May 1, 2008

Lions Club White Cane Days

are Friday and Saturday

Keep your eyes peeled for Ritzville Lions Club members at local businesses and on the streets this Friday and Saturday, May 2 and 3, for White Cane Days.

This year’s goal is to fill the White Canes, which are four large canes constructed by Don Saunders from PVC pipe.

Ritzville Lions join members of other Washington and Idaho Lions Clubs for the annual White Cane Days fund-raising event from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Ritzville both days.

Club members will ask for contributions to support sight programs of the Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight and Hearing in exchange for a White Cane Days lapel sticker.

Collection locations are downtown Ritzville and First Avenue, Adams County Courthouse, Bob’s Chevron and Mini Mart, Harvest Foods and Starbucks.

People may also make contributions by contacting any Lions Club member.

The familiar white cane with a red tip is used by the blind and visually impaired, and was invented in 1930 by Lion George A. Bonham.

Lions clubs advocate for the blind and visually impaired through education and money raising activities across the country.

The Lions, partnered with the Northwest Lions Foundation for Sight and Hearing, have helped children for 39 years by providing sight and hearing services.

The NLFSH gives the gift of sight through the following programs:

• SightLife – Since 1969, the Eye Bank has provided more than 35,000 corneas for sight restoring transplants. SightLife recovers, prepares and distributes donated corneas to transplant surgeons who care for those who are waiting in blindness.

• Lions Patient Care Grants – NLFSH provides grants to Lions Clubs to assist people in their own communities who need treatment for sight loss but cannot afford it.

• Lions Health Screening Unit – This program provides free health screenings for vision, hearing, glaucoma, diabetes and high blood pressure. About 30 percent of the people screened find they have health problems of which they were unaware. Last year, the unit screened 31,000 children and adults.

• Lions Project Support Grants – Special grants are available to Lions Clubs and other community organizations to help support vision and hearing-related programs in their local areas.

For more information about Ritzville Lions Club activities in the community, contact Saunders at 659-0478.