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London Breed

Ain’t No Party Like a LightHouse Day Party!

06/14/2023 Caitlin O'Malior

Mayor London Breed stands at a podium beside LightHouse CEO, Sharon Giovinazzo and Communications Specialist, Caitlin O’Malior

It was an incredible time at yesterday’s LightHouse Day party! We are still feeling excitement and positivity from yesterday’s momentous event. Over 120 guests ventured to our headquarters in San Francisco to celebrate with us as Mayor London Breed presented LightHouse with a proclamation from the City of San Francisco, declaring June as LightHouse Month!

Caitlin holds up the LightHouse Month City Proclamation

We are grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with Mayor Breed’s Office to procure this honor for our organization. The partnership has been a special and encouraging experience, and we look forward to LightHouse, and in turn the blind, Deafblind, and low vision community, having a larger and more significant presence and recognition across the San Francisco Bay Area. Celebrating the accomplishments of our organization with the City helps us to create the blind-positive environment and standard we strive for.

So, celebrate we did! We were joined by staff, students, and supporters and friends, old and new, to enjoy an afternoon of fun, games, and food! Each department, from our Little Learners to LightHouse Industries, was there to show off the incredible services, products, and support LightHouse provides. The Adaptations Store staff assisted interested shoppers as they explored the wonderful gadgets and devices up close and in person in the store. Even our friend and local celebrity, the inventor of Bop It, Dan Klitsner came to set up his famous Bop It Button Braille Board! He shared with our attendees how the game’s inclusive nature and accessibility has changed the way he envisions games and toys should be created and played, and how it inspired his partnership with LightHouse and the Bop It For Good charity.

LightHouse Sirkin Center team member Jenn Holloway sits at the Sirkin Center booth that features the eco-friendly EPA Safer Choice award-winning cleaning products we produce and bottle

Our guests enjoyed delicious hors d’oeuvres displayed beautifully on tables and trays throughout the party, including the spectacular stuffed mushrooms that were being prepared and baked live by blind chemist, food enthusiast, and friend of LightHouse, Hoby Wedler, in our accessible training kitchen.

One of the most exciting highlights of the afternoon was the incredible sensory escape room! Adventurous partygoers stepped into a world of sensory experiences and problem solving with our Orientation & Mobility instructors as they found each clue and figured their way out of the room.

LightHouse Day was a wonderful way to kick off summer, LightHouse Month, and celebrate with our community. Thank you Mayor Breed, the City of San Francisco, and all our students, staff and supporters for coming out and showing up at yesterday’s event. A great time was had by all!

Blind chemist and food enthusiast, Hoby Wedler, prepares stuffed mushrooms during a live cooking demo in our accessible kitchen

A Bop It game lays on top of informational flyers about Bop It For Good and the LightHouse partnership

LightHouse News

Join Us for LightHouse Day, June 8 at 3 PM

05/30/2023 LightHouse Staff

LightHouse is throwing a party! On Thursday, June 8, from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, we are welcoming our community and our supporters to join us in celebrating our organization and the blind community at LightHouse Day.

We’ve come a long way in our 121 years! Since LightHouse was founded in 1902 (originally as a Reading Room for the Blind) we have grown into a multifaceted non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the independence, equality and self-reliance of people who are blind or visually impaired. From early intervention home visits with the families of blind babies we serve with our Little Learners program, to the twice awarded US Environment Protection Agency Safer Choice Award products our blind and low vision employees produce and bottle at Sirkin Center, LightHouse provides support and opportunity for blind, low vision, and deafblind individuals at every stage of life and of blindness, and we want to celebrate these accomplishments!

To honor LightHouse, the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, will be presenting us with a city proclamation, declaring the month of June as LightHouse Month! We invite all of you to share this momentous event with us. Aside from this huge honor the city of San Francisco is bestowing upon us, we will have a whole plethora of fun planned for the afternoon! Join us for a live cooking demo with blind chemist Hoby Wedler, check out the latest in accessible devices from our Adaptations store, meet the inventor of Bop It, Dan Klitsner, and play some accessible games, get your hands on our tactile treasures produced in-house by our Media and Accessible Design Lab (MAD Lab) and learn to Braille your name with our Braille instructor Divina Carlson. You can even explore a sensory escape room with some of our awesome Orientation and Mobility Specialists!

You won’t want to miss this incredible event. RSVP to LightHouse Day, and we’ll see you on Thursday, June 8 at 3:00 pm!

