[nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

Sun May 16 03:24:24 UTC 2010

Hi Sheryl,

I agree with you with that one. However there are always the fraction of the 
percentage of people who somehow manages to get out even when they haven't 
used a cane for a long time. I'm sure that if that's the case those people 
may not be coping very well, I don't know how I'll cope when my dog retires.

For me, the cane was good but not as good as a dog. I couldn't cross roads 
in a straight line, and I needed a lot more help with the white cane, not 
pushing opinions onto those who feel differently of course! (smile).

Sorry about the other day, it just makes me upset sometimes when I read the 
discussions and feelings and ideas get shoved around instead of being 
discussed over.

Keep well,

Michelle
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cheryl echevarria" <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 9:56 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free

> Michelle:  Totally understand, some of us walk faster with a dog and feel 
> more independent, but at the same time, what happens with those people 
> that when there dog retires or gets sick, they can't leave the house or 
> have to wait for someone.  I use my cane and always keep up my skills, I 
> don't always take the dog so that I can keep up my skills.
>
>
> Cheryl Echevarria
> Independent Travel Consultant
> C10-10646
>
> http://Echevarriatravel.com
> 1-866-580-5574
>
> http://blog.echevarriatravel.com
> Reservations at echevarriatravel.com
> Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Montrose Travel 
> CST-1018299-10
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Michelle" <m-johnson at bigpond.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 7:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>
>
>> Sorry, but although I agree with some of the stuff you said, there are 
>> other
>> bits I disagree with. Without trying to be rude of offensive, sure most
>> blind people aren't pitiful, but some are. And excuse me, but I'm one of 
>> the
>> blind people, the few I might add, that despite being instructed by a
>> professional instructor, getting around wasn't as good a deal as when I 
>> got
>> my guide dog. I had trouble with my white cane, it didn't stop me from
>> bumping me into stuff most of the time, because as a total, how can I 
>> know
>> when to suddenly put my hands up to protect myself all of a sudden? My 
>> dog
>> prevents that and rarely lets me bump into things. Being blind isn't so 
>> easy
>> for some, and I don't like how some people on here have decided that just
>> because they get angry with the stuff in the article and the like, they 
>> can
>> say that blind people aren't so pitiful. As a whole they're probably not,
>> but please don't forget the ones who are having trouble, despite all the
>> help! (Stern but not intentionally rude and judgmental).
>>
>> Michelle
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Marion Gwizdala" <blind411 at verizon.net>
>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 1:44 AM
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>>
>>
>> >    I'm sorry, but this whole perception of the pitiful blind person 
>> > whose
>> > life would be depressing and worthless without a guide dog only serves 
>> > to
>> > reinforce the assertion that such organizations as Mira Foundation are
>> > less
>> > interested in disseminating accurate information about blindness and 
>> > more
>> > concerned with saying whatever they need to say in order to gain 
>> > support
>> > for
>> > their cause! I have never counted steps in my 30 years as a blind 
>> > person
>> > and
>> > can't even tell you if I know a blind person who does! And why did this
>> > guy
>> > run into light poles? Perhaps because he had absolutely no O&M 
>> > instruction
>> > before getting a guide dog!
>> >    Such drivvle only serves to marginalize those blind people who do 
>> > not
>> > use a guide dog, which happens to be the vast majority of the blind!
>> > Furthermore, the schools that do not give guide dogs to young people do 
>> > so
>> > with very sound reasoning. However, one thing better than a poor 
>> > pitiful
>> > blind man is a "poor pitiful blind child" to get donors to dig deeply 
>> > into
>> > their pockets! Ugh! JMHO!
>> >
>> > Fraternally yours,
>> > Marion Gwizdala
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message ----- 
>> > From: "Ginger Kutsch" <gingerKutsch at yahoo.com>
>> > To: "'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'"
>> > <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>> > Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:22 AM
>> > Subject: [nagdu] Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>> >
>> >
>> >> Man's dogs will set blind kids free
>> >> Published Thu, May 13, 2010 05:02 AM
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> SOUTHERN PINES -- As a blind man, Bob Baillie walks down busy
>> >> Broad Street often enough to know it is 75 steps from the corner
>> >> of Pennsylvania Avenue to the first dip in the sidewalk. When he
>> >> hits the first crack, it's 60 steps to the corner.
>> >>
>> >> This intimacy with the concrete would be impossible without
>> >> Devon, a 110-pound Bernese mountain dog who works for cookies and
>> >> ear scratches. Before Devon, Baillie would knock into light
>> >> poles, wander into traffic and curse the surgical accident that
>> >> left him in the dark three years ago.
>> >>
>> >> Freed and inspired by his wet-nosed companion, Baillie, a
>> >> Southern Pines businessman, decided to connect blind people
