[Nfbf-l] Fw: [nagdu] Fw: David Bearden, no ordinary dad
Sherri
flmom2006 at gmail.com
Sun Mar 7 04:40:44 UTC 2010
This may be a repeat, but I don't remember seeing it on the NFBF list, so I
am sending it. I am so proud of David Bearden. I have a struggle being a
parent of a 12-year-old boy, my own biological child. I truly admire David's
courage and ability to care for children who have been through so much in
their short lives and to do it with so much love and nurturing. Way to go
David! Your NFBF family is proud of you!
Sherri
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marion & Martin" <swampfox1833 at verizon.net>
To: "NAGDU List" <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 3:56 AM
Subject: [nagdu] Fw: David Bearden, no ordinary dad
Dear All,
I want to share this story about David Bearden. David is a member of the
National Association of Guide Dog Users and serves on the Board of Directors
of the Florida division!
Fraternally yours,
> No ordinary dad, he cares for foster kids while legally blind - St.
> Petersburg TimesLogin|Register
> By Dan DeWitt, Times Columnist
> In Print: Wednesday, March 3, 2010
>
>
> David Bearden is led by his guide dog, Upton, across
> State
> Road 50 east of Brooksville. Bearden, his son and two
> foster
> kids make the daily walk.
> [MAURICE RIVENBARK | Times]
> Guide dog Upton and David Bearden, 52, who is legally
> blind,
> are featured in a book that looks at Bearden's remarkable
> life
> as a foster parent.
> A 9-year-old boy ran into his house after school Monday
> afternoon,
> hugged a man he called "Dad'' and broke the news that he needed
> permission to go on a field trip Friday.
> "How much is that going to cost me?'' asked the father, David
> Bearden.
> "Nothing,'' the boy said. "We're just going to the park. And
> we're
> walking.''
> The familiarity and affection between the adult and the child
> seemed
> ordinary, at least for a happy family. So did the knee-jerk
> worry
> about money, and the child's excitement about getting out of
> class
> for a few hours, even if it was just to the county park a few
> blocks
> from his school, Eastside Elementary, and his house in Hill 'n
> Dale.
> Here's what is not ordinary: Bearden, 52, is the boy's foster
> father, not his legal one. The boy is one of three children who
> live
> with Bearden now and is one of dozens who have passed through
> Bearden's house over the past five years, some of them just for
> a
> few days.
> And Bearden, whose German shepherd guide dog, Upton, lay
> quietly
> by
> his feet when the boy walked in, has been legally blind for 21
> years.
> Mostly because of his work as a foster parent, Bearden is one
> of
> several vision-impaired subjects in a new book, Trust the Dog,
> about
> the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation. That is the 50-year-old
> nonprofit
> organization that trained Upton and provided him to Bearden two
> years ago.
> Funny how it sometimes takes an outsider to help us fully
> appreciate
> our neighbors.
> This newspaper has written a lot about Bearden's public work -
> fighting for his rights as a blind individual and as former
> president of the National Federation of the Blind for Hernando
> and
> east Pasco counties.
> In years past, he insisted that criminal charges be filed
> against a
> neighbor whose dog attacked Bearden's previous guide dog,
> Isaac,
> and
> against a Brooksville businessman who tried to bar Isaac from
> his
> convenience store.
> Bearden has petitioned - without much success, he said - for
> better
> transportation for blind and disabled Hernando residents. He
> has
> even lobbied in Tallahassee for the rights of blind Floridians.
> But we haven't written much about Bearden's personal life, the
> main
> focus of the chapter about him in Trust the Dog.
> Bearden, a former hospital worker, contracted an infection in
> his
> eyes when he was emptying a bag of medical waste in 1989, he
> said.
> It left him completely blind in one eye and with only 26
> percent
> of
> his vision in the other.
> His wife departed not long afterward. With the occasional help
> of
> his mother, Margarita Romo, executive director of the nonprofit
> Farmworkers Self-Help Inc. in Dade City, he reared three
> daughters
> mostly by himself.
> "I never saw those three girls when they weren't all spiffy, in
> cute
> little hats and cute little dresses,'' Romo said. "I never saw
> them
> dirty or when they looked like they were starving.''
> So, by the time Bearden's oldest daughter, Cristyn, had reached
> her
> teens, he had the experience to take in other children.
> And he had the opportunity. Cristyn had a friend whose parents
> periodically abandoned him at a Brooksville runaway shelter.
> And he really wanted work, even nonpaying work.
> "I can't stand to sit around all day doing nothing,'' Bearden
> said.
> "It's like being in prison when you don't have
> transportation.''
> Since 2004, when he received a state license, he has taken in
> children whose mothers abused crack or alcohol during their
> pregnancies. He has taken in children who had been beaten by
> their
> parents or ridiculed for being openly gay. His adopted son,
> Malcolm,
> 15, was blinded in one eye after being shot with a slingshot as
> a
> toddler.
> "The kids Mr. Bearden works with are some of our most
> challenging
> kids,'' said Nicole Clevinger, a supervisor with Kids Central,
> which
> monitors foster care in Hernando and other nearby counties. "He
> provides structure for those kids. He doesn't give up on them.
> .
> And
> the kids who are placed with him really become his family.''
> How does a blind person keep order in a house full of children,
> some
> of them teenagers with serious behavior problems?
> First, with the exception of one temporary placement, he
> accepts
> only boys. "I can't watch kids whose hormones are flying,'' he
> said.
> Then he makes sure that there are things to do: the park, a
> vegetable garden in the back yard, art supplies so the children
> can
> draw. Malcolm, for example, has notebooks full of skillful
> drawings
> in the Japanese animé style.
> Bearden can hear when children are watching banned television
> programs in their rooms. With the help of a scanner that lights
> and
> magnifies the screen of a laptop, he can check the history of
> Web
> sites visited and block the inappropriate ones.
> Finally, there's Upton.
> "He lets me know if someone leaves the house when they aren't
> supposed to,'' Bearden said. "And if I can't find a child, and
> he's
> been around them long enough, he can find them for me.
> Sometimes
> he's found kids as far away as the park.''
> Upton also has a central role in the family's daily ritual -
> the
> walk to the Hess convenience store at the corner of State Road
> 50
> and Spring Lake Highway. Sometimes it's just for a soda. On
> Monday,
> they planned to eat dinner at the Godfather's Pizza there.
> Bearden is thankful he has a peaceful group of kids now -
> Malcolm
> and two boys, ages 9 and 14, whose names Kids Central asked
> that
> we
> not print. They are good students and all get along.
> Bearden and the youngest boy walk together. The two teenagers
> hang
> back, talking about what their classmates said in school that
> day.
> With the guide dog leading the way, flawlessly following
> commands
> and keeping a course along the side of the pavement, they don't
> look
> ordinary. But they do look like a family.
>
>
> [Last modified: Mar 02, 2010 08:24 PM]
>
>
>
>
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