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

Fri May 14 15:33:06 UTC 2010

I'm also a bit sketchy on the details of these kinds of arrangements. I'm sure Toni Eames could elaborate somewhat if she's reading.
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY

On May 14, 2010, at 11:06 AM, Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) wrote:

> Though now I'm wondering if the dog is for the kid or for the parent in
> these cases.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Buddy Brannan
> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 10:57 AM
> To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I really can't speak to the ways that kids use other kinds of service
> dogs, but my limited experience with this sort of thing tells me that in
> a lot of cases, dogs that assist with other disabilities (autism, for
> instance, or dogs for kids in wheelchairs who open doors, fetch things,
> and the like) are not as much under the direct control of the child.
> Rather, the parent(s) will often go through the training as well, and
> the dog is often "handled" more by the parent rather than the child.
> This of course may well not be true in all cases, but that's my
> understanding of how it often works. It seems obvious to me that such an
> arrangement wouldn't work very well for a guide, thus I think the
> dynamic is likely a bit different. 
> --
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
> 
> 
> 
> On May 14, 2010, at 10:52 AM, Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) wrote:
> 
>> I don't know guys, this article was advertising not news. It also
>> couches the advertising in this man's experience and I can't argue
> that
>> his experience is wrong, it just is. He very may well have wanted to
> be
>> dead during those first few days of being blind. And, he very may have
>> sucked as a cane traveler. 
>> Going back to our PBS program, how does it work for the kids who get
>> dogs, don't they need to be in authority too? 
>> To me, this is just an advertisement made to look like news. Rush
>> Limbough does this all the time on his show and nobody really cares. 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Ginger Kutsch
>> Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:23 AM
>> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
>> 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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