[nagdu] dog guides

[Ed Meskys]

Precious Eyes.
NY Times Friday, 2013_11_08
By PAUL SULLIVAN. Paul Sullivan donates to charities for the blind, 
including
guide
dog schools.. JENNIFER MURRAY woke after a night out with friends and 
thought
her
husband was playing a trick on her. She could not see anything and did not
believe
him when he said it was daytime.
'It was like a light switch had been shut off,' she said. 'I shut my eyes, 
and I
blinked. And I tried it again several times. Then I realized the sun was in 
my
face,
and I said, now what?
Ms. Murray had been battling to keep what little vision she had since her
premature
birth in 1978. She had a bit of peripheral vision in one eye but nothing 
else. A
few years before the day when she lost her eyesight for good, she had an
operation
to implant a permanent contact lens in her right eye. It gave her sight such 
as
she
had never had before.
'I was giddy for weeks,' she said. 'I could see everything, and everybody 
was
beautiful.
I remember thinking life is so colorful and so pretty, and I wouldn't have 
taken
that back for the world.
With her vision gone again, Ms. Murray said she began to withdraw from the
world.
Her husband, an Iraqi war veteran, was going through a difficult time, and 
life
was
a struggle. With the birth of their son, Liam, who is now 2, Ms. Murray said 
she
realized she needed to become more independent to care for him.
'I realized the white cane wasn't cutting it,' she said. 'I was putting a 
lot of
unspoken pressure on my husband and my son, which isn't fair to them.
That was when she decided to try to get a guide dog.
The mission of all guide dog schools is to create a team, pairing a blind 
person
and a dog to give the person greater freedom and independence. It would seem 
to
be
an easy cause for fund-raising.
After all, most people melt when they see a puppy -- a big marketing tool 
for
these
schools -- and helping blind people lead better lives seems to be an 
unqualified
good.
Yet if the cause is an easy sell, the work is not cheap. These schools need 
to
raise
money and engage volunteers on a very large scale to ensure they have enough
resources
to pay for the long, costly and often unsuccessful training of dogs. One 
guide
dog
takes about two years to train and costs a total of $45,000 to $60,000, 
covering
everything from boarding a dog to extensive drilling by professional 
trainers in
serving the needs of the blind to a weekslong period acclimating dog to
recipient.
And about 45 percent of dogs bred by the schools do not make the grade. 
Those
that
do are provided free to people who need them.
Beyond this, guide dog charities must compete in the wider contest for 
dollars
among
nonprofit organizations. The Urban Institute, a research organization that
focuses
on social and economic issues, estimates that 1.6 million such groups 
operate in
America today, a 25 percent increase in the last decade.
'We're in competition with every charity and cause that's out there,' said 
Eliot
Russman, chief executive and executive director of Fidelco Guide Dog 
Foundation,
in Bloomfield, Conn. 'American Cancer Society, American Heart Society --
everyone
is out there telling compelling stories. There is a finite pool of money.
'We've got puppies, but Hole in the Wall Gang has dying children,' he said.
'What's
more compelling? Our donors have to have confidence in management.
Mr. Russman came to Fidelco from the advertising world, where his clients
included
McDonald's and Xerox. And that experience has helped him sell potential 
donors
on
Fidelco, known for its German shepherds.
Bob Forrester, president and chief executive of the Newman's Own Foundation,
which
receives its money from the line of foods created by Paul Newman in 1982, 
and
gives
money to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, said the school fit with the
foundation's
mission of empowerment. 'We want to help people to rise to whatever their
potential
might be if that potential is being thwarted by circumstances beyond their
control,'
Mr. Forrester said.
He said that the foundation had given Fidelco $450,000 since 2010 for a 
program
that
pairs guide dogs with blinded combat veterans. 'We think broadly that it 
will be
for nine dogs, but specifically we trust and respect our nonprofits to use 
it
well
and let us know,' Mr. Forrester said.
One of the dogs the foundation's money paid to train is Xxon, a male German
shepherd,
who was paired with Michael Malarsie, an Air Force sergeant, a year to the 
day
after
he was nearly killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in January 2010. He
survived
a severe injury that left him blind, though four others in his unit were 
killed.
In an interview last month before running a half-marathon in Hartford, Mr.
Malarsie,
25, said that when he was recovering at Walter Reed National Military 
Medical
Center
he decided he wanted a guide dog. 'I made a promise to myself that I wasn't
going
to let blindness slow me down,' he said.
He has three children and said Xxon, with a sweet, gentle face not often
associated
with the breed, serves a more basic function: He helps him find his children
when
they hide from him.