>> >> nationwide with their own guide dogs, focusing on children as
>> >> young as 11. In a little more than a year, his Aberdeen-based
>> >> Mira Foundation USA has arranged trained animals for an
>> >> 11-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy, and five North Carolina
>> >> teenagers wait in the pipeline.
>> >>
>> >> "I thought it was a wonderful idea," said Cricket Bidleman, the
>> >> 11-year old, in San Diego. "I'll be a lot safer at school, and
>> >> I'll have a friend to talk to at home."
>> >>
>> >> Baillie's work is expensive and uncommon. Guide dogs cost roughly
>> >> $60,000 once training is complete, putting their help beyond the
>> >> reach of many families. Also, guide dog groups often require that
>> >> blind children be 16 or at least in high school before getting
>> >> dogs, making rare exceptions.
>> >>
>> >> For Baillie, it's a chance to lift depression out of his own life
>> >> and fill a gap for potentially hundreds more. He hopes his
>> >> foundation will grow into a charity that places 30 dogs a year,
>> >> one wagging tail at a time.
>> >>
>> >> "Very few of us get the opportunity to really do something for
>> >> human beings," said Baillie, 66. "Just the fact that you can get
>> >> up in the morning, grab your dog and go for a walk by yourself."
>> >>
>> >> In North Carolina, more than 200,000 people report visual loss, a
>> >> definition that runs from total blindness to serious difficulty
>> >> seeing even while wearing glasses, according to a 2008 report
>> >> from the American Foundation for the Blind.
>> >>
>> >> Of that group, more than 11,000 are ages 5 to 17.
>> >>
>> >> Blind children aren't typically thought to be mature enough to
>> >> handle a guide dog before they're 16, though exceptions have been
>> >> made for 14-year-olds, said William Krol, spokesman for the New
>> >> York-based Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind.
>> >>
>> >> "When you're a guide dog handler, you have a commitment not only
>> >> to yourself, but also to your dog," he said.
>> >>
>> >> Sally Bidleman, Cricket's mom, argued that guide dogs should be
>> >> provided according to need and ability rather than age. She tried
>> >> every agency in the country, she said, before finding Mira.
>> >> Cricket navigates the halls of her school, including the stairs,
>> >> on her own each day. When her dog arrives this summer, the school
>> >> will hold an assembly to orient Cricket's classmates on how to
>> >> approach her companion.
>> >>
>> >> "It's like somebody getting eyes, almost," she said. "It's like
>> >> getting another sense."
>> >>
>> >> 'You'd rather be dead'
>> >>
>> >> Baillie's blindness struck three years ago during what was
>> >> supposed to be a simple bypass surgery. The incision cut an
>> >> artery, he said, and he lost blood to his eyes while he bled. He
>> >> knew the surgery might be fatal but never received any warning
>> >> about blindness. To date, Baillie has received no compensation
>> >> and believes he will have to fight to get any.
>> >>
>> >> "Taking a choice between croaking and being blind," Baillie said,
>> >> "for the first couple of days, you'd rather be dead. Try crossing
>> >> the street with your eyes closed."
>> >>
>> >> Before the surgery, Baillie worked in both dentistry and real
>> >> estate. For the first year, he struggled with a cane, forcing
>> >> himself to listen to traffic - a requirement, he said, for
>> >> getting a dog.
>> >>
>> >> "He would just plow into things and he never slowed down," said
>> >> Kathy Szyja, his director of operations at Mira. "He needed this
>> >> dog to keep him safe."
>> >>
>> >> Devon came from the Mira Foundation in Quebec, and while Baillie
>> >> was there, learning to walk with him, he learned that children in
>> >> America rarely get dogs. When he asked about it, he said, he
>> >> heard an it's-always-been-that-way explanation. So borrowing the
>> >> Canadian name for his own group, he started Mira USA.
>> >>
>> >> 'Dinner in the Dark'
>> >>
>> >> It operates as a nonprofit out of an office in Aberdeen with
>> >> minimal staff. Fundraiser meals and runs boosted its treasury.
>> >> Now, to raise money, Mira hosts dinners (there's one on Friday)
>> >> where the guests eat blindfolded. The dogs all come from Mira in
>> >> Canada and a lot of the expense comes from flying eligible
>> >> children to Canada, and the trainers to their homes. As Mira
>> >> grows in Moore County, Baillie hopes to train dogs there.
>> >>
>> >> For now, he and Devon rise each morning and make the three-mile
>> >> trek from his horse-country house to downtown Southern Pines. For
>> >> the first mile, there are no sidewalks. Before they reach a
>> >> sidewalk, Baillie and Devon cross four streets.
>> >>
>> >> But on Broad Street, everyone knows them.
>> >>
>> >> "When you see a person walking up and down the street with a
>> >> cane," Baillie said, "you're not likely to say hello. But when
>> >> you walk up and down the street with a dog, let me tell you, it
>> >> makes a huge difference. People driving by will roll down their
>> >> window and yell, 'Hey, Devon!' Never mind Bob."
>> >>
>> >> Staff researcher David Raynor contributed to this report.
>> >>
>> >> josh.shaffer at newsobserver.com or 919-829-4818
>> >> Source:
>> >> http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/05/13/v-print/479987/mans-dogs-s
>> >> et-blind-kids-free.html
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Ginger Bennett Kutsch
>> >> Morristown, NJ
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
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>> >
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