Today is going to be a ‘blind-affair’ when you can dine for one night without sight.
Are you adventurous? Do you like a challenge? Always the first to try out things?
The Lions in Tzaneen dare you to attentd their event and have dinner, with a blindfold on!
Who is going to see? No one! Everyone will be wearing one.
The event will take place Saturday 12 October at Arborpark Lodge at 18:00. Costs will be R250 p/p.
For more information contact Christa Koekemoer on 082-556-7499.
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“The idea is to raise awareness about blindness and turn the tables on society’s attitudes to disability. It is a widely accepted fact that the loss of any one of your senses will result in the heightening of your remaining senses. All the table-top apparel will be right in front of you, but where? Which was the wine glass and where on earth was the bread? Have childlike fun by jabbing your fingers all over the plate, feeling the different temperatures and textures,” said Christa Koekemoer, on behalf of the Lions Two or three hours, eating with blind folds on, might not give you quite the same insight about how physical impairment can feel, but it may go some way.
The Lions Clubs of South Africa, through the Lions BrightSight initiative, are reviving White Cane Day 15 October to raise awareness about blindness.
White Cane Day has been an October 15 observance in the United States since 1964 and is recognised globally today to celebrate the achievements of people who are blind or visually impaired and the important symbol of blindness and a tool of independence, the white cane.
According to Beaulieu Maré, spokesperson for the Gauteng-based Lions BrightSight, the theme of this year’s White Cane Day is “Tap into the Future, There are no Limits!”.
“We have officially named October Sight Month too, so not only will the Lions be raising awareness throughout the month, but also raising funds through the sale of special Lions BrightSight pins as part of White Cane Day. The pins are R10 each and every cent goes back into community projects to help people who are sight impaired.”
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An initiative of Multiple District 410 Lions, BrightSight provides corrective spectacles to underprivileged people throughout the country, as well as in neighbouring states.
Since its inception in July 1978, thousands of spectacles have been distributed to people, bringing smiles to the faces of senior citizens, children and indigents who would otherwise have gone through life with impaired vision.
The objectives of Lions BrightSight are: To receive prescriptions from Lions Clubs, provincial hospitals, optometric clinics and various other organisations (through a local Lions Club) and to process these scripts at low cost using new and pre-owned frames that are in excellent condition and fitted with new prescription lenses.
“Lions BrightSight is the Multiple District 410’s flagship project and have re-introduced White Cane Day to highlight the needs of visually impaired as well as to raise funds to assist those who have sight issues,” explained Maré.
She encouraged local businesses to challenge each other by ordering White Cane Day pins for their staff or sell pins in-house in aid of their local Lions club, and for individuals to look out for Lions members out and about selling the pins on October 15.
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Lions BrightSight can put people in touch with their local Lions Club or supply them pins directly.
For more information, email the management committee of Lions BrightSight on manco@lionsbrightsight.co.za
Interestingly, Maré explained, in 1925, Helen Keller attended the Lions Clubs International Convention and challenged Lions to become “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.”
The Lions accepted her challenge and their work ever since has included sight programmes aimed at preventable blindness.
Keller developed a fever at 18 months of age that left her blind and deaf, but with the help of an exceptional teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, of the Perkins School for the Blind, she learned sign language and braille.
A few years later, she learned to speak, and as an adult became a tireless
