Volunteers
are the backbone of many charitable
organizations, and our local support group is no exception to this rule of
thumb. We are only a small group, but this past week ten of our members,
ranging in age from 22 to 92, hosted a table in the local grocery store and
also at the Farmers Market. Our aim was to promote an awareness of people with
visual challenges, to distribute literature from CNIB about various eye
conditions, and to raise funds for our own group. Our ten volunteers took turns sitting at the
table over the two days.
During the
year, our support group holds monthly meetings with a variety of activities.
Some of these are purely social, but at other meetings we invite a guest
speaker to address us on a topic of interest. We try to keep ourselves up to
date on current research in the area of vision health and we like to hear about
any advances in technology that might benefit someone with a sight challenge. We share ideas and encourage one another. The
sharing of this verbal information is important because only a few of our group
are able to see print.
One of the
difficulties associated with our group meetings is the inability of the members
to get to the meetings. The town where I live is small and there is no public transportation
system. Instead there is a van which
transports handicapped people. Initially
there was no provision for visually impaired passengers who did not use
wheelchairs or walkers. Special permission
from the board of the wheelchair van was needed so that visually impaired passengers
who did not use these mobility devices could also use the van. Looking back, it was a minor problem. Our present challenge is paying for the use of
the van. Currently our group is
addressing this cost by asking for donations from the community and by holding
special fund raising events like the one of this past week.
Volunteers
are passionate, enthusiastic, and generous with their time and talents. Our
support groups, the organizations with which they are associated, and indeed
the community at large is richer for their commitment.
The photo
below shows four of our local vision loss support group. We are all wearing
CNIB t-shirts and standing behind a display table. I am on the left standing
behind Shirley, and on the right of the photo Lynn is standing behind Evelyn.
 |
| Shirley, Sue, Lynn, and Evelyn |
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