COLUMBUS — The Columbus Lions Club will host its annual White Cane Day Saturday, Oct. 14. Lion Steve McCullough is the chairman of this year’s event, which is a one-day event. Globally, October is Vision Awareness Month. White Cane Days are days set aside in October when Lions Club members nationwide go out into their communities to increase awareness of the white cane safety laws and raise money for the blind and visually impaired.
On Saturday, Oct. 14, Columbus Lions Club members will be at H•E•B, Brookshire Brothers and AL&M from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. All donations received will stay local to help provide “Kidsight” eye screening and eyeglasses to children in need. The Lions will also accept used eyewear to be repaired, recycled and distributed to people needing glasses.
In June of 1925, at a Lions International convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, Helen Keller challenged the Lions of America to become “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness” and band together to serve the blind and needy with impaired vision.
Since then, Lions Clubs have hosted special days yearly to raise money for the blind and visually impaired.
Throughout the world, the long white cane is used by people who are blind or visually impaired as a tool for safe and reliable navigation. The white cane symbolizes the user’s skills, talents, mobility, and independence.
It also allows the sighted person to recognize that the user is visually impaired. Today, white cane laws are on the books in every state in the US and other countries to provide persons who are blind a legal status in traffic.
In 1964, the US Congress approved a resolution authorizing the President of the US to annually issue a proclamation designating Oct. 15 as “National White Cane Safety Day.”
In 1969, the International Federation of the Blind adopted Oct. 15 as “International White Cane Safety Day”.
