[Tall-Corn] Coffee, Guide Dogs, and Donuts

[Cindy Ray]

Good afternoon!
On this lovely October afternoon, I would like to take a little time to tell you about Coffee, Guide Dogs, and Donuts. We met this morning at 9:00 a.m. Becky Young, Scott Van Gorp, and I were present from Iowa. Besides Stacie Gallegos, secretary of NAGDU, and a brief apearance by NAGDU’s president, Raul Gallegos, we had guests from the Boston area and from New Hampshire. 
We discussed some of the problems people have faced here, and we discussed some ways they have been dealt with. Becky talked about educating a driver concerning his fear of dogs, and Stacie talked about having had the same experience. Although this might not always work, we might want to consider trying it should we nbe able to get into the car in the first place.
We discussed the problem of business owners’ fears of evicting a dog from the premises whether a guide or some other dog. We need to educate business owners, so to do that we will consider having an open house of some kind to talk with them about our rights and theirs.
Often law enforcement (first responders) do not know what the rules are regarding service animals. We determined that we should get some brochures from the Independence Market and offer them to folks whom we are trying to educate. Scott will be visiting with someone from law  enforcement who he knows from church to see how we can implement this. Stacie said to visit with them and bring food is appreciated.
We deermined that perhaps we will want to set a meeting time but maybe not monthly. We decided January after the holidays would be a good time, so Stacie will get back to us about possible dates.
I felt hopeful about the meeting, and look forward to our moving forward in our endeavors to make life for our guide dog teams more enjoyable. If you all want to help, please contact me at cindayray at gmail.com and we will keep in touch.


Cindy Lou
Sent from my iPad