Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

White Cane Day & more focus Faribault Lions as they serve October 15, 2024

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The entrance to the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind, located on Faribault’s east side. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

AS SOMEONE WHO DEALS with vision and hearing impairments, I feel fortunate to live in a community with a heightened awareness of those issues. Faribault is home to the Minnesota State Academies for the Deaf and Blind. Medical professionals offer local care in vision and hearing. And the Faribault Lions Club, focused on both, is especially active.

Pictures of MSAB students are featured on banners scattered around the campus. This one highlights a graduate. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

And that is why I met local Lion John Battles and learned about White Cane Awareness Day, celebrated annually on October 15. Battles was standing inside the exit area of Fareway Foods handing out information about white canes and collecting donations. Those monies will help blind and visually impaired individuals deal with mobility issues. For example, past gifts have been used to purchase canes and/or replacement tips for students at MSAB.

I underwent eye muscle surgery as a child and then again 64 years later, this time using an adjustable suture in my left eye. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2023)

I paused to drop money into John’s bucket and also to chat a bit about the Lions’ work and my own struggles with vision. I’ve been diagnosed with bilateral strabismus and in January underwent surgery to realign my eyes with the goal of eliminating my double vision. Unfortunately, the corrective surgery did not work long-term. That’s true in 10-20 percent of surgical outcomes. Rather than attempt another surgery, I opted to try prisms in my prescription eyeglasses. Adjusting to the high number of prisms took time and they are not perfect. I struggle with depth perception and sometimes still see double. But, as I told John, at least I can see.

This photo of me (far left in group picture) with family on a vacation to northern Minnesota in 1960 shows me wearing a patch over my left eye. This was an attempt to correct my vision without surgery. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo by Elvern Kletscher)

My vision issues are not something which suddenly developed. Rather, I was born with misaligned eyes, requiring strabismus surgery at age four. I am forever grateful to my parents for understanding the importance of corrective surgery. Although I never asked, I expect it was a huge financial burden for them. Had I not undergone this operation at the hospital in New Ulm, I likely would have gone blind in my less dominant eye.

This building on the MSAB campus houses the Lion’s Den, an apartment setting to help students learning to navigate independent living. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)
Serving up pancakes and sausage at the annual Lions Club pancake breakfast, a major fundraiser for the Faribault service organization. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2015)
The main entry to the Minnesota State Academy for the Blind. The local Lions Club supports students and programs at MSAB. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

As I shared parts of my story with John, I felt his empathy and his strong desire to help others. The Faribault Lions clearly practice their motto of “We serve.” They collect used eyeglasses and hearing aids, offer vision screenings for kids, support Can Do Canines (which trains service dogs), funded the Lion’s Den apartment at the school for the blind (helping students adjust/learn in an apartment setting) and much more. Their service projects are not solely focused on vision and hearing.

This sign on the Lion’s Den acknowledges this as a project of the Faribault Lions Club with a grant from the Lions Club International Foundation. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

But on this day, I want to highlight the efforts of John and his fellow Lions to educate the public about white canes. In the printed information John distributed at the grocery store, I learned that the idea of white canes originated in 1930 with the Lions Club of Peoria, Illinois. The club president suggested white canes with red tips as a tool to help those with visual impairments. The idea caught on as a way to grow their independence and also as a way to create awareness among the public.

The Foley Lions Club in central Minnesota is raising awareness about vision via this bench in Lion’s Park. There’s also a lion’s head drinking fountain in the park. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2024)

Awareness is assuredly a goal of the Lions. The informational sheet from John quotes two subdivisions of Minnesota state law #169.202 regarding white cane usage and how those operating motor vehicles must stop and yield to those carrying white or metallic canes. That seems common sense. But sometimes common sense is elusive.

A banner on the MSAB campus shows pride in the school mascot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2024)

I appreciate the efforts of the Faribault Lions, especially when it comes to vision and hearing. They are determined to raise awareness, offer financial and other support, and make a difference for those of us who have vision and hearing impairments. Mine are manageable. I can see. And I can hear, even though I have profound hearing loss in my right ear (due to sudden sensory hearing loss from a virus).

Outside the M Health Fairview Eye Clinic. Inside the clinic, donors names are listed on a wall, including some I recognized as from Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo 2023)

It’s humbling to sit in the packed waiting room of a specialty clinic like M Health Fairview Eye Clinic on the campus of the University of Minnesota and see young children with white canes. That puts my vision issues in perspective. In every situation, opportunities exist to learn and to grow empathy. I did and I have. And now, thanks to Faribault Lion John Battles, I have grown my understanding of White Cane Awareness Day and how much my community cares.

© Copyright 2024 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

From Faribault: There are no limitations with art March 15, 2017

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AS A CHILD, I hooked nylon loops onto a pegged plastic square then wove more loops the other direction to shape a potholder.

My potholders were rather useless given their minimal size and synthetic material. But still, I gifted many aunts with potholders on their birthdays and they graciously thanked me.

 

 

I never pursued weaving beyond that childhood obsession, although I was convinced that some day I would weave rag rugs like my Uncle Bob. A long retired Minneapolis police officer, he learned the craft from his mother and has given me many sturdy rugs for my home.

 

 

As a child, I admired Helen Keller. I still do. I often wondered what it would be like to be deaf and blind as she was and to overcome those disabilities with such determination. After suffering a sudden sensory hearing loss in my right ear six years ago, I understand partial deafness. But to be blind, that stretches my imagination.

 

 

With that background, I was especially drawn to a section of the Student Art Exhibit at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault. It features SAORI weaving, free-style hand-weaving that originated in Japan. Minnesota State Academy for the Blind students created the woven art under the guidance of artist-in-residence Chiaki O’Brien.

 

 

I expect the texture of the materials makes this craft especially appealing to those with limited or no vision. Their other senses, including the sense of touch, are heightened.

I think then back to Helen Keller and how her devoted teacher, Anne Sullivan, spelled w-a-t-e-r into Helen’s hand as water rushed over it.

 

 

I wonder then how the hands-on teaching of Chiaki O’Brien affected visually-impaired students at the Minnesota Academy as they saw with their hands that they could create art. What a gift.

FYI: The Student Art Exhibit, featuring artwork from nine Faribault schools, runs through April 1 on the second floor of the Paradise Center for the Arts in downtown Faribault.

This concludes my recent series of stories on current exhibits at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault.

© Copyright 2017 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Artwork photographed with permission from the PCA.