[nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

Thu May 13 12:22:32 UTC 2010

Man's dogs will set blind kids free
Published Thu, May 13, 2010 05:02 AM

SOUTHERN PINES -- As a blind man, Bob Baillie walks down busy
Broad Street often enough to know it is 75 steps from the corner
of Pennsylvania Avenue to the first dip in the sidewalk. When he
hits the first crack, it's 60 steps to the corner.

This intimacy with the concrete would be impossible without
Devon, a 110-pound Bernese mountain dog who works for cookies and
ear scratches. Before Devon, Baillie would knock into light
poles, wander into traffic and curse the surgical accident that
left him in the dark three years ago.

Freed and inspired by his wet-nosed companion, Baillie, a
Southern Pines businessman, decided to connect blind people
nationwide with their own guide dogs, focusing on children as
young as 11. In a little more than a year, his Aberdeen-based
Mira Foundation USA has arranged trained animals for an
11-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, and five North Carolina
teenagers wait in the pipeline. 

"I thought it was a wonderful idea," said Cricket Bidleman, the
11-year old, in San Diego. "I'll be a lot safer at school, and
I'll have a friend to talk to at home."

Baillie's work is expensive and uncommon. Guide dogs cost roughly
$60,000 once training is complete, putting their help beyond the
reach of many families. Also, guide dog groups often require that
blind children be 16 or at least in high school before getting
dogs, making rare exceptions.

For Baillie, it's a chance to lift depression out of his own life
and fill a gap for potentially hundreds more. He hopes his
foundation will grow into a charity that places 30 dogs a year,
one wagging tail at a time.

"Very few of us get the opportunity to really do something for
human beings," said Baillie, 66. "Just the fact that you can get
up in the morning, grab your dog and go for a walk by yourself."

In North Carolina, more than 200,000 people report visual loss, a
definition that runs from total blindness to serious difficulty
seeing even while wearing glasses, according to a 2008 report
from the American Foundation for the Blind.

Of that group, more than 11,000 are ages 5 to 17.

Blind children aren't typically thought to be mature enough to
handle a guide dog before they're 16, though exceptions have been
made for 14-year-olds, said William Krol, spokesman for the New
York-based Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind.

"When you're a guide dog handler, you have a commitment not only
to yourself, but also to your dog," he said.

Sally Bidleman, Cricket's mom, argued that guide dogs should be
provided according to need and ability rather than age. She tried
every agency in the country, she said, before finding Mira.
Cricket navigates the halls of her school, including the stairs,
on her own each day. When her dog arrives this summer, the school
will hold an assembly to orient Cricket's classmates on how to
approach her companion.

"It's like somebody getting eyes, almost," she said. "It's like
getting another sense."

'You'd rather be dead'

Baillie's blindness struck three years ago during what was
supposed to be a simple bypass surgery. The incision cut an
artery, he said, and he lost blood to his eyes while he bled. He
knew the surgery might be fatal but never received any warning
about blindness. To date, Baillie has received no compensation
and believes he will have to fight to get any.

"Taking a choice between croaking and being blind," Baillie said,
"for the first couple of days, you'd rather be dead. Try crossing
the street with your eyes closed."

Before the surgery, Baillie worked in both dentistry and real
estate. For the first year, he struggled with a cane, forcing
himself to listen to traffic - a requirement, he said, for
getting a dog.

"He would just plow into things and he never slowed down," said
Kathy Szyja, his director of operations at Mira. "He needed this
dog to keep him safe."

Devon came from the Mira Foundation in Quebec, and while Baillie
was there, learning to walk with him, he learned that children in
America rarely get dogs. When he asked about it, he said, he
heard an it's-always-been-that-way explanation. So borrowing the
Canadian name for his own group, he started Mira USA.

'Dinner in the Dark'

It operates as a nonprofit out of an office in Aberdeen with
minimal staff. Fundraiser meals and runs boosted its treasury.
Now, to raise money, Mira hosts dinners (there's one on Friday)
where the guests eat blindfolded. The dogs all come from Mira in
Canada and a lot of the expense comes from flying eligible
children to Canada, and the trainers to their homes. As Mira
grows in Moore County, Baillie hopes to train dogs there.

For now, he and Devon rise each morning and make the three-mile
trek from his horse-country house to downtown Southern Pines. For
the first mile, there are no sidewalks. Before they reach a
sidewalk, Baillie and Devon cross four streets.

But on Broad Street, everyone knows them.

"When you see a person walking up and down the street with a
cane," Baillie said, "you're not likely to say hello. But when
you walk up and down the street with a dog, let me tell you, it
makes a huge difference. People driving by will roll down their
window and yell, 'Hey, Devon!' Never mind Bob."

Staff researcher David Raynor contributed to this report. 

josh.shaffer at newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818
Source:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/13/v-print/479987/mans-dogs-s
et-blind-kids-free.html

Ginger Bennett Kutsch
Morristown, NJ