World Sight Day
It was marvellous to join with Lions Clubs worldwide and hold a World Sight Day in New Milton to create awareness and to demonstrate the problems that visually impaired and blind people have on a daily basis.
On Saturday, 15th October 2011, our "Blindfolded Challenge walk" lasted an hour and our mascot Lion Keith Wicketts coped well in his fur costume on a very warm sunny day as he guided the Mayor Cllr Valya Schooling and Deputy Mayor Cllr Alan O'Sullivan along Station Road negotiating all the obstacles on the way . Club President Valerie Marples was assisted by a Young Leader from 1st Hordle Cub Scouts and some of the local visually impaired owners with their Guide dogs helped to lead the way along our walk.
It is quite amazing how our senses were heightened especially more sensitive in our feet as we got accustomed to even the slightest gradients which normally would not be a problem for a sighted person.
Another, perhaps surprising, outcome was the feeling of vulnerability and responsibility of those who were guiding.
It was an adventure to go into the Post Office and find the manageress to give her a birthday card.....and then to buy a Milky Way chocolate bar.....without her help we could have ended up with something so different !
Lion Russell Jones took the challenge to find a telephone box and make a call and Lion Martin Stone managed the difficult steps at the NatWest bank.
Cllr Alan O'Sullivan from Hardys Electrical store had to find Henry the vacuum cleaner who had been hidden away from his usual spot....but to make it a bigger challenge for us Alan put a fridge freezer out on the pavement which was so confusing as we thought that we were inside his shop !! We lost all sense of direction with all the distractions of passers by.
On to the next challenge...The smell of the freshly baked bread identified that we were outside Morrisons and it was a fairly easy task to get some fruit as we all knew the layout of the store from our normal visits. But....how does a visually impaired person manage to shop in a supermarket and then queue with all the Saturday shoppers at the checkout ? We realised how difficult it is to find the correct money, check the change and also how little the general public show empathy to a person who is visually impaired.
The event gave the local community details of the following Associations who kindly attended the event.
New Milton Macular Degeneration support group regularly give information on treatment and symptoms as well as meeting others to discuss personal experiences.
New Milton Talking Newspapers give an excellent service providing the local news for over 250 blind or partially sighted listeners in our local community .
Celebrating their 80th Anniversary, Guide Dogs for the Blind came along and the public learnt about the selection and training of a guide dog. We all had the pleasure of meeting Jeff with his standard poodle Guide dog named Prince. Jeff calls his dog a "babe magnet" and it was easy to see why ! Kathy came along with her new Guide dog Lynne and Pat Canning, the coordinator for the New Forest branch of Guide Dogs for the Blind , brought along some of the puppies who await training.
Information was available from Open Sight who are the largest organisation working with people of every age who have visual impairment in the county of Hampshire. They have a presence in every community offering early intervention advice and guidance, dedicated awareness campaigns, clubs and pursuits to interest all ages.
In the developing world, recycled spectacles can give sight to a visually impaired person enabling them to find employment and support their family.
The local community donated over 100 pairs of old reading glasses to be sent to the Ukraine.
Within the UK, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataracts are the most common thieves of sight. Each of these conditions, in their own way, steals sight without the victims realising .
2 million people in the UK are visually impaired.
Over 360,000 people are registered blind or visually impaired.
As a result of our World Sight Awareness Day,hopefully people in our community will now become more aware of how precious their sight is and get regular eye tests.
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PRIDE IN THE COMMUNITY