Mr. Malarsie's wife, Julie, whose first husband died in the same blast --  
and
who
met Mr. Malarsie when she and other widows of those killed visited 
survivors --
said
Xxon had been just as important for the family as for Mr. Malarsie. 'He's 
not
relying
on me,' she said. 'I know he's safe and taken care of. I know he's not going 
to
wander
off. Xxon helped him find that independence and confidence.
Like many nonprofits, guide dog schools find big corporate donations hard to
attract.
The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind in Smithtown, N.Y., receives
contributions
from local businesses. One is Marchon, an eyewear company based on Long 
Island.
Donna Rollins, vice president of United States sales operations at Marchon, 
said
the company became involved with the foundation when the economy faltered in
2008.
Marchon was having a party for 5,000 people at a trade show in Las Vegas and
decided
that, given the times, it should have a charitable component, she said. 'We 
had
a
band made up of eye doctors that was going to play, and we asked our 
partners to
sponsor the band to benefit the Guide Dog Foundation,' she said. That raised
$25,000.
Instead of having an open bar, the company paid for the first two drinks and
charged
$5 for additional ones, which raised another $5,000.
While the company has continued to promote the foundation at its trade show, 
the
amounts today are lower.
Jean Thomas, director of donor and public relations at The Seeing Eye Inc. 
in
Morristown,
N.J., which says it is the oldest guide dog school in the world (founded in
1929),
said the school had had success in setting up lunches at companies to 
discuss
what
it does -- dogs in tow -- with employees. Still, she said, three-quarters of
Seeing
Eye's support comes from bequests and estate gifts, two areas that could be 
in
trouble
for all nonprofit groups as younger donors seek to give while they are 
alive.
The
Seeing Eye and Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, Calif., each have
endowments
of more than $200 million, but they are exceptions among the dozen guide dog
schools
in the United States. Most rely on individual donors to finance day-to-day
operations.
One way to raise money is to allow people to sponsor a dog, which entitles 
them
to
name it. At the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, this costs $6,000 per 
puppy.
'We have a lot of ways for donors to come to us,' said Katherine Fritz, 
director
of development at the Guide Dog Foundation, citing events like bike races, 
walks
and runs that typically net about $25,000. A recent golf tournament brought 
in
$185,000.
'A majority of our donations come through direct mail and are from smaller
donors,'
she said. 'But we had one woman who gave $25 a year for 25 years and made a
six-figure
donation in her estate, and she didn't inform us about it.
One thing all of these schools share is the need for hundreds of volunteers 
a
year
to answer phones, give tours or just walk dogs. They also need people to 
help
socialize
the dogs in their first year. Called puppy walkers or puppy raisers, these
volunteers
take the puppy home at eight weeks, teach it the basics like obedience and
return
it when it is about 14 months old.
Roger, 70, and Sheila Woodhour, 68, of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., are on their 
29th
German
shepherd. Fourteen of the puppies they have taken for The Seeing Eye have 
become
guide dogs. Yet Mrs. Woodhour still gets choked up over their first one, 
Dorsey.
'When I gave up Dorsey I thought no one was going to love her as much as I 
did,'
she said. But when she later saw Dorsey working, she changed her mind. 'I 
loved
the
dog, but I didn't need the dog,' she said. 'I realized it gives them 
purpose.
She and other puppy walkers said the line they hear over and over from 
people is
some version of, 'I could never do that because I couldn't give the dog 
back.
Gail Horan, who raised Xxon as a puppy at her home in Farmington, Conn., 
said
she
and her husband cried all the way to Fidelco the day he was due back. She
admitted
that in the back of her mind she wondered if he might fail and come back to 
her.
'That does go through your mind,' she said. 'But you have to remember that's 
not
why you did it. I wish there were words that could tell you how it made me 
feel
when
he passed' the training. These schools also need volunteers to talk about 
what
they
do, with the goal of bringing in more volunteers and donations.
Celebrities are part of this. Isabella Rossellini, the Italian actress and
model,
and Betty White, the comedian and sitcom star, both volunteer to help 
schools
for
guide dogs.
Ms. White said she sponsors a dog each year at Guide Dogs for the Blind, and
offers
to have lunch or dinner with the highest bidder in an auction each year for 
The
Seeing
Eye.
'It's a chance for me to say thank you for your support,' she said. 'It 
means
we're
all animal lovers, so we have no problem with conversation.
Those dinners have fetched $5,500 to $20,000 each over the last five years. 
Ms.
Rossellini
has helped socialize 10 puppies for the Guide Dog Foundation. Seven have 
become
working
guide dogs.
She has also helped four dogs as they gave birth in her Long Island home. A
fund-raiser
there last summer after a litter was born raised $6,000. 'I decided 
everything I
do, whether I give money or I volunteer, I have to be hands on,' she said. 
'I
see
the rate of success. I see they're useful.
