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

Fri May 14 00:04:05 UTC 2010

yeah, and people think that our guide dogs are our only friends! (blind 
people are lonely and in the dark!!)  I sure had a full life before and 
after having a guide dog.

With everything making us to be so lonely and depressed, I wonder if we'll 
ever live that mess down! What will it take for people to see that we have 
lives - good and bad - just as anyone else makes their lives. UUHHGGG!

Lyn and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pawpower Creations" <pawpower at cox.net>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 9:41 AM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

> Well said Marion.  I never had a guide dog as a kid, in fact I didn't get 
> my first until I was like 19, and I can tell you that I still managed to 
> enjoy life to the full.  This article seemed to say that blind people 
> could not live a full and productive life with out a dog, and that is just 
> so far from the truth.
>
>
> Best wishes from the Pawpower pack!
> Bristol, Mill'E, Rudy, and Laveau
>
> Pawpower Creations, Products designed with you and your Canine in mind
> Bob Blackner/Rox'E Homstad
> 504-312-2609
> pawpower at cox.net
> www.pawpowercreations.com
> Custom made guide dog harnesses, leashes, collars, and relieving 
> harnesses.
>
> With eye upraised his master's look to scan,
> The joy, the solace, and the aid of man:
> The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend,
> The only creature faithful to the end.
>
> George Crabbe
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Marion Gwizdala" <blind411 at verizon.net>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 11:14 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>
>
>>    I'm sorry, but this whole perception of the pitiful blind person whose 
>> life would be depressing and worthless without a guide dog only serves to 
>> reinforce the assertion that such organizations as Mira Foundation are 
>> less interested in disseminating accurate information about blindness and 
>> more concerned with saying whatever they need to say in order to gain 
>> support for their cause! I have never counted steps in my 30 years as a 
>> blind person and can't even tell you if I know a blind person who does! 
>> And why did this guy run into light poles? Perhaps because he had 
>> absolutely no O&M instruction before getting a guide dog!
>>    Such drivvle only serves to marginalize those blind people who do not 
>> use a guide dog, which happens to be the vast majority of the blind! 
>> Furthermore, the schools that do not give guide dogs to young people do 
>> so with very sound reasoning. However, one thing better than a poor 
>> pitiful blind man is a "poor pitiful blind child" to get donors to dig 
>> deeply into their pockets! Ugh! JMHO!
>>
>> Fraternally yours,
>> Marion Gwizdala
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Ginger Kutsch" <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
>> To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:22 AM
>> Subject: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>>
>>
>>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> nagdu mailing list
>>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>>> nagdu:
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/blind411%40verizon.net
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nagdu mailing list
>> nagdu at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>> nagdu:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/pawpower%40cox.net
>>
>> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus 
>> signature database 5111 (20100513) __________
>>
>> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>>
>> http://www.eset.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> nagdu:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/linda.gwizdak%40cox.net 