White Cane Awareness Day proclamation

36:53All right. Um we are now ready for the white cane awareness. If you would please step to the podium.

37:03All right, I'll go ahead and read the resolution first. Okay.

37:07Thank you.

37:07Resolution number 23-003, a resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring October 15th, 2022, as White Cain Awareness Day in Pasco County. Whereas the mission of the Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired and Blind is to provide people who are visually impaired and blind with the skills needed to achieve. Their maximum independence. NRAS Lighthouse works with people of all ages, from children to seniors, who experience vision impairment, blindness, and low vision in and live in Pasco,

37:38Hernando, and Citrus Counties. NRAS White Cane Awareness Day brings recognition and awareness to visibly impaired and blind individuals who use white or long canes and seeing eye dogs. And RAS, every blind person in our Our county has the right to carry a white cane. The white cane demonstrates and symbolizes the ability to achieve a full and independent life by allowing blind individuals to move freely and safely from place to place. And Raz, the white cane makes it possible for people who are blind

38:08to fully participate and contribute to our society and provides the capacity to work productively in competitive. Employment and whereas the work of Lighthouse includes the distribution of information about the White Cane Law because every citizen should be aware of the law's requirements. And whereas the White Cane Law requires that motorists exercise appropriate caution when approaching a blind person carrying a white claim white cane. And RAS Florida law also calls upon employers, both public

38:38and private, to be aware of and to utilize the employment skills of our blind citizens by recognizing their worth as individuals. NRAS, the state of Florida, through its public agencies and with the cooperative assistance of Lighthouse, can look forward to a continued expansion of employment opportunities for blind citizens and greater acceptance of blind persons in the labor market. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby declares October 15th, 2022 as

39:08White Cain Awareness Day in Pasco County and encourages our schools, colleges, and universities to offer full opportunities for training to blind persons. Encourages per employers and the public to utilize the valuable skills of competent blind persons and to open new opportunities for the blind in our rapidly changing society, and calls upon all citizens to recognize the white cane as an instrument of safety and self-help for blind pedestrians on our streets and highways. Dun and resolved in regular session

39:39with a quorum present and voting this 11th. Day of October twenty twenty two.

39:43Motion to approve.

39:44Second.

39:45All in favor? Aye. Aye. Welcome. And this is uh com Commissioner Fitzpatrick's, so I'll turn the mic over to Commissioner.

39:52I think it's great everything that the Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired and Blind has done over the past many years. I know um one of my kids daughters, one of my children have been attending Lighthouse throughout the years for the past sixteen to eighteen years now. She'll be nineteen this December. So it's amazing the services they provide. They offer everything from summer camps and the L White Cane um awareness. So are will you still be doing the walking across

40:22the roads on White Cane Awareness Day? Okay.

40:25This year we're actually having an event at the New Port Riche Lighthouse. It's children and teens who are celebrating and we also have presentation and teaching people how to use white cane. But more so teaching them how to use cited guide. Um may I talk about the history of white cane? Absolutely. Well it's very short history. Back in the 1930s in Peoria, Illinois, um a Lions Club

40:56member noticed a visually impaired individual trying to cross the street using a black cane. Who can see a black cane, right? So he painted the Black Cane white and it was an overnight success and the Lions Club started to promote the white cane internationally as a way to help motorists recognize and give way to individuals with white canes crossing the street. Shortly

41:26after, so still in 1930, there was an ordinance in the Illinois um declaring a law which states that anyone carrying a white cane crossing the street had right of way. when the veterans were coming home in World War Two. Those who were visually impaired or blind needed assistance with returning back to employment. So the long white cane was developed. It provides more

41:56information because you're able to feel your way along. So when the veterans came back and they wanted to get back into the workforce they used a long white cane to feel and find their way back to work and to move around in the community. In nineteen sixty four Um Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed that Wake King Awareness Day would be a national occurrence on October the 15th.

42:28This year, on October 15th, at the Newport Ritchie Lighthouse, we're having our Wake King Awareness celebration. You are all invited to come if you'd like to attend. It's really important. To recognize that the white cane as a universal symbol of vision impairment is also a symbol of independence. And because of your assistance, you are helping so many people in Pasco who are visually impaired and blind with being

42:58safer so that. Um White cane awareness day is really about white cane law. White cane law stipulates that people with white canes or guide dogs have right away on the streets.

43:14Thank you very much. Thank you for recognizing White Kane Day and having an advance to recognize it as well and thank you for everything that you do for our community.

43:24Thank you, Commissioner Fitzpatrick.

43:26And I I also want to thank you um board members our current boot uh boot camp For Amskills, right? Tom is occurring at the Lighthouse for the Blind. I think we had our Uh an event Saturday? Um where we had a record number of attendees. So we're very grateful for you for um allowing us to help the citizens of Pasco County get great jobs.

43:46Absolutely. I saw that there were people checking in at the Lighthouse on Facebook and also Amskills has come a few times where they're doing intensive training and we are partnering with them to help. them train people who are visually impaired and hearing impaired at the Lighthouse Definhe Services is one of the organizations working out of the New Port Riche Lighthouse.

44:13Wonderful.

44:14So

44:15thank you very much. All right, any board members, anyone else? Um I think we can all come down for this photo. What do you think, Christina?

44:21Yes. Okay. Mm-hmm. Thank you.