Uniontown, Ohio Lions Club

By DIANA MAZZELLA
Staff Writer

Spirits were high Wednesday as more than a hundred of the area’s visually impaired residents gathered Wednesday to share a holiday celebration that’s continued in the Albemarle for the last 30 years.

Betz Blowe, a social worker with the state Division of Services for the Blind, said it began in her area about 30 years ago, when the few residents who attended under her charge wanted to make the party larger. Blowe serves Hertford, Gates and Chowan counties.

She and four other social workers rotated hosting the party every few years. Now four social workers rotate the responsibility of the Christmas party and it was Angelo Sonnesso’s turn. He handles Pasquotank, Perquimans, Camden and Currituck for the state’s blind services. For the three times his area has hosted it recently, the River City Lions club has provided the meal.

Blowe said the yearly celebration is important to residents who may have transportation difficulties.

“I think it’s very important because I’m legally blind and the opportunities in this rural area for visually impaired individuals to even just get out of their homes is pretty limited,” Blowe said. “…For a lot of them this is the only opportunity and the only Christmas party that they’ll have an opportunity to participate in during the holidays.”

Residents at the celebration came from a 13-county area that included Hertford, Gates, Chowan, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell, Washington, Martin and Bertie counties.

Sonnesso said the group represented a diverse segment of the region’s residents. But not all were in attendance. He said that about 10 of the approximately 100 residents he serves were at the event. Some were unable to attend because of illness and others were out of town with family. Most of the residents he serves are in their 70s to mid-90s.

Some of the residents know each other from when they attended Camp Dogwood together. The camp is the North Carolina Lions Foundation’s camp for the blind in Catawba County.

“It gives the folks from the other counties a chance to meet old friends,” he said of the celebration.

Luther Creel, president of the River City Lions Club, said his organization has supported blind residents ever since Helen Keller asked them to serve as knights of the blind. He said his group spent about $8 a plate for the approximately 120 residents and volunteers in attendance.

The Weeksville Lions Club allowed the use of its building for the event and the River City club spent about $1,000 from its fund-raisers during the year for the event.

Alva Armstrong, 85, of Edenton, said she’s been attending the dinners every year since she lost some of her eyesight in 2001. She attends for “the fellowship, just plain fun and seeing old friends,” she said.

She and the social workers said they appreciate all that the Lions do for them, including Wednesday’s dinner.

Sonnesso said the residents would hate to see the dinner stop.

“They look forward to it,” Sonnesso said of the Christmas dinner. “Somebody said ‘Well maybe you know in these difficult times we should cancel it,’ and they were like ‘No way!’”