With the weather being so nice lately, you may want to spend your Saturday outdoors. Luckily for you, the New Hampshire Association for the Blind's Blind Awareness Walk is held May 30, which means you can catch some rays, get some exercise and support a good cause for a mere $15.
Check-in begins at 10 a.m. and the walk starts at 11 a.m. at the association's office located at 25 Walker St. and travels to the State House and back. For those who don't know the exact calculations of that route off hand – it's a 3K. That's a little less than two miles, and Marcia Clark, executive assistant for the association, assured me that it's on flat terrain. Also, the association provides water at the starting point and the State House, which makes the walk sound pretty easy peasy.
The registration fee is $15, $5 for children younger than 12, and includes a T-shirt and a barbeque lunch provided by Outback Steakhouse. During the day there will be live entertainment provided by Off The Cuff, a 50/50 cash raffle, door prizes and a live auction with four pairs of Red Sox tickets up for grabs.
If you're not up for walking, you can still take part in all of this fun for the $15 fee. Seeing that nowadays, lunch at a restaurant (with tip) is about $15, might as well get lunch during the walk and see your money go toward a good cause. Plus, T-shirts always come in handy.
If you're not already familiar with the walk and the association, here's the deal, according to Marcia. The Blind Awareness Walk was started in 2003 by a group of clients and staff as an opportunity for blind person to come together socially, and it has since become a fundraiser for client services. The association provides counseling and referral, rehabilitation teaching, orientation and mobility instruction, low vision services, assistive technology, volunteer services and education services for school-age children.
Last year alone, the association received 542 new referrals, which averages to about 45 per month. With around 30 percent of clients having an income less than $10,000 and 39 percent in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, you can do the math and see that the majority of the association's clients aren't exactly making a whole lot of money. Fortunately for them, the association never, ever turns anyone away in need of services, even if they are unable to pay.
Seventy-eight percent of funding comes from donors, grants, trusts and civic and service organizations. That means the association is able to continue helping the blind and visually impaired thanks to the type of people who don't mind spending their Saturday trekking to the State House. Last year, the walk drew a crowd of more than 600 people.
And so ends my public service announcement. To be part of the walk this year, you can register online at nhab09walk.kintera.org or sightcenter.org, call 224-4039, ext. 324, or visit the association’s office at 25 Walker St. and fill out a form. If you find time slipping away from you and it’s suddenly Saturday morning, the association will happily let you register day-of, just be sure to get there between 10 and 11 a.m.
