Photo by Howard Owens.
The many years that Frank Babcock took his family camping resulted in a hobby that will help area veterans be a little more stable in their walk through life.
"We used to camp a lot. I had a big motor home," said Frank Babcock, an 89-year-old Albion resident. "We camped, and it (Frank's hobby) was something to pass the time. You always were near or in the woods. It was something just to pass the time."
Babock passed the time by walking through the woods looking for interesting saplings, ideally, a young tree that nature (perhaps because of the placement of a rock) had grown with an L-shaped root. The L-shaped root makes for the perfect cane handle.
The prize sapling grew up with a vine wrapped around the trunk, giving it a corkscrew shape.
Babock hasn't kept track of how many years he's been making canes.
He's often given them away while out camping, but the idea to donate 21 of them to area veterans came to him during a trip to Walmart. He saw a man walking with a wooden cane, and he asked where he got it, the man said he was a veteran, and Assemblyman Steve Hawley gave it to him.
Babcock told his son Jimmy, and Jimmy called Hawley's office.
The canes are being distributed to the three counties that Hawley serves in the 139th Assembly District. They are being distributed according to the population in each area Steve serves -- five to Orleans County, three to Monroe County, and seven to Genesee County.
On Friday, Babcock, with the help of his son Stephen, delivered the seven canes to William Joyce, veterans services officer for Genesee County.
"It just so happened this started just before Christmas," Hawley said. "The timing was absolutely unbelievable. Those psychological and heartfelt gifts from one veteran to another. Fellow veterans are going to use Frank's canes to get around. And that's what it's all about: fellow comrades helping one another, regardless of the branch of service, regardless of how old we are, regardless of whether we served in combat or not. We want veterans who served to have these canes."
Joyce said he was grateful for the generous donation.
"I have a couple of veterans in mind right now that as so I had these available, I was going to give them a call, because they can use one," Joyce said. "They get one issued by the VA and they're not really happy with them. I think they are going to feel more comfortable walking with one of these."
Photo by Howard Owens.
Photo by Howard Owens.