RSVP for LightHouse Day

LightHouse News

LightHouse Observes White Cane Day with Mayor London Breed

10/16/2019 LightHouse Staff 1 Comment

On Tuesday, October 15, LightHouse celebrated White Cane Day. Eighty-seven LightHouse ambassadors, visitors and staff gathered to talk about the white cane as a tool for blind independence. San Francisco Mayor London Breed joined us and talked about San Francisco’s commitment to making the city a great place for seniors and people with disabilities to live and work. After her remarks, LightHouse received an official proclamation from the Mayor’s Office declaring October 15, 2019 as White Cane Day. Afterwards, the LightHouse group marched to City Hall to create awareness about the white cane and blind pedestrian safety.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed holds a tactile map of the White Cane Day route to City Hall. Photo by Caitlin O’Malior.

The event was highlighted in the San Francisco Chronicle and profiled on ABC7’s evening news broadcast.

LightHouse O&M instructors, some wearing Safe Streets t-shirts.

LightHouse celebrates White Cane Day on steps of San Francisco City Hall. — LightHouse friends, many wearing “my cane is my right-of-way” t-shirts, stand on the steps in front of San Francisco’s City Hall holding the LightHouse banner. Photo by Sarika Dagar.

Many White Cane Day participants wore t-shirts designed in partnership with the Vision Zero SF Safe Streets project. Vision Zero SF is committed to eliminating traffic fatalities by 2024 in San Francisco, by educating the public about traffic safety and adopting policy changes that will save lives. The t-shirts come in orange, black and white. The front of the shirts show two blind pedestrians drawn in outline in a crosswalk, using their canes. A car is stopped outside the crosswalk at a stop sign. Words, above, read “My cane is my right-of-way.” On the back of the shirts, it reads, “My Cane is my right-of-way.” in English, Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog.

In celebration of White Cane Awareness Month, white canes are 10% off at our Adaptations Store for walk-in customers for the entire month of October! Visit us at on the 10th floor of 1155 Market in San Francisco. Store hours are Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. We’re also open on the second Saturday, October 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

LightHouse Alternate Media Specialist Caitlin O’Malior shows Mayor London Breed and her staff a tactile map.

LightHouse ambassadors Ana Maria Mendoza and Jorge Ellington in black and orange versions of the Safe Streets t-shirt. The shirts show person drawn in outline holding a white cane crossing a street. There is a car waiting outside the crosswalk. The sign reads “My cane is my right-of-\way”.

LightHouse volunteers Anthony Lee Harper and Robert Cortez pose with LightHouse Safe Streets Ambassador Wen Lin in the center.

A group stands in front of LightHouse headquarters waiting to cross Market Street.

The back of the White Cane Day t-shirt: It reads, “My Cane is My Right of Way” in English, Spanish, Chinese and Tagal

People with white canes getting ready to cross a street.

LightHouse News

Celebrate White Cane Day and meet Mayor London Breed

09/30/2019 Andrea Ogarrio 1 Comment

Calling all members of the blind community, friends and allies. Tuesday, October 15 is White Cane Day. Celebrate and promote safety awareness at LightHouse Headquarters as we meet Mayor London Breed and walk to City Hall. Bring your canes or dog guides and be seen.

When: Tuesday, October 15, 2019, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.
Where: Meet at LightHouse Headquarters on the 10th floor.
Light refreshments will be served before the walk.

We’ll get things started with a 30-minute welcome meeting at LightHouse Headquarters on the 10th floor to talk about the importance of the white cane, LightHouse’s involvement with the Safe Streets for Seniors project and pedestrian safety in the city. San Francisco Mayor London Breed will be there to say hello.

At 10:30, we’ll leave LightHouse as a group and walk proudly to City Hall and back to create awareness and visibility around the white cane and blind pedestrians. Photos will be taken, and we’ll be giving away free Safe Streets t-shirts (now in white!) to wear as you walk.

Please RVSP directly to Briana Kusuma at bkusuma@lighthouse-sf.org or 415.694.7335. If you’d like a new Safe Streets t-shirt, be sure to give us your shirt size. Or wear one you already have.

1n 1964, at the urging of the National Federation of the Blind and other organizations, the United States Congress adopted a joint resolution designating October 15 of each year as White Cane Safety Day, recognizing that white canes enable blind people to travel safely and independently.