Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 19/99) - Yellowknife's Weledeh Catholic school gratefully accepted its Lions' share of attention during White Cane Week.

Weledeh's 275 students gathered in the school gymnasium Thursday afternoon to applaud Lions' Club president Tim Jaworski as he presented a cheque for $8,280 to help the school provide equipment and training for its two blind students.

"The Lions made a pledge, way back in the days of Helen Keller, to support the blind," said Jaworski, dressed in the traditional gold Lions vest, "So whenever we hear there's a need for support, it becomes one of our priorities."

Support teacher Barb DeBastiani said the school recently had an orientation and mobility expert come up from Edmonton to spend a week to teach the children to manoeuvre in their environment, both in the school and in the community. She said the school also always has need for specialized equipment, so that part of the Lions' donation will go to fund tools like a printer capable of producing both visual and Braille text.

Weledeh students clearly understood the implications Thursday as principal John Murphy thanked the Lions for their generosity. Even the youngest children, sitting on mats at the front of the gym, let out an appreciative gasp at the size of the donation and clapped as Grade 6 pupil Angela Kadluk and Alex Kenny in kindergarten joined Jaworski to touch the cheque and offer their personal thanks.

Liz Baile, a student-support consultant from the Yellowknife Catholic school board, said Kadluk and Kenny are two of only a handful of blind students in the North and and get a lot of support from their Weledeh classmates as the school strives to create a Braille-based curriculum. She said Weledeh's Braille Club helps by raising awareness and providing physical support in the form of pupils who act as guides.

But Baile added that Kadluk and Kenny have already benefitted from the orientation training. She said the Edmonton specialist taught them how to enter unknown rooms, gauge depth and locate doors, stairways and voices.

"Angela was using her white cane very narrowly, swiping it from side to side so that her world was quite narrow," Baile said. "This orientation opened up her world."