The first object of the Association is the industrial development that will provide the funds for broadening the work for the blind. This development has already reached impressive proportions.
From two rooms in the small frame building to twenty-five thousand square feet of floor space in a three-story brick structure, with a corresponding increase in equipment, is the history of the San Francisco Association for the Blind for 1919. The Association carries many of the blind in its motor trucks to and from Blindcraft Building, 1120 Folsom Street. It teaches Braille, self-discipline and other things the blind need to know.
The workers of Blindcraft Building make baskets, brooms, reed and rattan furniture and rugs, not in a trivial way, but in large quantities, the products totaling many thousands of dollars per year, a volume of business that ranks the Association with the important industrial units of California, a fact doubly significant and doubly valuable when one recalls that the organization is wholly devoted to the welfare or the blind.
In spite of trials of all kinds, the Association has created a market for its products, enlarged its plant, improved its library and made Blindcraft Building a hive of industry. Nowhere are there more cheerful workers. The Association provides coffee and soup for the lunch, and fruit in season. And all the time the canaries in Blindcraft aviary are singing sweetly. Once a month a lunch is served to all the force in honor of those whose birthdays fall in that month, and once a month there is a musical and literary entertainment with refreshments and dancing following.
And then comes the comment: "What beautiful useful work." And then the question: "How can I help?"
And then the answer: "By buying Blindcraft brooms, furniture, or rugs, at Blindcraft shop, 432 Sutter Street, and becoming a subscribing member of the Association."
Would you sense the situation of the blind? Then shut your eyes for
one scant minute and, seeing nothing, feeling your previous treasure gone,
think of your joy at winning independence through gainful occupation, the
occupation that relieves friend and family and the community of a burden,
the occupation that will maintain you. Then, in this mood, open your eyes
in a grateful flood of light and pay your tribute to the Blindcraft men
and women who have given such a splendid impulse to home
industry, the heroes and heroines of a peaceful conquest.
OFFICERS 1918-1919
Mrs. Andrew S. ROWAN, Honorary President
Mrs. Ralph C. HARRISON, Honorary Vice-President
Mrs. George J. BUCKNALL, Honorary Second Vice-President
Mrs. Wm. Mitchell BUNKER, President
Mrs. Wm. S. BREEZE, First Vice-President
Mrs. Charles H. CROCKER, Second Vice-President
Mrs. Edith LINDOW, Treasurer
Miss Harriet POMEROY, Recording Secretary
Mrs. J. J. MACK, Corresponding Secretary
Miss Rhoda NIEBLING, Librarian
Mrs. Ruth Quinan MARKS, Superintendent
DIRECTORS
Mrs. J. Dennis ARNOLD
Mrs. George E. BILLINGS
Mrs. Gale H. CARTER
Miss Gertrude COMFORT
Mrs. Charles H. CROCKER
Mrs. J. J. MACK
Mrs. George W. TOWLE
Mrs. Harry J. DOULGAS
Mrs. J. N. LAURVIK
Mrs. Frank P. DEERING
Mrs. George W. CASWELL
Mrs. E. J. PRINGLE
Mrs. Herbert CLAYBURGH
Mrs. Jos. A. DONOHOE
OFFICERS 1919-1920
Mrs. Andrew S. ROWAN, Honorary President
Mrs. Ralph C. HARRISON, Honorary Vice-President
Mrs. George J. BUCKNALL, Honorary Second Vice-President
Mrs. Wm. Mitchell BUNKER, President
Mrs. Myer FRIEDMAN, First Vice-President
Mrs. Charles H. CROCKER, Second Vice-President
Mrs. Edith LINDOW, Treasurer
Mrs. Herbert CLAYBURGH, Recording Secretary
Mrs. J. J. MACK, Corresponding Secretary
Mrs. Ruth Quinan MARKS, Superintendent
DIRECTORS
Mrs. J. Dennis ARNOLD
Mrs. Dean AVERY
Mrs. George E. BILLINGS
Mrs. George W. CASWELL
Mrs. Herbert CLAYBURGH
Mrs. Frank P. DEERING
Mrs. Joseph A. DONOHOE
Mrs. Harry James DOUGLAS
Mrs. John DENNIS
Mrs. Charles H. CROCKER
Mrs. J. J. MACK
Mrs. Charles J. OKELL
Mrs. William FRIES
Mrs. Edith LINDOW