[nagdu] [Wagdu] Man's best friend helps at local school: Guide dogsserve as companions and leaders

[Sean Robertson]

Now this is great. Thank's for sending this.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steven Johnson" <blinddog3 at charter.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 8:38 PM
Subject: [nagdu] [Wagdu] Man's best friend helps at local school: Guide 
dogsserve as companions and leaders


> Man's best friend helps at local school
> Guide dogs serve as companions and leaders
> Updated: Thursday, 06 Oct 2011, 7:08 PM EDT
> Published : Thursday, 06 Oct 2011, 4:07 PM EDT
>
> Gina Quattrocchi
> LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Each morning she takes the bus to work. Every
> afternoon, he lives close enough to walk to his volunteer job. Both make 
> the
> daily commute to Glen Acres Elementary in Lafayette. But they are not 
> alone.
>
> Debbie Morgan spends her mornings working as a Teacher's Assistant, 
> helping
> children in two first-grade classrooms at Glen Acres Elementary.
>
> "I help them with their reading. I help them with their spelling words, 
> with
> their math," said Morgan.
>
> Bob Hrdy spends afternoons as a volunteer at Glen Acres. Since retiring 
> from
> Alcoa, he's spent the last couple years at the school his children once
> attended. Answering phones, letting people in the front door, and has 
> taken
> on the role of web master, keeping the school's website up to date.
>
> "It makes you feel like you're wanted and I feel like I can make a
> difference. I'm able to help some kids maybe learn one thing one day or if 
> I
> can help the teachers do their job and help our kids learn," said Bob 
> Hrdy.
>
> Both Hrdy and Morgan can do their jobs, because their guide dogs are doing
> their jobs. Hrdy and Morgan are blind, and rely on Ada and Alex for
> assistance. Morgan's yellow lab, Ada, is four-years-old. Morgan has been
> blind her whole life and has two artificial eyes. She depends on Ada to 
> get
> around, and is right at Morgan's side all day.
>
> "She's a good, calm, gentle dog. She loves the children. Oh my goodness,
> sometimes when they've been really well-behaved, we take the harness off 
> and
> they get to pet Ada and they love it. And Ada loves it. And sometimes they
> can even sit on the floor and read with her and she really likes that," 
> said
> Morgan.
>
> Hrdy lost night vision when he was 14. He has a genetic eye disease, and 
> his
> eyes have slowly gotten worse. He decided he would need a guide dog to get
> around safely.
>
> "If you closed your right eye and with your left eye looked through a 
> straw,
> that's kind of what I see," said Bob Hrdy.
>
> Hrdy said he hopes he and Alex can teach students a little more about 
> people
> with disabilities. Morgan said helping the children is the best job she's
> ever had.
>
> "The Lafayette School Corporation has given me more opportunities for
> employment than any place else and I'm very, very thankful for that," said
> Morgan.
>
> "It's a great source of freedom for visually handicapped people, the dogs,
> and the chance to come up here and help and work. It's been a great
> experience. And like I said before, I just feel like I'm part of the 
> family.
> It feels like a family up here," said Hrdy.
>
> Both Ada and Alex were trained at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Michigan.
>
> Ada is Morgan's fifth guide dog. Alex is Hrdy's first dog.
>
>
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