[nfbmi-talk] {Disarmed} Fw: FYI, Saturday's Kalamazoo Gazette article about MCB Training Center students and "great race" training exercise

Tue May 24 16:41:04 UTC 2011

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Turney, Susan (DELEG) 
To: MCB2020-L at LISTSERV.MICHIGAN.GOV 
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2011 1:23 PM
Subject: FYI, Saturday's Kalamazoo Gazette article about MCB Training Center students and "great race" training exercise

The text of the article and photos are pasted below, and the complete article is online at this link:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/05/a_great_race_blind_students_de.html

Susan Turney

Communications & Outreach Coordinator, Michigan Commission for the Blind

Michigan Department Licensing and Regulatory Affairs 

direct line:  517-241-8631; fax:  517-335-5140

MCB toll-free: 1-800-292-4200

201 N. Washington Square, Second Floor, 

P.O. Box 30652; Lansing, MI 48909

www.michigan.gov/mcb

Scavenger hunt helps students learn at Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center in Kalamazoo
Published: Saturday, May 21, 2011, 7:00 AM     Updated: Saturday, May 21, 2011, 4:49 PM
By Gabrielle Russon | Kalamazoo Gazette The Kalamazoo Gazette 

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Photo: Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette

Scott Lacey of Holland, left, and Mike Babula, of Gaylord, participate in "the great race" as they cross Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo. The two are competing against two other students training at the Michigan Commission of the Blind, to be first at reaching four specific locations. 

KALAMAZOO -The four men were friends, but still competitors nonetheless, as they nudged each other out of the way down the street.

Scott Lacey and his three classmates raced around the city for several hours in a wide-ranging scavenger hunt - riding a bus, shopping at Meijer, finding strange addresses in downtown Kalamazoo - through their training this week at the Michigan Commission for the Blind Training Center. 

"It was a little bit of a roller derby," said Pam Crooks, an instructor at the center. "It was definitely guy stuff. . They were having fun."

The Oakland Drive training center teaches about 400 blind people annually from across the state how to use a voice-activated computer, read Braille and navigate the community once they've lost their sight.

"It's a training program where they learn how to do what they've done in the past - just differently," said Crooks, an orientation and mobility teacher.

Instructors started the "Great Race" last year but did a test run this week with Lacey and his friends, so they can develop it further with more students later this year. 

When one team of two made it to one location, they called their teachers by cell phone and got clues to go to the next location. The men, who have varying levels of vision loss, wore blindfolds to keep the game fair.

It was part of the training center's mission to teach them how to be mobile - yet move fast.

"It was competition all the way through. It was on," said Crooks about the four men who developed a friendly rivalry earlier on at the training center. 

Photo:  Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette 

Mike Babula of Gaylord, left, laughs at Scott Lacey, of Holland, as Lacey ends up on the wrong side of the fence along Michigan Avenue as they participate in a race with other blind students.

Lacey, 28, lives in Holland while the other men were from the Detroit-area and Gaylord.

For Lacey, being blindfolded taught him to rely on his senses to figure out where he was. 

Listen what direction the cars go. Listen for church bells, for the sound of an echo as you tap your cane under an awning.

"You just pick up on things you normally wouldn't pick up when you have your sight because you wouldn't need to pick up on them," Lacey said. "You wouldn't focus on them."

Lacey lost his vision in his right eye and has blind spots in his left eye, which happened in within the past 13 months. 

On Friday, he will leave Kalamazoo to go study psychology at Grand Valley State University after his three-month-stay at the training center, which he credited helping transition back to school.

"By the time we got to our race (Wednesday) it was trust what you've learned and you'll be all right," Lacey said.

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