[Community-service] The Grand canyon

Thu Sep 18 15:39:45 UTC 2014

Darian,

Well, I liked that article very much.  I’m awed by anyone, blind or sighted
who can hike like that.  I have only light perception but, I’ve hiked in
Little Rock, Arkansas while a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind.
I’ve learned that as a blind person, I have to know my limitations that have
nothing to do with blindness.  I believe sighted and even some blind persons
think it’s blindness related but, I have other health challenges such as
arthritis in my hips which makes it more difficult to do physical
activities.  I know that hiking the Grand Canyon would be too much for me
but, that doesn’t mean I don’t change things in my own way.  I guess what
I’m saying is that we don’t all have to hike the Grand Canyon but it’s cool
if someone can do it.  It’s also cool if someone can use an ATM machine and
doesn’t need sighted assistance or buy tickets at a train station and learn
that something they thought was so challenging really isn’t that
challenging.  I’m doing some things now in mobility that I thought I’d never
be able to do and it’s all a part of challenging my thoughts about myself as
a blind person.

I’m so glad the writer was able to go on the hike without the usual thoughts
about his blindness.  I’ve experience that and it’s great when it happens
because you can be a “normal” person who happens to be blind.  I’ve also
experienced the sadness of not being able to go on a trip because of my
blindness.  I once wanted to go on a mission trip with my former church.
Even though I passed the preliminary checks and started getting ready to go,
they thought I couldn’t help because I was blind.  Now, if I=’m honest with
myself, I may not have put forth a confident attitude.  Then again, I don’t
know.  I know I’d approach things differently now because I’ve gone through
training at an NFB Center and I’m currently involved with seniors at the
Society for the Blind, a day training center where my husband works.

Well, thank you for asking for input.  I thought the part of the article
about his neighbor was kind of funny.  People do that with me all of the
time and then, I tell them that my white cane will let me know what to do.
The other day, my husband and I were out doing some mobility work and this
man wouldn’t believe that he knows how to follow directions.  My husband
told the man that he teaches mobility for a living but, the man still felt
it necessary to walk ahead to make sure everything was okay.  I try not to
sound prejudiced against sighted persons because there are some blind
persons who are just learning non-visual techniques or who have been trained
in non-NFB settings and have lots of misconceptions about blindness and the
NFB.  I feel like I’d love to go out one day and travel around without
having to explain why a person shouldn’t grab my cane to assist me.  Well, I
guess if that happened, I wouldn’t be an advocate, now would I?  It just
gets tiring.

Thanks for the article.  Take care.

Regards,

Denise

From: Community-service [mailto:community-service-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Darian Smith via Community-service
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 10:13 PM
To: Community Service Discussion List
Subject: [Community-service] The Grand canyon

Here’s a thought provoker for you:

  We in the National Federation of the blind know that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines us despite how we’ve been taught to think.  We
also know that it is not what defines our future.

  though many of our sighted peers may still see it as a   tragedy  that
will forever limit us, we understand that such long-held believes  serve as
low expectations that become the obstacles between us and the   goals and
dreams we have for ourselves.

 It is so important that as federationests we change the perceptions
attached to us and raise those expectations we have of ourselves and  in our
communities have of us. Here is a story of a person who does just that,
showing he is as normal as  anyone else and   through his actions he is
education, living the philosophy and living the life he wants.

  What are your thoughts to the below story?

THE GRAND CANYON: FROM RIM TO RIM TO RIM

by Bruce A. Gardner

 Bruce Gardner is a member of the National Federation of the Blind Board of
Directors and President of the NFB of Arizona. He is the father of six and a
leader in his community and his church. He has an extremely responsible job
as an attorney. I have not the remotest idea how he finds time to do all the
things he does, but one of them is participating with his sons in scouting
activities. 

Over the years Bruce has learned to be patient with those who think his
blindness should keep him from being a top-notch scout. And his patience has
paid off. After all, it's pretty hard not to believe in a man who can hike
the Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim. Here is what he has to say:

For most of my adult life I have served in one capacity or another as a
volunteer leader with the Boy Scouts of America. The last few years I have
served as a scout troop committee chairman. Last summer I hiked the Grand
Canyon with my son Bruce and the other Explorer Scouts (sixteen- to
eighteen-year-old boys) from our troop. We hiked from the South Rim to the
North Rim and back to the South Rim, which was approximately fifty miles.
Unlike the other fifty-mile hikes I have taken, there is very little flat or
level hiking in the Canyon.

