The Bermuda Society for the Blind recently celebrated 50 years of representing the Island's blind community.

Another milestone will be reached next February when the Society marks its 40th year at their Beacon House residence on the corner of Cedar Avenue and Dundonald Street. Dundonald Street changed in July 1990 to become a busier and wider street.

The one-way street on which Beacon House sits was officially renamed Beacon Street in 1995 as a tribute to the home for the blind.

It is where about a dozen blind adults go every day to make crafts such as baskets and stools which are sold either on site or at the Craft Market in Dockyard.

“They come every day, Monday to Friday, and make baskets, stools, trivets and hampers which we sell to the public,” explained coordinator Jean Gallagher, who said they are paid for their work. We have a store at the Craft Market and the Lions Club sells for us on Harbour Nights in Hamilton and St. George's. We take care of the blind as much as we possibly can and provide them with a hot lunch every day. Some come here three-times-a-week but most come every day.”

The charity receives a small Government grant and also relies on donations from the community to keep going.

“Otherwise we wouldn't be in existence,” said Mrs. Gallagher. “If we were a private company we would have been under a long time ago.”

The Society celebrated its 50th anniversary with a lunch for the members at Landfall Restaurant in November.

Abuwi Rasool, who still goes to Beacon House every day to work, has been with the Society since its inception, as has 75-year-old Jean Howes.

They were also involved with the now defunct Beacon Club which met once a month at Beacon House.

“Lance Hayward was the one who started our club and was our first president and Abuwi was the chairman,” recalled Ms Howes.

“Over the years Abuwi was also the president and I was the secretary for 40 years until the club folded in 1994.

“We were under the umbrella of the Society and we would go and visit the shut-in blind...like a support group. The membership diminished over the years through age and different things. Lance Hayward always instilled in us to be as independent as we could be.”

After Hayward went to live in New York, the club had different presidents such as Fred Richardson, father of Hugh Richardson, William Lightbourne and Charles Williams.

“They are all gone, Abuwi and myself are the only ones left,” said Ms. Howes. She and Abuwi are amongst the few people locally who read Braille.

“Maisie Robinson, who was our treasurer at one time and is the sister of Walter Robinson, was great at reading Braille and we used to get books from the library in London and we would exchange them. She taught people as well as I did but no one seemed to keep it up.

“Tapes have come along, they are cheaper and easier and it seems like Braille is going out. I would hate to see the day when Braille goes out.”

Ms. Howes knows of only two blind children in Bermuda, a girl who went abroad to a special school in Philadelphia, and a boy at Warwick Academy.

“They are both doing real well,” she says proudly.

“The young blind don't want to be coming here (Beacon House), they are more interested in computers and that kind of stuff. Beacon House has served a purpose for years and is still serving it, as a home for the blind.They can come every day and spend the day, get a meal and do handwork here. Those two young people wouldn't come over here and make baskets.

“Their lives are going on to modern things, they don't do anything like when I was in a school for the blind, I just learned ordinary Braille but now everything is so modern.”

Ms Howes was only a child herself when she lost her sight. When she was nine she was struck in an eye by a stone thrown by another child and lost her sight in that eye. Two years later she also lost the sight in the other eye. For 26 years Ms Howes has been visiting the Island's primary schools, talking to the children and educating them about the blind.

“I demonstrate my dog and tell them a lot of blind people don't have a dog,” Ms Howes explained.

“I went to Mount St. Agnes in the last two weeks and told them right across the street from you is a place for the blind that you can go and visit and if you see any of them on the road you can offer to take them across the street. Sometimes I'm the only blind person they know.

Ms Howes thinks Beacon House will be around “until we die off”, referring to the ageing members. She sounds uncertain of its future.

“So many have died off over the years and mo