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

Fri May 14 12:21:26 UTC 2010

definitely not,  we all have trouble learning new things.  Blind or not.

Cheryl Echevarria
Independent Travel Consultant
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http://Echevarriatravel.com
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Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Montrose Travel CST-1018299-10

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "solsticesinger" <solsticesinger at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 10:09 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

> Michelle,
>
> Having trouble with something doesn't make you pitiful. I don't think 
> anyone
> here is trying to imply that difficulty equals being pitiful.
>
> Shannon and Caroline
> Are you a fan of Women's music? If so, join me each Wednesday evening from 
> 7
> until 10 eastern  for The Eclectic Collection: a Celebration of Women In
> Music.
> http://mojoradio.us:9090
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michelle" <m-johnson at bigpond.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 6:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>
>
> Sorry, but although I agree with some of the stuff you said, there are 
> other
> bits I disagree with. Without trying to be rude of offensive, sure most
> blind people aren't pitiful, but some are. And excuse me, but I'm one of 
> the
> blind people, the few I might add, that despite being instructed by a
> professional instructor, getting around wasn't as good a deal as when I 
> got
> my guide dog. I had trouble with my white cane, it didn't stop me from
> bumping me into stuff most of the time, because as a total, how can I know
> when to suddenly put my hands up to protect myself all of a sudden? My dog
> prevents that and rarely lets me bump into things. Being blind isn't so 
> easy
> for some, and I don't like how some people on here have decided that just
> because they get angry with the stuff in the article and the like, they 
> can
> say that blind people aren't so pitiful. As a whole they're probably not,
> but please don't forget the ones who are having trouble, despite all the
> help! (Stern but not intentionally rude and judgmental).
>
> Michelle
> ----- 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: Friday, May 14, 2010 1:44 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
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
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