a Milky Way candy bar. Young said Hockenberry said, “We couldn’t forget about the moon and our solar system.”

The kits were passed out at preschools and all grades in the district last week. Holy Family students also will receive a modified kit this week.

Hockenberry said Poland will not have school April 8. The decision was based on both safety and opportunity.

“The Poland Local Schools will not have school on Monday, April 8,” Hockenberry said. “Our thought was that more than 75% of our district will either be walking home, on a bus, or driving home in car as the eclipse is scheduled very near our dismissal time. Plus we felt it was a once- in-a-lifetime event and wanted to respect parents who had plans to travel to view the event.”

Hockenberry said teachers have been preparing lessons and talking about the solar eclipse and will ramp up lessons as the event draws closer.

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