Vision Australia sites from across ACT, NSW, Qld and Victoria are celebrating International White Cane Day on Wednesday with different activities and client engagement events.
First cab off the ranks are staff and clients in the Illawarra, who held their White Cane Day celebration a week early with a BBQ and walk in the Wollongong Botanic Gardens. In Canberra, today, there is a special guided tour of the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. Vision Australia's Central Coast team and clients are taking a walk in Woy Woy on International White Cane Day, while Sydneysiders are dressing in white T-shirts and spending the day on world-heritage-listed Cockatoo Island. In Newcastle, white cane users and their friends and family will meet at Vision Australia's centre in Hamilton before taking the train in to Newcastle for a walk and BBQ at the sensory garden.
Karen Knight, General Manager, Client Services Qld and NT will join 70 guests from Vision Australia, Lions International and other blindness agencies at the 2014 White Cane Dinner on Wednesday 15 October. The annual dinner is organised by the Queensland White Cane committee, of which Vision Australia is a member. During the evening the Hazel and Louis Sanders Memorial White Cane User Achievement Awards, junior and adult, will be presented. Coorparoo staff are also manning a stand in Carindale shopping centre on 22 and 23 October. The display will feature Vision Australia services with a focus on Orientation and Mobility.
In Melbourne, Orientation and Mobility Specialists from across the metro region will be coming together for a publicity event at Federation Square. Read the media release.
Legally-blind Australian Paralympic alpine skier and track and field athlete, Jessica Gallagher, will join other Melbourne cane users and Vision Australia staff to bring cane awareness to the general public.
Also joining the event is Ranjesh Prakash, a Fijian paralympic runner and major spokesperson for the blindness and low vision community in Fiji. Ranjesh is also a cane user and is currently using Vision Australia services.
An 8m x 4m area will be cordoned off on the Swanston St forecourt so people can have a go at using a cane while being blindfolded, or using goggle simulators.
Vision Australia Bendigo and Ballarat are going out into their communities to give the public the opportunity to experience what it would be like to have little or no vision, and use a white cane to get around.
Vision Australia Mildura is getting its cane users together and walking the local streets. They will be joined by local Councillors who are going to get a first-hand experience of the white cane. They will end the walk with a lunch.
Vision Australia Warragul client, and cane user, James Griffiths kicked off International White Cane Day coverage by speaking to ABC Gippsland. James has been working with Orientation and Mobility Specialist, Shirley Bott, for almost 10 years and is incredibly grateful to Vision Australia for its support. You can listen to that interview via the ABC website.