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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“<i>Sierra
</i>Magazine: The Magazine of the Sierra Club” - January-February 2014 (Vol. 99, No. 1), “Second Sight” – Trevor Thomas went blind at age 36. He responded by hiking 18,000 miles. Text by Jake Abrahamson.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">URL:
<a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201401/Trevor-Thomas-blind-hiker-Appalachian-Trail.aspx">
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201401/Trevor-Thomas-blind-hiker-Appalachian-Trail.aspx</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201401/Trevor-Thomas-Audio/SIERRA%20CLUB%20-%20Second%20Sight%20Final.mp3"><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#41679F;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="75" height="33" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CEFB1B.471FACB0" alt="Click here to hear the author read this article."></span></a><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333"><a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201401/Trevor-Thomas-Audio/SIERRA%20CLUB%20-%20Second%20Sight%20Final.mp3"><span style="color:#41679F">Hear
the author read this article</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This story is given much prominence in the 112 page issue, and is currently a top story on the Sierra Club website.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">L Rovig: My judgment of the “blind story” is this: The ignorance of the author is overpowered by the grit of the blind hiker. On the other hand, the blind hiker is a fool to break so many bones
and not research better methods of hiking – maybe by calling Erik Weihenmayer. The author does a good job of learning about and explaining this hiker’s blind techniques to his readers But, I am sorry that nothing in the story shows that a desk job is a viable
occupation for a blind man with a law degree. Trevor Thomas wasn’t a hiker before he became blind, so he did not choose his current occupation based on dislike of indoor work. If Trevor Thomas had received better advice and training when he went blind, he
could be making steady money in a more prestigious and, for him, safer line of work than hiking and giving speaking engagements. .
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">THE STORY:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On the cover of
<i>Sierra</i>, above the nearly full-page photo for the main story, is smaller print to advertise this story inside: “BLIND HIKER 18,000 MILES AND COUNTING”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The page for the table of contents has two sections: The top section labeled “FEATURES” notes 4 stories and has a photo defining the section. One of the four begins on p;age 34:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">34 Second Sight<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Trevor Thomas went blind at age 36.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He responded by hiking 18,000 miles.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Jake Abrahamson.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The photo defining the Features area shows a hiker travelling on the edge of a foggy highway and moving away from us -- a hiker in shorts, wearing a big backpack, either one hiking pole or
a blind man’s cane in his right hand and, walking alongside him, a dog on a fat leash (not wearing a guide dog harness). The photo caption reads: ”Trevor Thomas and his guide dog, Tennille, walking across North Carolina. Page 34.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Pages 34-39: “Second Sight”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The article has 3 photos, the story’s first page has the man who was walking away turned to look at us and his dog is looking at him. A heavy leash is in the man’s left hand and one tall hiking
pole is in his right hand. He is wearing sunglasses that are not opaque<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Page 36: a closeup of the man’s smiling, non-pretty face (and without the sunglasses) and scrawny neck. Caption: “To make eye contact, Trevor Thomas locates the source of a voice and adjusts
his gaze a few inches upward.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Page 38: The photographer at the dog’s level took a show with the black lab head-on facing us, mouth open in a dog’s “smile.”. Caption: “Early in her training at Guide Dogs for the Blind, Tennille
displayed unusual athleticism and confidence, making her a perfect match for Thomas.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">My notes on the article:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">His home is in Charlotte, North Carolina. His sister drove him to the beginning of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Because the sign was engraved, he was able to tell that it read . . .[first shelter, 2 miles]”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“He’ll be here any minute,” Trevor lied. His partner had bailed days earlier, but he couldn’t tell Liz that. She was his big sister. She’d never let him go alone.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Trevor convinces his sister the partner is 2 miles up the trail at a shelter. “Now, Trevor and Liz just had to find a hiker to take him there.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Trevor and Liz begin asking hikers in the parking lot to let him trail behind them; “For several hours” they ask and 40 refuse. Then Liz asks Kevin Rondeau.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“She pointed at Trevor, who could be seen pacing amid the trees. There was no hint of his blindness. He walked in swift, straight vectors. His trekking poles, which he used like antennae on
the ground before each step, were a seamless part of his hiking uniform.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Rondeau said, “that guy is blind?”. . . “If that guy is actually blind, he can walk with me as long as he wants.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">They hike together for a week before splitting up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Trevor has never backpacked before.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He had researched the trip for one year before beginning it. His Appalachian trail name is Zero/Zero, the opposite off 20/20.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Trevor “floated between hiking partners, but he also hiked solo for long spans.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“He fell constantly—he stopped counting at 3,000—and broke many bones, including several ribs that he had treated by a veterinarian in a Maine town with no doctor. To finish the trail, he walked
200 miles on a broken foot and with four cracked ribs. It took him six months to reach Mt. Katahdin.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Trevor started going blind in the summer of 2005.”[home with parents, age 36, just graduated from Las Vegas law school] “He was preparing to enter the Navy as judge advocate.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Five years later, “he completed the Pacific Crest Trail,” He could not complete the Continental Divide Trail because of snowstorms. “He’d been filmed for several short documentaries and written
about in newspapers and magazines. He had a foundation and Facebook fans and speaking engagements. He had people telling him to do a feature-length film and a book.” He is sponsored by a shoe company and a sock company.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The author: “Can you tell me anything else about what you’re hearing?” . . . [Trevor does a great job at describing the clearing.] As we trekked, Thomas told me of other soundscapes—“<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">About the dog: “She had her own sleeping bag, her own backpack, her own sponsors.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Author: “Do you miss being able to see?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Trevor: I wouldn’t change what happened to me.” [Before blindness, Trevor had a photographic memory, very fast reader, took tests for other students for payment. His sister says, “He “was very
curt and wanted instant gratification, and everything was all about Trevor. ‘Trust no one’ was his motto.”]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">[He learned braille and other blindness skills in an unnamed training center for blind persons.]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“If he worked hard enough, they told him—if he learned to spell and move and control his temper—he might be able to get a job packing boxes. But Thomas did not want a job packing boxes.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“He started going into the backyard…figuring out how to set up this tent…to cook, working on all the little things that would go inside his backpack.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The article ends with another story showing Trevor Thomas being a man with grit when his trail hike and a camp at night are a rainy disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:navy"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Cordially,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Lorraine Rovig, Assistant to
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Chairperson Patti Chang, Esq.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NFB Scholarship Committee<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">200 East Wells Street
<i>at Jernigan Place</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Baltimore, MD 21230
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Office: (410) 659-9314, x2415
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">E-mail: <a href="mailto:scholarships@nfb.org" title="blocked::mailto:scholarships@nfb.org">
scholarships@nfb.org</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Website: <a href="http://www.nfb.org/scholarships" title="blocked::http://www.nfb.org/scholarships">
www.nfb.org/scholarships</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">P. S.: The application period for 2014 began November 1, 2013, and ends March 31, 2014.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">The National Federation of the Blind wishes you a joyous and safe holiday season. We would appreciate your including the NFB in your end-of-year giving.
<a href="https://nfb.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1"><span style="color:blue">Make your contribution</span></a> now.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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