We camped in the National Forest at the top of the South Rim the first
night. Early the next morning we put on our backpacks containing our
sleeping bags, camp stoves, food, water, and other gear and headed down the
Canyon. The sheer cliffs and scenic vistas were simply breathtaking.

The first leg of the trail was about seven or eight miles to the Colorado
River at the bottom of the Canyon, which is more than a mile in elevation
below the rim. On that July summer day, the temperature in the Canyon was
over 110 degrees. We stopped to cool off in Bright Angel Creek and to eat
lunch.

Then we hiked seven or eight miles across the desert floor of the Canyon
through a maze of smaller canyons to the base of the North Rim. There we set
up camp, cooked our dinner, and bedded down for the night. At about 3:00 the
next morning we got up, cooked breakfast, and headed up the North Rim of the
Canyon, hoping to get a jump on the sun and the intense heat it would bring.

Like the South Rim, the North Rim was over a mile in elevation to the top
along a beautiful scenic trail seven or eight miles long. Once at the top we
ate lunch under the tall pine trees and enjoyed the cool mountain breeze. It
amazed me to think that only the day before we had been on the other side of
the Canyon, now some ten or eleven miles away as the crow flies. It seemed
strange to realize that at the bottom of the Canyon we had hiked through a
blazing hot desert, while at the rim of the Canyon we were enjoying the cool
pines.

After lunch we marched back down the North Rim to the bottom of the Canyon,
and across the desert floor back to the Colorado River, where we cooked
dinner and bedded down for the night. All told, we had put in about
twenty-one or twenty-two miles that day. Early the next morning we cooked
breakfast, packed up our gear, strapped on our backpacks, and started up the
ten-mile trail back to the top of the South Rim.

By the time I reached the top of the South Rim, it was clear that my
get-up-and-go had got up and went-I was tired. The last 4.5 miles up the
Bright Angel Trail is called the wall because it is nonstop switchbacks. It
seemed a little like walking up a four-and-a-half-mile staircase.

The two walking sticks I made from agave wood (a desert plant commonly known
as century plant) were as helpful for taking the strain off my knees as they
were as white canes. At the bottom of the Canyon we had been hoping for some
cloud cover or rain, but we did not get much that day until we were about a
half mile from the top. At that point a little thundercloud rolled in and
drenched us. It felt good at first, but when we crested the Rim, we were
soon chilled.

Although we were cold, wet, and exhausted, it was a thrill to reach the top.
The entire trip was tremendous. As we sat under some shelter to rest and
wait for the rain to stop, we looked out over the Canyon. I could not help
comparing this scouting adventure with others I had experienced. This trip
had been different.

As we planned for this hike, about half of the fifteen scouts wanted to hike
to the bottom of the Canyon, spend a day or so, and then hike out, while the
other half (the high school athletes) began challenging each other to hike
rim to rim to rim. Of the four adult leaders hiking with the fifteen young
men, I was the only adult who was interested in the extended trek. Because I
had hiked the Grand Canyon twice before, once down and out in one day, and
once backpacking from rim to rim, I had hoped someday to hike from rim to
rim to rim.

We decided to divide into two groups, and I would serve as adult supervisor
for the hardy boys. No one questioned my ability to hike or supervise the
scouts, and no one suggested that someone would need to be assigned to take
care of me. The fact that I was blind was never an issue.

Of course it had not always been that way. Once when I was a Boy Scout at
junior leader training at summer camp, we were scheduled to go on a night
hike. I had been a scout for about three years and had been on many hikes.
In fact, I had earned the Eagle Scout award the previous year. However, the
leaders of the summer camp assumed that I would not be able to make the hike
and did not want to take the risk of having a blind boy go on the night
hike, so I was not allowed to go. The fact that I was an Eagle Scout, had
earned the hiking merit badge, and had served as a guide for other Scout
troops on a thirty-five-mile historic trail hike in Southern Utah made no
difference. I was blind-that was all that mattered. Therefore I was not
allowed to go on the hike.

