John Partridge, a member of the Auburn Noon Lions, talks below about one of the club’s most important events of the year, White Cane Days. Between 1997 and 2004, Partridge served the city as its fire and police chaplain. Today, he manages the Partridge Insurance Agency in Federal Way.
Q. How did White Cane Days come about?
A. When the Lions started out in 1917, they were a group of business people without a cause, just a fellowship, really. But in 1925, Helen Keller challenged them to be “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.” Back in those days, the way a blind person walking down the street showed that he or she needed assistance walking across the road was to carry a white cane with a red tip at the end. Nowadays, you see more seeing-eye dogs and other things that might help them get around. But White Cane Days stuck. And the Lions Club adopted that as their main cause. Today, they are the largest service club in the world. Lions is actually an acronym that stands for “Leadership, Interests, Orientation, Needs and Service,” and their adopted purpose is to assist the needs of the visually and hearing impaired.
Q. How do you make White Cane Days happen?
A. All the clubs set aside the first weekend in May to go out to the community and remind people of this need and allow them to throw their loose change into a bucket. This year it will be May 2 and May 3. It’s been done the same way for many, many years. In our area, that money is turned into the Northwest Lions Eye Bank on Boren Avenue in Seattle. It’s one of the largest eye banks in the country.
White Cane Days is the cornerstone of what the Lions Club is built on, clear back to Helen Keller’s challenge. Even though people see the Lions doing great things around the community, like helping in parades or helping with the Miss Auburn pageant, our cornerstone is our work with the visually and hearing impaired. During the buildup in that first week of May, we set a goal as a club of how much we want to raise, our portion toward the overall goal. Usually where you see us on White Cane Days is at a table out in front of a grocery store with our brochures and the bucket for loose change.
Q. How much do you typically raise?
A. Up until two years ago, the most we had ever raised to contribute to the pot was $2,000. All the clubs all over Washington and Idaho do this together. And up until two years ago, we felt that $2,000 was a good goal. What was special was that during the last two years, rather than the Lions club members being the doers of the community service project, we became facilitators of it. We changed. My idea was to expand the work of the club to our youth, to our high schools. I challenged our high schools to see if they could raise $5,000, double the amount we had ever raised before toward the pot. And the high schools did that. They raised $5,136 in total. It became a group effort. We challenged the four high schools in our area, West Auburn, Auburn, Riverside and Mountainview each to put together a team of kids. Each took a store, and they challenged themselves to see who could raise the most. And the Lions Club members came alongside them and became mentors. This way the kids got to learn about the Lions Club and what it’s about and something about being active in community service, which is good for their schooling. Plus, they got to have a little fun with the competition between the schools. We had different medals for what they did. They helped us become the third-largest raiser of funds for White Cane Days in 2006 in the Washington-Idaho area. Last year they challenged each other to double that again. In 2007 they raised $10,000, which was five times what the club had previously raised. We were recognized through the efforts of the high school students as the top money raiser in the whole region.
Q. Bet the kids dig that?
A. They are so excited. West Auburn High School is particularly exciting because they were considered the David amongst the Goliaths. We have two challenges in White Cane Days. One of them is raising money, and the other is collecting used eyeglasses. There is a program called LERC, the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center, and we challenge the kids not just to collect money but also to go out into the community and see if they can gather eyeglasses. Eyeglasses are measured, boxed, and sent all over the world to help people who don’t have eyeglasses. In 2006 and 2007, the West Auburn team collected the most eyeglasses of all the schools. Last year, they collected more than all the other three schools combined. They came in second place in terms of money raised. Auburn Senior High won for money raised in 2006 and 2007. West Auburn plans to take first place this year. We might have a fifth team in the mix this year from Green River Community College.
