White Cane Awareness Day

Two days a year -- usually the last weekend in April or the first weekend in May -- local Lions clubs solicit funds from the public to support local sight conservation projects by exchanging white cane tags for donations. This is also an opportunity to make the public aware of the "White Cane Law " in Michigan. This law also deals with Public Accommodation and covers the use of Leader Dogs and Service Dogs. Look for the Lions club in your community to be out and about with their white cane tags in May, and support Lions supporting Sight! 

This year (2021), the Northside Lions held their White Cane Tag Days on April 30th & May 1st. Next year we will be out on May 6th & 7th, 2022. Our locations for soliciting will be the intersections of Witham & Dykstra and Giles & Horton Rd in Laketon Township, Center & 2 Ruddiman in North Muskegon, and at the Hardings Friendly Markets on Whitehall & Ruddiman.

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We will be out in force beginning:

Friday, 3-5pm & 5-7pm, and on

Saturday 9-11am & 11am-1pm.

See you then!

 

White Cane Awareness Day was a Success, thank you Lion Deb Roest for Chairing this event. We had many Lions turn out for this important fundraiser and campaign to get the word out about Supporting the Blind, when they are walking with their "White Canes".

 

Also, a big THANK YOU to the Citizens of the Northside of Muskegon for their generosity during  April 30th and May 1st of 2021. It is the citizen's donations that help us do the much-needed work, in our community, State, Country, and the World.

 

WHITE CANE - HISTORY

In 1921, James Biggs, a photographer from Bristol, England, became blind following an accident. Because he was feeling uncomfortable with the amount of traffic around his home, he painted his walking stick white to be more easily visible.

In 1930, the late George A. Bonham, President of the Peoria Lions Club (Illinois) introduced the idea of using the white cane with a red band as a means of assisting the blind in independent mobility. The Peoria Lions approved the idea, white canes were made and distributed, and the Peoria City Council adopted an ordinance giving the bearers the right-of-way to cross the street. News of the club’s activity spread quickly to other Lions Clubs throughout the United States, and their visually handicapped friends experimented with the white canes. Overwhelming acceptance of the white cane idea by the blind and sighted alike quickly gave cane users a unique method of identifying their special need for travel consideration among their sighted counterparts.

Also in 1931, in France, Guilly d’Herbemont recognized the danger to blind people in traffic and launched a national “white stick movement” for blind people. She donated 5,000 white canes to people in Paris.

Today white cane laws are on the books of every state in the US and many other countries, providing blind persons a legal status in traffic. The white cane now universally acknowledges that the bearer is blind. For specific information contact your local government office for motor vehicles.