It was a long bus ride from Northeast Philadelphia on Saturday morning, but for Ebony Wright, the journey to Center City for vision screenings for her daughters was worth it.

Brianna, 15, already wears glasses, but may need stronger lenses.

Sabriya, 12, “failed her vision test with her primary doctor,” her mother said, and needed a follow-up examination.

Wright was one of hundreds of city and suburban residents who traveled to Wills Eye Hospital for the sixth-annual Sight Day, a pro bono clinic that gives uninsured and underinsured children and teens free exams, and, if necessary, glasses and further treatment.

“We live in a city in which 22,000 kids failed vision tests and only 17,000 undergo further treatment,” said Alex V. Levin, Wills Eye’s chief of pediatric ophthalmology and ocular genetics. “Too many kids are not getting treatment they need.”

The event, which drew about 1,300 patients over about six hours, is even more critical this year as Philadelphia public schools cope with a shortage of nurses.

“We shifted Sight Day from the spring to the fall this year because there aren’t enough nurses or days in the first part of this school year to screen all the children,” said Donna Cooper, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, one of the event sponsors.

Other sponsors include the Eagles Youth Partnership; Thomas Jefferson University; Visionworks, which provides glasses for free; and the First Hospital Foundation.

“Every year, 50 percent of the children we see need glasses,” said Colleen McCauley, PCCY’s health policy director. Thirty percent are uninsured, and another 30 percent are not native English speakers.

Hazel Kim, 25, a first-year student at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, was one of the 450 volunteers.

“I like the idea that kids get free screening,” she said. “I really love kids.”

The Eagles Youth Partnership, which is the team’s philanthropic arm, has been sending vision-care vans to Philadelphia schools “to work closely with nurses to see what the needs are,” said Christina Weiss Lurie, its president.

If children need further testing or surgery, “we are scheduling two a day for the next three months to take care of it,” said Sara Rapuano, chief operating officer of Wills Eye’s Ophthalmology Clinics.

“No one leaves here until every child is taken care of,” said Rapuano, who praised doctors “from all over the area” who volunteered their time.