By Staff
Successful show has 30 participants
By CHRISTINA HALE, Staff Writer
The 2007 Autumn Area Craft Show at the Blind Center in Washington was a huge success, participants said, for the center and vendors.
The show was open all day Friday and Saturday.
Volunteer Loraine Babcock said the show brought a large crowd into the Blind Center’s Gift Shoppe. “We’ve been doing very well,” even better than past years, she said. Several items had sold out and were on order.
Participation in the event keeps the blind center open and in operation, Babcock said. The center’s mission is “to help the blind and visually impaired remain as independent as possible,” according to materials from the center.
The Blind Center clients “had a hand” in everything in the shop and in preparation for the show, Babcock said.
Emilie Wilkes, 86, is a client at the Blind Center and has been for several years. She suffers from macular degeneration.
The craft shows are so important to the center because it’s “our source of income,” Wilkes said.
Wanda Latham has been a client at the center for a few months. A doctor damaged her right eye during a cataracts operation. The center has given her a purpose, she said.
Latham said the craft show helps people in the community see what the visual impaired can do. “They don’t know … until they see it for themselves.”