[Blindtlk] fw: MIRA Foundation

[Chris Nusbaum]

This is very interesting! Sounds like a good foundation! For the 
I C.A.N.  Foundation board members: as you will read in the 
article, their main fundraiser is Dining in the Dark, and there 
are some details about their fundraiser in the article which 
might help us with our DITD.  I'll see if I can get some kind of 
contact info for them if we're interested in contacting them to 
get more info on their DITD.

Chris

---- Original Message ------
From: "Deb" <dacaldbeck at yahoo.com
Subject:  MIRA FOUNDATION
Date sent: Thu, 1 Dec 2011 22:06:07 -0600

This came from my Iowa Council of The United Blind Fall Bulletin.  
Was not
aware of this organization.



MIRA FOUNDATION

(Retrieved from the MCB Listserv, November 5, 2011.)

MIRA Foundation USA is a national nonprofit based in Aberdeen, 
NC.  It is
unique in that it is the only organization in the United States 
dedicated to
providing guide dogs to blind children and youth between the ages 
of 11-17,
and they do so at no charge to the recipient.

MIRA was founded in 2009 by Robert and Elaine Baillie after Bob 
became
totally blind following complications from coronary bypass 
surgery.  Although
he initially felt great despair at the sudden turn of events in 
his life,
close friends convinced Bob to travel to MIRA Canada where he was 
paired
with his magnificent Bernese Mountain guide dog, Devon.  Both Bob 
and Elaine
quickly realized that Devon was the key to Bob's adaptation to 
life with his
new challenges, and they decided that they wanted to provide this
opportunity to the underserved population of blind children and 
youth.

Today, two years after its inception, MIRA USA is a young but 
vital
organization that can be very proud of the work they have 
accomplished.  In
2010, in only the first full year of operation,

MIRA paired two dogs with students: one an eleven year old girl 
from the San
Diego, CA area, and the other a young man from Durham, NC who is 
now a
student at Stanford University.  The girl became the youngest 
person in the
US to ever have received a guide dog, and just over a year later 
she and her
dog are thriving.  She is an honors student, speaks three 
languages, plays
three musical instruments, and has won gold medals in mathematics 
and
Braille competitions.  Even better, she is remarkably well 
adjusted and
confident with her dog.  In fact, both students are thriving.

Although MIRA USA is a separate legal entity from MIRA CA, we 
work together
in very close partnership, since our dogs and our students are 
trained on
the MIRA CA campus, and we benefit from the thirty year history 
MIRA CA has
with training guide and service dogs, including twenty of those 
years as the
only organization in the world dedicated to training guide dogs 
for
children.  In the last twenty years they have paired 
approximately 200
students with dogs and have never had a rejection.  This is a 
tribute to MIRA
CA's careful breeding, selection and training of dogs, as well as 
their
meticulous assessment and training of student candidates.  MIRA's 
global
reputation is undisputed and well earned.

The staff at MIRA USA is not only responsible for searching out 
potential
MIRA guide dog recipients, but also ensuring that all paperwork 
is completed
and assembled on time, scheduling and overseeing assessments and 
follow up
visits, and of course, raising the necessary funds to make the 
pairings
possible.  Our signature fundraising event, Dining in the Dark, 
is a
semi-formal dinner that is held in a country club environment 
where the
diners don blindfolds from the time they sit down to the main 
course until
dessert is served.  MIRA has held this event two successive years 
in the
Sandhills, and once in Raleigh, with events scheduled for the 
Spring of 2012
in the Sandhills, Raleigh, and Charlotte.  Dining in the Dark is 
not only a
revealing event, it has also proven to be fun as people gain 
awareness about
the challenges of chasing cherry tomatoes around a salad plate or 
simply
getting food to their mouths without dropping it everywhere when 
they cannot
see what they are doing.

In July of 2011, MIRA USA sent six students to Canada for 
training in
preparation for receiving a guide dog.  Two of the students were 
from the
Sandhills area of NC, two from Raleigh, one from Fayetteville, 
and one from
Aiken, SC.  All six students passed the month long session with 
flying
colors, working eight hours per day, six days per week to master 
the
necessary skills to navigate safely and confidently with their 
canine
partners.  Since their return home, the students have had one 
follow-up
training session at their home base with a MIRA trainer and will 
soon
undergo a second session.  As safety is the paramount concern for 
both
student and dog, MIRA does not cut any corners in assuring that 
every pair
develops a strong working partnership.  To this end, MIRA will 
conduct as
many follow-up sessions as necessary; however, this rarely 
exceeds three.

Future plans for MIRA USA include the establishment of a training 
center in
Moore County which will serve as a facility for training guide 
dogs and the
students being paired with them, as well as a center for all 
blind and
severely visually impaired persons to access resources such as an 
audio
library, appropriate job training, social activities, and 
whatever other
needs are identified.  Obviously, the establishment of such a 
center will be
dictated once again by funding, either through a generous 
individual or
corporation, or some other committed entity.  MIRA believes, 
however, from
our own research and the feedback from professionals in the field 
of blind
assistance that this facility represents a very real need in the 
area.

Finally, MIRA will continue to educate the general population 
about the
challenges faced by the blind and the ways in which a guide dog 
assists in
mitigating those challenges.  Over the last two years, Bob and 
Devon have
addressed over two thousand Moore County fourth graders in 
partnership with
the Moore County Pet responsibility group.  While Pet 
Responsibility teaches
children to advocate for their pets, MIRA teaches them about the 
ways in
which a guide dog advocates for its owner.  They have also spoken 
to dozens
of civic, church, and general groups seeking to learn more about 
the blind
and guide dogs.  It is a never ending challenge, but one that 
Bob, and MIRA,
takes very seriously.



Exercise daily.  Walk with the Lord!

Deb and Banff