White Cane Awareness Day

On Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6th, 2023, the Muskegon Northside Lions took to the streets requesting donations for our various projects. This is our "White Cane Tag Days" where, in exchange for a donation, a string tag with information about Michigan's White Cane Law and accommodations for those blind and visually impaired individuals who use dog guides for mobility.

 

Lions were located at the Intersection of Dykstra and Witham and at Harding's Market and at the intersection of Center and Ruddiman (the Four Corners).

 

This year, with the help of strong community, we raised $3,543.43 over these two days!! 

 

All funds raised are to be used to benefit those in need and special projects for the needy.

 

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.