[Nfbmo] Cardinals win Series~

[DanFlasar at aol.com]

Hi all,
    If you haven't heard by now, the Cards won their 11th  World Series 
tonight - decisively.   
I guess.   St. Louis is giong to be a little crazy for  awhile.
Dan
 
 
In a message dated 10/28/2011 4:18:49 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
goodfolks at charter.net writes:

By Lisa A.  Flam 

TODAY.com contributor 

updated 10/27/2011 10:33:33 AM ET  2011-10-27T14:33:33 

Sami Stoner is running proof that adversity  doesn’t have to keep you from 
the finish line. 

A legally blind  16-year-old runner, Sami is traversing cross-country 
courses this season with  her new guide dog, Chloe, and is believed to be the 
first high school athlete  in her home state of Ohio to compete with an animal. 

“I don’t run for  time or place or anything, I just run because I love it, 
and I’m glad I can  share my love of running with Chloe now,” says Sami, a 
junior at Lexington  High School who’s on the junior varsity cross country 
team. “I love having  Chloe. She’s helped me so much.” 

Now in her fourth year running cross  country, Sami won a waiver from the 
state high school athletic association  that allows her to compete with a 
dog. The golden retriever puppy, who guides  Sami through the crowded hallways 
at school, also takes her safely through the  running trails of Ohio. 

“She watches out for roots and she tries to  pick the clearest path for me,”
 Sami says cheerfully. “The ways she moves, I  can feel it in her harness, 
so she has little ways to signal which way to go  and what to do.” 

At the starting line, Sami and Chloe stay back 20 to  30 seconds so Chloe 
doesn’t get spiked by another runner, but they’re usually  passing other 
competitors by the first mile on the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile)  course. Sami is 
ineligible to score, and she must avoid finish-line chutes if  they’re deemed 
too narrow, said Dale Gabor, the director of cross country and  track and 
field for the Ohio High School Athletic Association. 

“She  gives a lot of hope to other kids,” said Gabor, who approved Sami's 
waiver and  believes she's the first scholastic athlete in Ohio to compete 
with an animal.  

Running with just some peripheral vision is scary, Sami says. But  Chloe is 
highly focused, which has helped Sami feel secure enough to improve  her 
personal record to 29:53. 

“There is still a little element of  being terrified you’re going to fall 
flat on your face,” Sami says. “She’s  given me a lot more confidence in my 
running.” 

Her dad, too, is wary  when Sami, the youngest of his three girls, starts a 
race.

Blind teen  baseball player excels on team  

“It’s an amazing, scary thing to  see her take off and all you can do it 
pray that everybody comes back safely.  This is my baby,” says Keith Stoner. “
She’s not necessarily up there  collecting a medal at end of the race, but 
in our heart she does win them  all.” 

Sami began running cross-country in eighth grade, and by the end  of that 
school year, her vision deteriorated and she became legally blind. She  was 
found to have the untreatable Stargardt disease, which is similar to  
sight-robbing macular degeneration that affects older adults. 

In high  school, she worried she wouldn’t be able to compete, but teamed up 
with a  friend, Hannah Ticoras, who ran alongside her as a guide. 

“All I  wanted to do was run, and running with Hannah gave me that 
opportunity,” says  Sami.

Blind marching band sees beyond disability  

But  Hannah graduated at the end of Sami’s sophomore year, again putting 
Sami’s  competitive future in limbo. Her mobility teacher thought she’d be a 
good  candidate for a guide dog, and after a month of training over the 
summer, the  Stoner family welcomed Chloe home in August. 

Sami is grateful she’s  still a part of the team she loves so dearly. 

“I just hope people  learn that just because you have a disability or some 
kind of disadvantage  that it’s not the end of the world,” says Sami, who 
has a 4.0 grade point  average this year. “You can still do stuff, you just 
have to find a way of  doing it.” 

Lisa A. Flam is a news and lifestyles reporter based in New  York.



http://www.dealingwithvisionloss.com  For some of us  it's a way of life 
and for some of us it just makes life easier. Fred  Olver
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