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

[Buddy Brannan]

Wow. This article makes me angry on so many levels. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate. 
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On May 13, 2010, at 8:22 AM, Ginger Kutsch wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 
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