September 8 - Volunteers

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