[nabs-l] Lions Club

Thu Sep 9 02:24:45 UTC 2010

Dear all,
The phenomenon known as tagging, I.E. having people collect money in
front of stores and/or on the road, is one of the most unseemly forms
of fundraising. However, it is not uncommon, and it is not only used
by the Lions Club in order to fund blind individuals. When i was in
high school, we all had to fundraise for our annual choir competitions
which were always out of state or Canada. So we'd all get chocolate
boxes to sell. Then NJ passed a law prohibiting the sell of food which
had as its main ingredient sugar. So candy was out of the question and
healthy snacks were just not racking up the dollars as our good
friends the chocolate bars did. And so some people had the option of
signing up for choir. It is not unusual to see high school students
and other organizations in town asking for money at our local
supermarkets. Mind you I live in a fairly high middle class
neighborhood. All that is to say, that I don't think the Lions Club is
using tagging as a way to hold back our movement. They use tagging
simply as a means of fundraising without  much thought to the
consequences it might have on how people perceive blind individuals.
While not much thought is given to the high school students asking for
money, if they were to see that cane, people's pity meter would shoot
up and say, "Oh, that poor blind person, let me give them a dollar."
Which for me is so personal and offensive. There was a time in history
not so long ago where that was all blind people could do, collect
money in a cup. In many countries around the world it still happens
and it is truly uncomfortable to put yourself in that situation.
Knowing the Lions Club however, i know that it is often made up of
people that just want to help. And if this is the only way they know
how to they will do it, unless you volunteer and voice how the people
they are trying to help feel. As with anything, every minority group
has to have fought against prejudice  in some form or another. The
blind are no exception. While asking people to vote for the Pepsi
project is basically the same as asking for money, we are doing the
ask in ways that actually defy the way the public thinks about the
blind. Many people I meet are astonished I can text. Well if I send
out a mass text, email, tweet and put it up on my facebook status,
that is breaking a lot of mis-perceptions about my blindness. Yes, I
can use technology, and yes I am intelligent and articulate enough to
ask you to please do this for me. This is really long. But please, if
you really feel this way, and yet acknowledge that the Lions Club does
support the blindness movement financially, then approach them, and
speak your mind. Organize a fundraiser yourself, so that not only are
you talking but also taking on initiative action which will earn you
their respect. Hopefully no one raises money on our behalf for pity,
but if they do, by organizing a fundraiser yourself and making it
successful, you have just shown your value as an individual, and it
will help them raise money not for pity but because they actually
believe in our cause.
Thank you.
Mary F

On 9/8/10, Jedi <loneblindjedi at samobile.net> wrote:
> The NFB asks for money to help the blind. But I think the difference is
> how blind people are portrayed in the asking. In our case, the blind
> are portrayed as competent and exciting people who need to have funding
> in order to create and sustain innovative programs to spread that
> competence and excitement throughout the blind masses. From what I've
> seen of the Lions Club adverts and materials, blindness is seen as an
> awful limitation that creates considerable disadvantages beyond what
> most of us would be willing to agree with. For example, I saw a
> commercial on TV advertising the Lions Clubs where this young girl goes
> in for eye surgery. At the end of the commercial, the announcer talks
> about how it's wonderful that this girl can now ride a bike and how
> terrible things would have been if she hadn't had the surgery provided
> by the club. To me, that's the difference.
>
> What we need to do is to alert the Lions Clubs as to what they could do
> to help us by letting them know gently that their current tactics
> aren't working.
>
> Respectfully,
> Jedi
> Original message:
>> Well George I would respectfully disagree that the Lions Club has not
>> done much to help the blind. Many Lions have given scholarship to blind
>> students, supported many blind individuals to attend various
>> conferences and trainings and are the biggest funders of the Lions
>> World Services for the Blind in Little Rock Arkansas. Some may have
>> negative oppinion and frankly I have personally witnessed somethings
>> that LWSB could do better, yet its fair to say that LWSB has given
>> opportunities to many blind people for independent training and get
>> training for a job. So the Lions have done alot of good for the blind.
>> Infact they have done more for the blind not being a blind organization
>> then any other not blind organization. NFB and ACB are blind
>> organizations run by the blind and for the blind so yes they have and
>> will do more for the blind then Lions or any other organizations. I
>> would join one because of the work they do, but I can not support
>> something that
>>  requires asking for money to help the blind.
>> Anmol
>> I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad.
>> Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague,
>> like a breeze among flowers.
>> Hellen Keller
>
>
>> --- On Wed, 9/8/10, Jorge Paez <jorgeapaez at mac.com> wrote:
>
>>> From: Jorge Paez <jorgeapaez at mac.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Lions Club
>>> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list"
>>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>>> Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 1:56 PM
>>> Anmol:
>>> Yes, it bothers me much--though I don't have a Walmart,
>>> I've seen that sort of stuff.
>>> Not to be harsh,
>>> but what has the "Lions Club" ever done for the blind?
>
>>> The NFB has done a noticable much more.
>
>>> Sorry if I'm being critical but I've never seen a blind
>>> person talk to me about "how good the Lion Club was."
>
>>> They help, I know, but never the blind, not in my
>>> experience.
>
>
>>> Jorge
>
>
>
>
>>> On Sep 8, 2010, at 2:39 PM, Anmol Bhatia wrote:
>
>>>> Does it bother any of you when the Lions Club sit in
>>> frunt of Walmart and ask for money to help the blind? This
>>> has been something that has bothering me for a long time and
>>> mostly the reason why I have not joined one. Lions do a lot
>>> of good for the blind and I have been lucky to speak to a
>>> few Lions Clubs, but helping the blind in expense of
>>> reinforcing the sterotype that society has about the blind
>>> to me does not really helpful to our well being and holds us
>>> back in society. Its been something that has been bugging me
>>> for years, but I was not sure if it is just me or if there
>>> are other blind individuals who feel the same. I finally
>>> decide to ask when a friend of mine who has mentioned about
>>> joing a organization for the blind said that she going to
>>> get involved in the Lions club and sit in frunt of Walmart.
>>> It would be interesting to hear what everyone has to think
>>> about this.
>
>>>> Anmol
>
>
>>>> I seldom think about my limitations, and they never
>>> make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at
>>> times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.
>>>> Hellen Keller
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
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-- 
Mary Fernandez
Emory University 2012
P.O. Box 123056
Atlanta Ga.
30322
Phone: 732-857-7004
"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the
most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of
teachers."
Charles W. Eliot