[Nyagdu] Fw: [the-dog-park] Article: MIRA FOUNDATION

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lucy Cox" <septembergirl95 at gmail.com>
To: <the-dog-park at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 06, 2011 12:15 AM
Subject: [the-dog-park] Article: MIRA FOUNDATION


>
> MIRA FOUNDATION
>
> MiRA Foundation USA is a national nonprofit based in Aberdeen, NC. It is
> unique in that it is the only organization in the United States
> dedicated to providing guide dogs to blind children and youth between
> the ages of 11-17, and they
> do so at no charge to the recipient.
>
> MIRA was founded in 2009 by Robert and Elaine Baillie after Bob became
> totally blind following complications from coronary bypass surgery.
> Although he initially felt great despair at the sudden turn of events in
> his life, close friends convinced Bob to travel
> to MIRA Canada where he was paired with his magnificent Bernese Mountain
> guide dog, Devon. Both Bob and Elaine quickly realized that Devon was
> the key to Bob's adaptation to life with his new challenges, and they
> decided that they wanted to provide
> this opportunity to the underserved population of blind children and 
> youth.
>
> Today, two years after its inception, MIRA USA is a young but vital
> organization that can be very proud of the work they have accomplished.
> In 2010, in only the first full year of operation, MIRA paired two dogs
> with students: one an eleven year old girl from
> the San Diego, CA area, and the other a young man from Durham, NC who is
> now a student at Stanford University. The girl became the youngest
> person in the US to ever have received a guide dog, and just over a year
> later she and her dog are thriving.
> She is an honors student, speaks three languages, plays three musical
> instruments, and has won gold medals in mathematics and braille
> competitions. Even better, she is remarkably well adjusted and confident
> with her dog. In fact, both students are
> thriving.
>
> Although MIRA USA is a separate legal entity from MIRA CA, we work
> together in very close partnership, since our dogs and our students are
> trained on the MIRA CA campus, and we benefit from the thirty year
> history MIRA CA has with training guide and
> service dogs, including twenty of those years as the only organization
> in the world dedicated to training guide dogs for children. In the last
> twenty years they have paired approximately 200 students with dogs and
> have never had a rejection. This is a tribute
> to MIRA CA's careful breeding, selection and training of dogs, as well
> as their meticulous assessment and training of student candidates.
> MIRA's global reputation is undisputed and well earned.
>
> The staff at MIRA USA is not only responsible for searching out
> potential MIRA guide dog recipients, but also ensuring that all
> paperwork is completed and assembled on time, scheduling and overseeing
> assessments and follow up visits, and of course,
> raising the necessary funds to make the pairings possible. Our signature
> fundraising event, Dining in the Dark, is a semi-formal dinner that is
> held in a country club environment where the diners don blindfolds from
> the time they sit down to the main course
> until dessert is served. MIRA has held this event two successive years
> in the Sandhills, and once in Raleigh, with events scheduled for the
> Spring of 2012 in the Sandhills, Raleigh, and Charlotte. Dining in the
> Dark is not only a revealing event, it has also
> proven to be fun as people gain awareness about the challenges of
> chasing cherry tomatoes around a salad plate or simply getting food to
> their mouths without dropping it everywhere when they cannot see what
> they are doing.
>
> In July of 2011, MIRA USA sent six students to Canada for training in
> preparation for receiving a guide dog. Two of the students were from the
> Sandhills area of NC, two from Raleigh, one from Fayetteville, and one
> from Aiken, SC. All six students passed the
> month long session with flying colors, working eight hours per day, six
> days per week to master the necessary skills to navigate safely and
> confidently with their canine partners. Since their return home, the
> students have had one follow up training session at
> their home base with a MIRA trainer and will soon undergo a second
> session. As safety is the paramount concern for both student and dog,
> MIRA does not cut any corners in assuring that every pair develops a
> strong working partnership. To this end, MIRA
> will conduct as many follow up sessions as necessary; however, this
> rarely exceeds three.
>
> The staff at MIRA USA is not only responsible for searching out
> potential MIRA guide dog recipients, but also ensuring that all
> paperwork is completed and assembled on time, scheduling and overseeing
> assessments and follow up visits, and of course,
> raising the necessary funds to make the pairings possible. Our signature
> fundraising event, Dining in the Dark, is a semi-formal dinner that is
> held in a country club environment where the diners don blindfolds from
> the time they sit down to the main course
> until dessert is served. MIRA has held this event two successive years
> in the Sandhills, and once in Raleigh, with events scheduled for the
> Spring of 2012 in the Sandhills, Raleigh, and Charlotte. Dining in the
> Dark is not only a revealing event, it has also
> proven to be fun as people gain awareness about the challenges of
> chasing cherry tomatoes around a salad plate or simply getting food to
> their mouths without dropping it everywhere when they cannot see what
> they are doing. Future plans for MIRA USA
> include the establishment of a training center in Moore County which
> will serve as a facility for training guide dogs and the students being
> paired with them, as well as a center for all blind and severely
> visually impaired to access resources such as an audio
> library, appropriate job training, social activities, and whatever other
> needs are identified. Obviously, the establishment of such a center will
> be dictated once again by funding, either through a generous individual
> or corporation, or some other committed
> entity. MIRA believes, however, from our own research and the feedback
> from professionals in the field of blind assistance that this facility
> represents a very real need in the area.
>
> Finally, MIRA will continue to educate the general population about the
> challenges faced by the blind and the ways in which a guide dog assists
> in mitigating those challenges. Over the last two years, Bob and Devon
> have addressed over two thousand
> Moore County fourth graders in partnership with the Moore County Pet
> responsibility group. While Pet Responsibility teaches children to
> advocate for their pets, MIRA teaches them about the ways in which a
> guide dog advocates for its owner. They have
> also spoken to dozens of civic, church, and general groups seeking to
> learn more about the blind and guide dogs. It is a never ending
> challenge, but one that Bob, and MIRA , takes very seriously.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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