White Cane Days help Lions fight blindness

ROCKLAND — Maine Lions clubs are taking part this week in the state’s White Cane Days, and hope to help raise up to $15,000 to provide grants to numerous Maine organizations that fight blindness.

White Cane Days dates to 1951 when Lions first banded together to raise funds to assist people with sight loss. Gov. Angus King has proclaimed this week White Cane Days.

According to Lions spokesman Donald Rundquist of Camden, the Maine Lions Sight and Hearing Association provided grants worth $24,600 last year, to institutions such as the New England Eye Bank, Lions Low Vision Service, Voices for the Blind, Cued Speech, Mid-Maine Medical Center, Maine Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and Maine Prevention of Blindness.

Lions have been concerned about sight since 1925 when Helen Keller urged the nation to help the blind and others with impaired sight. In 1927, Lions invented the idea of white canes, now a universal way of recognizing a blind person.