St. Patrick's Day Party

The Chippewa Area Lions hosts a party for the clients of the Beaver County Association for the Blind each year on a Saturday in March. This year the party was held March 14 at the Lighthouse in New Brighton. The party started at 7:00 PM and the clients of the BCAB and the Lighthouse had a good time.

The guests arriving at the Lighthouse.

Everyone finds a good seat to enjoy the entertainment and to await the evening meal.

The clients demonstrate their musical talents to entertain everyone.

While the Lions and their spouses work to prepare and serve the food.

Drug Poster Contest

The Chippewa Area Lions, in conjunction with the Little Beaver Lions, conduct a Drug Abuse Prevention Poster Contest at the Blackhawk Intermediate School.

BIS has added our Drug Abuse Prevention Poster Contest to the art curriculum of their fourth grade classes. About 200 students (eight classes) will participate in this classroom activity.

Tri-fold brochures explaining the program have been given to Marykim Murtha, the art teacher. She will send the brochures home to the students’ parents. Posters will be completed and grouped by homerooms.

Mrs. Murtha will then select the top five from each homeroom. These 40 posters will be available by March 1st for pickup by Lion MacDonald.

Then, members of the Blackhawk Leo Club, the Little Beaver Lions Club and the Chippewa Lions Club will judge the 40 posters, picking a winner for each of the 8 classrooms.

First-place winners will receive a $20 award and a special certificate at the BIS year-end awards ceremony.

2009 Drug Poster winners:

Room 224-Carl Jaszcar

Room 225- Austin Tepshich

Room 226- Austin Antonini

Room 228-Olivia Kron

Room 232-Sarah Stack

Room 233-Melanie Eicher

Room 234-Alexis Davies

Room 235-Brooke Francis

Winners will also be entered in the District 14-N contest. The other 32 of the 40 students will get a participation certificate.

Beacon Lodge Camper

Camp Kon-O-Kwee

Camp Kon-O-Kwee/Spencer

Chippewa Library

Chippewa Library

Librarian Stacey Rider accepts the annual $1,000.00 donation from King Lion Thomas Roberts Jr. and the Chippewa Lions.




The Chippewa Lions placed a Vision -Eye Machine in the library to assist the visually handicapped with reading and other pursuits that require visual assistance. Lion Hugh MacDonald was the motivating force that saw the need and organized the fund raising and installation of the unit.

White Cane Days

The familiar white cane with a red band at the bottom is used by blind and visually impaired persons in many countries.
Lions help to increase awareness of the use of the white cane and laws governing its use. Typically, the first weekend in October is the time the Chippewa Lions solicit funds within the community. During these times Lions help to educate the public about the aspirations, hopes and abilities of people who are blind or visually impaired.
Monies collected are used to support programs and services for people who are blind or visually impaired as well as for sight conservation. As volunteers, Lions enjoy working together to target needs in their communities. The Lions decide which projects suit these needs and when and how they are best able to address them.

WHITE CANE History
In 1921, James Biggs, a photographer from Bristol, England, became blind following an accident. Because he was feeling uncomfortable with the amount of traffic around his home, he painted his walking stick white to be more easily visible.
In 1930, the late George A. Bonham, President of the Peoria Lions Club (Illinois) introduced the idea of using the white cane with a red band as a means of assisting the blind in independent mobility. The Peoria Lions approved the idea, white canes were made and distributed, and the Peoria City Council adopted an ordinance giving the bearers the right-of way to cross the street. News of the club’s activity spread quickly to other Lions clubs throughout the United States, and their visually handicapped friends experimented with the white canes. Overwhelming acceptance of the white cane idea by the blind and sighted alike quickly gave cane users a unique method of identifying their special need for travel consideration among their sighted counterparts.
Today white cane laws are on the books of every state in the US and many other countries, providing blind persons a legal status in traffic. The white cane now universally acknowledges that the bearer is blind. For specific information contact your local government office for motor vehicles.
White Cane Safety Days
To make the American people more fully aware of the meaning of the white cane and of the need for motorists to exercise special care for the blind person who carries it, on October 6, 1964, the U.S. Congress approved a resolution authorizing the President of the US to annually issue a proclamation designating October 15th as “National White Cane Safety Day.” *
In the United States, the President’s annual White Cane Safety Day proclamation may be found on the White House web site http://www.whitehouse.gov/ (news; proclamations)