Letter to the editor
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Lions White Cane Days this Friday and Saturday
Friday and Saturday of May 1 and 2, Lions clubs in Washington and Northern Idaho will be holding Lions White Cane Days. Lions Clubs invite the public to wear a White Cane, showing support in their own communities for the Northwest Lions Foundation (founded in 1969).
The Northwest Lions Foundation assists local clubs with Project Support Care Grants, providing individuals with sight related medical procedures and special equipment for blind children and adults in our communities who could not otherwise afford them. Lions support sight programs and services including vision screenings, eye banks, eyeglass recycling, and provide eye care service to those at risk of losing their sight.
Another program funded by White Cane donations is the Northwest Lions Foundation’s hearing program. This program provides low income individuals with hearing aids for a $50 copay with the balance of the cost being shared by the Foundation and your local Lions Club.
The NWL Foundation assisted the Aberdeen Lions Club with a Project Support Grant in 2018, awarding them with a $3,400 grant to help purchase a vision screening device. Our local Vision Screening Foundation (consisting of six Lions clubs in Grays Harbor County) now has three devices to assist local school districts to meet their Washington state mandated requirement to screen the vision of each student, kindergarten through 7th grade, each year. This device will screen for six different deficiencies immediately, dramatically speeding up the process while addressing eye conditions that the previous eye chart screening would miss.
So far this 2025-26 school year, local Lions clubs’ volunteers screened almost 12,000 individuals in approximately 55 day cares, preschools, elementary and middle schools. These local clubs were able to offer their services and the devices at no cost to the schools or families.
We appreciate the generous support of Grays Harbor communities. It is truly a gift to those with vision or hearing issues and that can be helped by the Northwest Lions Foundation and a local Lions Club.
Please look for Aberdeen Lions volunteers, handing out White Canes in the Aberdeen Safeway Store on Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. In addition, Lions from Cosmopolis, Central Park, and Hoquiam will be soliciting for White Canes at various locations in Grays Harbor County.
Please feel free to contact the Aberdeen Lions Club (360-249-3463) if you have any questions or wish to know more about the Lions and their projects. Lunch meetings are at the Aberdeen Log Pavilion, at noon each Monday, except for their dinner meeting at 6 p.m. which is on the second Monday of the month.
If you have any used glasses (prescription, readers/magnifiers, sunglasses) you can turn them in to any Lions member.
Phyllis Granahan
Nancy Bryson
Co-chairs, White Cane Days
Aberdeen Lions Club
