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For Blinded Soldiers

Creator: n/a
Date: August 4, 1915
Publication: The New York Times
Source: Available at selected libraries


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FOR BLINDED SOLDIERS.

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American Aid Sought for a "Lighthouse" in Paris.

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Mrs. Peter Cooper Hewitt, Secretary of the Committee for Men Blinded in Battle, has received a letter from Miss Winifred Holt, who is representing the committee in Europe and is establishing a lighthouse for the blind in Paris, detailed the work that is being done.

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"We have begun teaching in the hospitals," says Miss Holt, "and we have among our pupils two very interesting and grateful blind officers, who will make good teachers for the Paris Lighthouse. I estimate that there must be from 3,000 to 4,000 blind soldiers in this immediate neighborhood, but the Government knows of only 200. There is no doubt that we will have at least one building here, to be a salesroom, information bureau, census bureau, training station, &c., for the blind. We will have a home teaching force to find the men wherever they may be. We are now forming a French Committee, on which we will put the leading educators of the blind and representatives of the various departments of the Government. The Lighthouse is to be called 'Le Phare du Comité International Franco-Americain pour les Soldats Aveugles aux Champs d'Honneur.'

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"A corps of at least fifty teachers is needed to cope with our work. Funds are needed for salaries, materials for work, clothes -- which the Government will not give us here at present -- and to fit up the hostel for officers, which we will have in connection with the lighthouse for the men who are to train there.

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"The Ambassador and Mrs. Sharp will aid us as much as possible, and we have already had offers of very able volunteer assistance. The Comtesse de Piennes has promised to send me the names of the soldiers who have been blinded in the Vosges and Meuse departments. They are very numerous, and without any help save the coming opening of a hospital for the blind, of which the head nurse is stone deaf."

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The committee is carrying on a campaign to raise funds for the building of lighthouses for the blind in all the warring countries. Its headquarters are at 111 East Fifty-ninth Street.

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