[nagdu] Fw: David Bearden, no ordinary dad

[Marion & Martin]

Dear All,
    I want to share this story about David Bearden. David is a member of the 
National Association of Guide Dog Users and serves on the Board of Directors 
of the Florida division!

Fraternally yours,
> No ordinary dad, he cares for foster kids while legally blind - St.
> Petersburg TimesLogin|Register
>            By Dan DeWitt, Times Columnist
>            In Print: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
>
>
>                  David Bearden is led by his guide dog, Upton, across 
> State
>                  Road 50 east of Brooksville. Bearden, his son and two
> foster
>                  kids make the daily walk.
>                  [MAURICE RIVENBARK | Times]
>                  Guide dog Upton and David Bearden, 52, who is legally
> blind,
>                  are featured in a book that looks at Bearden's remarkable
> life
>                  as a foster parent.
>            A 9-year-old boy ran into his house after school Monday
> afternoon,
>            hugged a man he called "Dad'' and broke the news that he needed
>            permission to go on a field trip Friday.
>            "How much is that going to cost me?'' asked the father, David
>            Bearden.
>            "Nothing,'' the boy said. "We're just going to the park. And
> we're
>            walking.''
>            The familiarity and affection between the adult and the child
> seemed
>            ordinary, at least for a happy family. So did the knee-jerk
> worry
>            about money, and the child's excitement about getting out of
> class
>            for a few hours, even if it was just to the county park a few
> blocks
>            from his school, Eastside Elementary, and his house in Hill 'n
> Dale.
>            Here's what is not ordinary: Bearden, 52, is the boy's foster
>            father, not his legal one. The boy is one of three children who
> live
>            with Bearden now and is one of dozens who have passed through
>            Bearden's house over the past five years, some of them just for
> a
>            few days.
>            And Bearden, whose German shepherd guide dog, Upton, lay 
> quietly
> by
>            his feet when the boy walked in, has been legally blind for 21
> years.
>            Mostly because of his work as a foster parent, Bearden is one 
> of
>            several vision-impaired subjects in a new book, Trust the Dog,
> about
>            the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation. That is the 50-year-old
> nonprofit
>            organization that trained Upton and provided him to Bearden two
>            years ago.
>            Funny how it sometimes takes an outsider to help us fully
> appreciate
>            our neighbors.
>            This newspaper has written a lot about Bearden's public work -
>            fighting for his rights as a blind individual and as former
>            president of the National Federation of the Blind for Hernando
> and
>            east Pasco counties.
>            In years past, he insisted that criminal charges be filed
> against a
>            neighbor whose dog attacked Bearden's previous guide dog, 
> Isaac,
> and
>            against a Brooksville businessman who tried to bar Isaac from
> his
>            convenience store.
>            Bearden has petitioned - without much success, he said - for
> better
>            transportation for blind and disabled Hernando residents. He 
> has
>            even lobbied in Tallahassee for the rights of blind Floridians.
>            But we haven't written much about Bearden's personal life, the
> main
>            focus of the chapter about him in Trust the Dog.
>            Bearden, a former hospital worker, contracted an infection in
> his
>            eyes when he was emptying a bag of medical waste in 1989, he
> said.
>            It left him completely blind in one eye and with only 26 
> percent
> of
>            his vision in the other.
>            His wife departed not long afterward. With the occasional help
> of
>            his mother, Margarita Romo, executive director of the nonprofit
>            Farmworkers Self-Help Inc. in Dade City, he reared three
> daughters
>            mostly by himself.
>            "I never saw those three girls when they weren't all spiffy, in
> cute
>            little hats and cute little dresses,'' Romo said. "I never saw
> them
>            dirty or when they looked like they were starving.''
>            So, by the time Bearden's oldest daughter, Cristyn, had reached
> her
>            teens, he had the experience to take in other children.
>            And he had the opportunity. Cristyn had a friend whose parents
>            periodically abandoned him at a Brooksville runaway shelter.
>            And he really wanted work, even nonpaying work.
>            "I can't stand to sit around all day doing nothing,'' Bearden
> said.
>            "It's like being in prison when you don't have 
> transportation.''
>            Since 2004, when he received a state license, he has taken in
>            children whose mothers abused crack or alcohol during their
>            pregnancies. He has taken in children who had been beaten by
> their
>            parents or ridiculed for being openly gay. His adopted son,
> Malcolm,
>            15, was blinded in one eye after being shot with a slingshot as
> a
>            toddler.
>            "The kids Mr. Bearden works with are some of our most
> challenging
>            kids,'' said Nicole Clevinger, a supervisor with Kids Central,
> which
>            monitors foster care in Hernando and other nearby counties. "He
>            provides structure for those kids. He doesn't give up on them. 
> .
> And
>            the kids who are placed with him really become his family.''
>            How does a blind person keep order in a house full of children,
> some
>            of them teenagers with serious behavior problems?
>            First, with the exception of one temporary placement, he 
> accepts
>            only boys. "I can't watch kids whose hormones are flying,'' he
> said.
>            Then he makes sure that there are things to do: the park, a
>            vegetable garden in the back yard, art supplies so the children
> can
>            draw. Malcolm, for example, has notebooks full of skillful
> drawings
>            in the Japanese animé style.
>            Bearden can hear when children are watching banned television
>            programs in their rooms. With the help of a scanner that lights
> and
>            magnifies the screen of a laptop, he can check the history of
> Web
>            sites visited and block the inappropriate ones.
>            Finally, there's Upton.
>            "He lets me know if someone leaves the house when they aren't
>            supposed to,'' Bearden said. "And if I can't find a child, and
> he's
>            been around them long enough, he can find them for me. 
> Sometimes
>            he's found kids as far away as the park.''
>            Upton also has a central role in the family's daily ritual - 
> the
>            walk to the Hess convenience store at the corner of State Road
> 50
>            and Spring Lake Highway. Sometimes it's just for a soda. On
> Monday,
>            they planned to eat dinner at the Godfather's Pizza there.
>            Bearden is thankful he has a peaceful group of kids now -
> Malcolm
>            and two boys, ages 9 and 14, whose names Kids Central asked 
> that
> we
>            not print. They are good students and all get along.
>            Bearden and the youngest boy walk together. The two teenagers
> hang
>            back, talking about what their classmates said in school that
> day.
>            With the guide dog leading the way, flawlessly following
> commands
>            and keeping a course along the side of the pavement, they don't
> look
>            ordinary. But they do look like a family.
>
>
>            [Last modified: Mar 02, 2010 08:24 PM]
>
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