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halloween

Your Cane Can Dress Up for Halloween, Too

Your Cane Can Dress Up for Halloween, Too

As many may know, October is a month of many things. It is World Blindness Awareness Month, we celebrate the honorable White Cane Day on October 15, and of course, it is the start of “Spooky Season,” leading up to Halloween on the 31st. With the holiday just around the corner, it’s time to put the finishing touches on your costumes and get ready to strut your stuff across the screen of all this year’s virtual festivities! The tradition of dressing up in creative costumes—whether you prefer cute, crazy, or creepy—is a Halloween favorite. And the creativity doesn’t have to stop at your outfit! As blind and low vision cane users, there are dozens of fun ways to incorporate your cane into your overall look for the night.

Going for a witchy look this year? Nothing goes better with the striped stockings and pointy hat than a spell-casted broomstick! You can use many different materials to create broom bristles, construction paper, straw, or even dried corn husks. Bunch your preferred material around the last joint of your cane and fasten it together with a rubber band and there you have it—the perfect broomstick for the spookiest of witches!

Perhaps you are going for a more enchanting look? Take a spool of ribbon in your favorite color, glitter and sparkles always add a dash of dazzle, and carefully wrap the ribbon around your cane, winding it up from the bottom to the top. Fasten each end with sturdy tape and you’ve just transformed a plain white cane into a magical wand, charming and elegant for any fairy princess. Attaching flowers, feathers, or jewels can add an extra polished finish to your wand.

Perhaps you’re disguising yourself as your favorite character. Whether you’re dressing as Batman or Bart Simpson, every character has a memorable catchphrase! Take a large piece of cardboard and carefully cut out the shape of a “speech balloon” (the little word bubbles seen in comic strips and cartoons). Write your character’s most memorable phrase or a silly saying on the cardboard and use tape to attach the speech balloon to your cane. Pose with the speech balloon pointed towards you and you will capture the spirit of your character perfectly! If you have a Braille writing or embossing device in your possession, add Braille to the speech balloon and make your catchphrase accessible!

There are so many ways to make your cane a fantastic addition to your costume. Whether the character you’re portraying has a handheld accessory or not, your cane can be the shining star of any look. With paper, tape, glitter, ribbons, or other simple household materials, you can transform your white cane into a fancy or scary costume accent. And the best part of it all? You never have to sacrifice independent travel for Halloween fashion. Let the Halloween holiday inspire you to get crafty. Tag LightHouse in your social media posts and show us your cane costumes. We can’t wait to see your creations! Happy Halloween, everyone!

And don’t forget, you’ll get until October 31 to get 10% off white canes and accessories online at our Adaptations Store, or by calling 1-888-400-8933, or by accessing LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired under specialized help on the Be My Eyes ap

How to Carve a Pumpkin Non-Visually

How to Carve a Pumpkin Non-Visually

Happy Halloween! We’re bringing you tips on how to carve a pumpkin non-visually written by our Independent Living Skills Specialist, Bobbi Pompey. We’re also featuring photos from our pumpkin carving workshop earlier this month.

A young girl looks down at a pumpkin, secures the pumpkin with one hand and cuts into the pumpkin with her other hand.
A young girl looks down at a pumpkin, secures the pumpkin with one hand and cuts into the pumpkin with her other hand.
  • Begin with the End in Mind!: Have a plan for how you want your finished pumpkin to look. Will it be happy? Scary? Round? Misshapen? All of this will affect which pumpkin you purchase, and how it will be designed.
  • Mise en Place: This French cooking phrase refers to having everything you need out and organized before beginning to work. For this project, you will need a serrated knife, a spoon/scoop, one or two bowls, tape/glue, materials to layout a template and any finishing touches.
  • Stay Safe: When carving the pumpkin, please remember to practice your knife safety skills! This includes using a sharp knife, cutting with the blade away from you, and putting the knife in a designated location when not in use.
  • What works for you?: The key to creating your design is making a tactual template that you can then cut around. This template can be made from a variety of of materials, you must decide what is best for you. You may want to use; masking/painting tape, pipe cleaners, wiki sticks, yarn, or paper folded in the desired shapes.
A hand sits atop a pumpkin with blue masking tape around the top circumference.
A hand sits atop a pumpkin with blue masking tape around the top circumference.

Let’s dive in, and carve that pumpkin! Steps are below:

  1. Design your pumpkin. Tape or glue down your design materials in order to create a template for your design.
  2. Cut a circle around the stem in order to form a lid. Cut with the knife at an angle, away from the stem, so that the lid will rest on the top instead of fall down into the pumpkin.
  3. Scoop out the inside. Use your hands and a spoon or scoop in order to scrape out the guts and seeds of the pumpkin. Separate the seeds if desired for later use.
  4. To toast the seeds: toss them in oil or melted butter, add salt and seasonings if desired. Spread them evenly on a baking sheet, and cook in a 300 degree preheated oven for approximately 45 minutes.
  5. Decorate and display! You can place a battery operated tea light candle in your pumpkin to add light to your design, cover the openings with colored tissue paper to give your pumpkin a festive glow, or surround it with pumpkins of other sizes, a candy bowl, pine combs or greenery as finishing touches.
Gail “Sunshine” in front of her cabin at EHC, with a new cane and carved pumpkin for her grandson.
Gail “Sunshine” in front of her cabin at EHC, with a new cane and carved pumpkin for her grandson.
  • Recognize Your Skills: Once your pumpkin is complete, take a moment to recognize all the skills you used in order to make it happen and think about how you can transfer them to other areas of your life. It is likely that you used; knife skills, knife safety, tactual awareness, shopping skills (traveling to the store, money management, personal grooming, clothing management, etc.), organization, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and more! 
an array of carved pumpkins glow in the dark.
An array of carved pumpkins glow in the dark.

If you would like instruction in carving a pumpkin or any other independent living skills, feel free to contact Bobbi Pompey, ILS Specialist, at bpompey@lighthouse-sf.org or (415) 694-7613. Independent Living Skills include: cooking, labeling/organization, clothing management, personal grooming, make-up application, cleaning, accessing print, low vision devices and other everyday skills.