She added that, initially, 'I was interested in dogs, but it also makes me 
feel
good
that those dogs go to help people who are visually impaired.
Criticism of guide dog charities often is based of the cost of training a 
dog
and
pairing it with a person. The failure rate for these animals is high. Dogs
mainly
wash out for health reasons -- bad eyesight, hip or stomach problems -- and 
for
temperament,
such as being too calm or too high-strung. And they can work for only eight 
to
10
years before they retire to become pets. A blind person could need six or 
seven
dogs
in a lifetime, which is a considerable expense.
'We have something people can see and understand, but it is certainly still 
a
challenging
fund-raising environment,' Ms. Thomas of The Seeing Eye said. 'One of the
challenges
is, what we do has a profound impact on about 265 people a year. If you're 
going
up against a charity that feeds one million people a year, that's a tough
comparison.
Philanthropic advisers point out, though, that while there are ways to 
affect
more
lives with the same dollars, donors might not get the same level of 
satisfaction
out of doing it. 'If where you're giving to doesn't reflect things that 
you're
interested
and passionate about, it won't be very rewarding for you,' said Jim Coutre,
partner
at The Philanthropic Initiative in Boston. 'Donors have to be honest with
themselves.
If providing clean water to a village in Africa doesn't resonate with them
emotionally,
they're not going to throw themselves into it.
He added, though, that people should still be discerning among different
nonprofit
organizations focusing on the same cause. 'There are lots of different
organizations
that train these dogs, but they're not all equal,' he said. 'Some are going 
to
have
more impact.
The guide dog schools are addressing the high failure rate by improving 
breeding
and training to reduce the number of animals that do not succeed and by 
finding
other
uses for them.
Mr. Russman said Fidelco dogs that do not make the cut sometimes work for 
the
police
departments in Connecticut and New York. A Fidelco-trained dog found a 
survivor
at
the World Trade Center site the day after the attack in 2001. A few years 
ago,
Wells
B. Jones, chief executive of the Guide Dog Foundation, said that the group 
saw a
need for service dogs to help soldiers with traumatic injuries. Called 
America's
Vet Dogs, the program has since expanded to help civilians who have served 
the
country.
He said the former representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the 
head
while
meeting with constituents outside a Tucson supermarket in 2011, uses a dog
trained
through the program to help with balance.
'We had dogs that weren't being used in the guide dog program that could
contribute,'
he said. 'We viewed that as an opportunity to meet a need using existing
resources.
Frankly it's turned out to have lots of benefits for us. And it's added to 
what
we
were doing with veterans.
Ed Bordley, a lawyer at the Justice Department in Washington who has been 
blind
since
age 10, said that after one winter navigating Harvard University as a 
freshman,
he
applied for a guide dog in 1976.
'You had these snow banks and people parking their cars on the sidewalks so
there
was just a little room to get around,' he said. 'The dog would find the path 
in
the
snow banks and walk you around the cars.
After graduating from Harvard Law School and embarking on a career that 
required
him to travel, he appreciated the dog more. 'I feel that there is a dignity 
to
having
a dog,' said Mr. Bordley, who is on his fifth dog. 'When you're using a 
cane,
people
grab you and direct you all the time.
The dogs also do things a cane or any GPS device could not do. Cliff Aaron, 
a
lawyer
who works in Lower Manhattan and lost his sight late in life from a 
hereditary
condition,
said his first dog, Alto, kept him from getting hurt the first day they went 
to
work.
'I have to cross Church Street and Broadway every day,' he said. 'I'd been
relying
on my hearing or someone to help me. On my first day with him he stopped. I
couldn't
figure it out. Then I felt this wind go right past my face. I knew right 
away it
was a bike messenger who blew the light.
Last month, after four weeks at The Seeing Eye, Ms. Murray was getting ready 
to
go
home with her dog, Fuchsia. 'They've changed my life in ways they only think
they
know, but they don't know,' she said, with Fuchsia curled up by her chair.
Yet she admitted to some trepidation in leaving the school and returning 
home to
what will be a very different life with her dog. She did not know how her 
life
would
be changed.
'When I lost my sight, I kind of just sheltered in a bit,' she said. 'The 
first
time
I walked down the street with Fuchsia and I felt the wind on my face, I was
smiling
like a little kid.
Tears of joy ran down from her closed eyes.. PHOTOS: LEARNING THE ROPES: 
Igloo
is
being trained at the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation in Bloomfield, Conn., to 
give
a
blind person more independence. (F1); ONE ON ONE: A puppy gets personal
attention
at Fidelco.; NEW BEST FRIEND: Sue McCahill of The Seeing Eye helped Jennifer
Murray
adjust to a guide dog. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANDREW SULLIVAN FOR THE NEW YORK 
TIMES)
(F2).