It hurt to be denied the opportunity to go on the hike with the other scouts
at the junior leader training. But at that time I had not yet heard of the
National Federation of the Blind and did not know how to deal with others
who treated me as if I were helpless.

As I said, this hike in the Grand Canyon was different. It was even
different from hikes I had been on with these same boys as recently as four
or five years earlier when I had spent the week with them at summer camp.
During that week at camp we had gone on several short (three- to five-mile)
hikes. One of the boys' fathers (a neighbor of mine) came up to camp for a
couple of days and went on one of the hikes. He was shocked to learn that I
was participating with the boys on all their activities. As we hiked that
day, he took it upon himself to serve as my guardian and personal protector.

He walked in front of me along the trail feverishly trying to remove all the
obstacles along the way. If there was a rock or log in the trail too big for
him to move, he would attempt to grab me and physically maneuver me around
it. Of course I did not put up with that, so he resorted to trying to walk
backwards ahead of me so he could watch my every move and orally guide me
through each obstacle. 

The young scouts got quite a chuckle at the spectacle he made. Of course it
would not do to get mad or become offended, so I patiently explained to him
that this type of assistance was not necessary and that the white cane I was
using told me where the obstacles were.

Gradually he relaxed a little so that by the end of the hike that day he had
turned most of his attention to visiting with his son and only occasionally
would he attempt to serve as my personal protector. Of course that evening
around the campfire he could not stop talking about how wonderful I was.

Later that night I went to take a shower. The shower house was two or three
campsites away. After I left our camp, this same neighbor turned to the
other adults and asked, "Isn't someone going to go with him? He will get
lost." The others in camp just shrugged their shoulders and told him I knew
what I was doing. 

When I did not return promptly, he began asking others returning from the
showers if they had seen me. Because none of them had, he was convinced that
I had gotten lost, and he suggested that a search party be formed to look
for me. When I finally sauntered back into camp, my would-be protector was
greatly relieved. He asked where I had been, and my casual reply seemed to
dumbfound him.

I explained that on my way to the showers I had come across two very young
scouts who were lost, scared, and in need of help. They had become separated
from their scout troop while on a night compass course hike. When I found
them, they had been wandering, hopelessly lost for nearly an hour. Their
flashlights had grown dim, and the boys were obviously scared and worried
about all the night sounds around them. 

When they saw me, they simultaneously burst into nervous, excited chatter.
They described their plight and asked me how to get to their campsite. When
I explained that their camp was about a half mile away, they asked if I
would take them there, and of course I did. Then I returned and took my
shower.

All of this seemed to be beyond my neighbor's comprehension. I was blind.
How could I possibly do a normal thing like help lost scouts find their way
back to camp? Gradually, however, my neighbor has come to understand that
blindness does not mean helplessness and that by using alternative
techniques we who are blind can enjoy full and productive lives.

Well, as I said, the scout hike last summer in the Grand Canyon was a
wonderful, exhilarating, exhausting adventure, and the fact that my
blindness was never made an issue made it especially rewarding.

Darian Smith

President, National Federation  of the Blind Community Service Division

dsmithnfb at gmail.com 

(415)215-9809

 twitter: @goldengateace

Connect with the Community Service Division 

Facebook: search for “NFB Community Service Division”.

Twitter:@NFBCSDivision

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can have the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

La National Federation of the Blind sabe que la ceguera no es la
característica que define tu futuro o a ti.  Todos los días elevamos las
expectativas de los ciegos, porque las bajas expectativas crean obstáculos
entre los ciegos y su futuro.  Puedes vivir la vida que queres, la ceguera
no te lo impide.

 “”...The challenges we face will not be solved with one meeting in one
night. Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other
time.

We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek...”
-Barack Obama     

 Your  unwanted vehicle can be  just what the blind need to make
possibilities reality.    

Donate your car to the National Federation of the Blind today!
For more information, please visit: www.carshelpingtheblind.org
<http://www.carshelpingtheblind.org/>  or call 1-855-659-9314

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