At 8:45am on March 28, 1945, approximately 100 recently returning World War II service members and veterans gathered for a much-publicized meeting at Avon Old Farms Army Convalescent Hospital. The minutes of the meeting recorded that the group assembled, all young men at the time, were recovering from combat injuries, the most notable of which was their loss of sight.
Time spent at the Connecticut facility also consisted of a program of instruction and practical training through which they learned how to adjust and cope with the loss utilizing the resources and technology available in 1945.
The purpose of the scheduled meeting, which reportedly spread quickly and with urgency to all veteran inpatients at Avon Old Farms, was to construct the institutional means by which they could help and serve one another in ways beyond that of a simple fraternity.
Although the focus of the discussion that day was largely on themselves and others returning from World War II, there were reported references to those who might return from future conflicts with similar wounds resulting in sight loss.
Although few present at the meeting could have imagined an organization with the same name and largely the same purpose 80 years later, the group assembled was endowed with a clear vision for a future that would last at least a few years. Wisdom and commitment demonstrated that day and throughout BVA’s early years marked a successful path forward that would get the organization through weighty challenges and on to improbable achievements on behalf of veterans with sight loss.
Resulting from the proceedings that morning was the founding of the Blinded Veterans Association, or BVA. Joint Resolution 80 of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate in 2010 recognized BVA’s humble beginnings and called upon all Americans to remember blinded veterans in future years on March 28, the date from that time forward to be known as National Blinded Veterans Day. President Barack Obama signed the resolution, which became Public Law 111-156 on April 7, 2010, just days after BVA’s 65th birthday.
Next Friday, the 80-year anniversary of that Avon Old Farms gathering, will be a day to reflect on the long history of accomplishments that include legislative advocacy on behalf of both combat and non-combat blinded veterans, successful claims assistance and volunteer programs, a model for a prosperous partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in serving veterans and their families, and new outreach now to veterans who are struggling with their vision but who are not yet legally blind.
