When I was classified as legally blind I thought it was a bummer. In a way it was, as any whitecaner would tell you. A shock to say the least. I got registered with the C.N.I.B but wasn't very active with it; in other words I refused the help they were offering. (Still feeling sorry for myself).

There were monthly meetings held & still are. This one month I met Doug Helwig & his lovely wife Jessie. We became instant friends; Doug was born with tunnel vision. He told me how he coped with it all his life, right up to & including his retirement from one of the plants here in Sarnia. Doug was a visionary. He would say each & every day, (How can I help an other whitecaner today?)

It only took a day, two tops, listening to Doug, & I started feeling alive again. We started to fix talking book machines in the basement of his home, that was very challenging, but fun. Doug was always coming up with ideas.
One day he asked me what I thought of a place where whitecaners could go any day of the week. (Mostly from Monday through Friday) weekends if needed a place where they could meet, have coffee, talk & discuss their views on different issues. I thought it was a great idea & we started the hunt for a building downtown that would be accessible to all bus routes. We did find a place in the heart of downtown Sarnia & it was officially opened in Sept. 1987. There were computers, every form of visual aids for the blind & V.I.P to use on hand, and a place where the talking book machines could be dropped off to be fixed & given a working one. It wasn't long before a sign was put up outside the center ---Sarnia White Cane Center & Blind Youth Club---.We had the kids in there on various weekends to see & get ideas from them, we got many during school holidays, they worked in there & got paid for it.
One day Doug approached. Me & asked me what I thought of ham radio! I said I have heard of it & that's about it. He contacted the Sarnia & Lampton Amateur Club, set up a meeting with the president. Both Doug & myself attended. They said if we got a group together they would help us get started, so we started out with eight being interested in it & finished up with five, three dropped out. Several years later more became interested in the hobby.

Clifford Seed VE3CLI jumped in & took the bull by the horns and got five more whitecaners on the airwaves. If someone at the center wants to get in on this great hobby of ours, all Cliff has to do is hear about it & he is there to help out! If the Sarnia Whitecane Center never got started chances are that the white caners that you hear on the air probably wouldn't be there, if it was not for the center & The Sarnia Lampton Radio Club members who showed up every week to encourage us along.

It was a lot of work getting the center off the ground, but it paid off in the long run. Doug's call was VE3ZDH, now a silent key, missed by all that knew & admired him. The center is still going strong as ever; hopefully more will pop up around Canada. One day we will have a station set up at the center that way white-caners & anyone else that comes in there can get first hand knowledge of what ham radio is & how it works!