The Guideway1
Vol. 69 No. 2 • August 2015
The Guideway
A publication of the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind
Volume 69 No. 2 • August 2015
Stories are separated by four ampersands to help you to jump from article to article.
In this issue:
Graduate Profile: Bobbie Davis
A Message from our CEO
New Board Members
Millennium of Service
Dog Treats Photo Section
Sarah Chung: Making Memories
Welcome Our New Teams
Email Sign-up
ADA Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary
The box on the cover page of “The Guideway” reads:
Stroll & Roll
Presented by Marchon
Sunday, September 27, 2015
To benefit the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind, Inc.
Rain or Shine
Leaving from The Rinx
Hidden Pond Park
Hauppauge, NY
Register at Stroll.GuideDog.org
Hosted by Suffolk Bicycle Riders Association
Graduate Profile: Bobbie Davis
“I Will always have a Guide Dog”
For Bobbie Davis, getting her first guide dog in college was a family affair.When she was 17 years old, her father wrote a paper on communication styles,drawing on his own experience in communicating with his daughter – Bobbie –who lost her vision at age 11, when a brain tumor caused her optic nerve torupture. Part of his research entailed investigating guide dog schools. He told her,she recalls, that the Guide Dog Foundation “was the best school.”
When she began comparing schools on her own, “what I liked about the GuideDog Foundation was the way they trained the dogs,” in particular, leash guiding.
The Foundation teaches leash guiding as an alternate way for handlers toget around. The dog can carry out its responsibilities as a guide without the harness,working only in collar and leash. This is the preferred method for indoormobility where the dog is being worked for only a short time, and the harness isnot really required – for example, in an office situation or student dormitory. Inall other instances, the dog works in harness.
Davis was a cane user until her sophomore year of college at Austin PeayUniversity in Tennessee. She remembers it was challenging to cross campusstreets or get to the student center. Plus, “Other students didn’t really notice thecane. I may have known where I was going, but [they] didn’t get out of the way.I decided to get a guide dog to get the independence I needed.”
It was a carefully measured decision. She had not wanted a dog in high school,because “I had too much going on from my senior year in high school throughmy freshman year in college.” But now that she was going to be a sophomore,she believed the time was right.
Not the “blind person in the room”
Davis trained with her first dog in June 1995 duringsummer break; the two were partners for nine years.With her increased independence, Davis says, she alsogained confidence.The dog madeher feel “normal.”
With her guidedog by her side,“I wasn’t treatedlike the blind personin the room,who needed helpand needed to becoddled.” Instead,the dog gave herthe strength tosay, “I can handlethis. I don’t needthe help, but I canask for [it] if it’ssomething I need.”
After receivingher bachelor’sdegree in socialwork, Davis continuedher education and went on to get her master’s,also in social work; now, she’s working on herdoctoral dissertation.
Military influences
The military has been a major presence in Davis’s life.Her father served for 20 years in the Air Force beforeretiring as a master sergeant, and her sister is also inthe Air Force. Davis’s husband, whom she married in2011, was in the Army. He retired in 2015 as a first sergeant,having served nine deployments, including twoin Iraq and two in Afghanistan.
Until recently, Davis worked at Fort Campbell,Kentucky, as a therapist in the family advocacy program.In April 2015, she became the director of clinical servicesat a hospital in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where sheoversees all psychiatric programs.
She began her Ph.D. work in 2009, but admits it’sa little hard to explain how she arrived at her doctoraltopic. “I’ve always been interested in understandingadjustments to disabilities,” she says (including herown), but after she began working as a therapist withthe military in 2008, she noticed that many combatsoldiers who had returned from deployments oftenreferred to themselves as “broken” as they triedto adjust to life back home. Her dissertation is onunderstanding their definition of “broken.”
Davis is attending the Institute for Clinical SocialWork, based in Chicago, which offers distance learning.In addition to real-time meeting via webcams andonline conferencing, students are required to come tothe Chicago campus twice a semester; she and hersecond guide dog, Lucky, made the trip for several years.
Guide dogs
Davis was paired with her third guide dog in 2014,almost 20 years after she was matched with her firstguide dog; she has been blessed with dogs that haveworked for almost 10 years each.
The Guide Dog Foundation has always been attentiveto its consumers’ needs. Although the standard formany years was the four-week class, the Foundationalso offered “combo” training – where a student wouldwork on campus for two weeks and then finish uptraining with a trainer for a week in their home community.In 2014, the Foundation shifted to a two-weekguide dog class.
Davis has experienced all three iterations of classtraining. She liked the two-week class better than the25-day one, because, she says, “It wasn’t ‘hurry upand wait,’ it was ‘hurry up and go.’” The two-weekclass is more standardized and structured and offereda more individualized training experience. She felt it“flowed better” than combo training, which alwaysfelt “crammed” to her.
“The Guide Dog Foundation is very good at matchingyou with a dog that does exactly what you need,”she says. “It might take a little bit of time [to get tothat point], because you have to bond with the dog, butI couldn’t ask for more.”
Photos:
(1) Bobbie is sitting cross-legged on the sidewalk in the relief area, hands on either side of her dog’s head as he leans in to touch her chin. Photo by Rebecca Eden
(2) Bobbie is walking down the street, guide dog by her side. Her guide dog instructor is several steps behind her. Bobbie is wearing a pink t-shirt and aqua shorts. The caption reads: Bobbie working in St. James, New York, her instructor close behind. Photo by Rebecca Eden
A Message from our CEO
You may have noticed this issueof The Guideway has an updateddesign. The revamped newsletterrepresents a continuation of therebranding process we beganthree years ago.
In 2012, the New York Citymarketing consulting firmSiegel+Gale generously offered to evaluate our messageand our “branding” (logos) at no cost to us. The processprovided us with insight in how to refine the “story”we tell and how to tell it better. We started incorporatingsome of the language they suggested when we sharedour graduates’ triumphs.
Last year, we pursued a logo redesign. A dedicatedtask force of volunteers and staff evaluated differentdesigns before making recommendations to the boardof directors.
We surveyed our donors, consumers, volunteers,and staff, to get their input. With those results in hand,the task force deliberated and reported to the board,which approved the logos you see here. The updatedbranding for the Guide Dog Foundation and America’sVetDogs embraces and builds upon the history andheritage of the two organizations; it reflects their uniquequalities and the stories they share. The bold fonts, theproud dogs and the established dates highlight thestrength and commitment of our dedicated constituentsas well as the evolution of our dog programs andtraining curriculum.
For more information on our new look, and howwe have refined our values and “voice,” please visitLogo.GuideDog.org.
We continue our mission with one goal in mind –to allow our consumers to live without boundaries.
Wells B. Jones, FASAE, CAE, CFRE
Chief Executive Officer
New Board Members
The boards of directors for the Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs determine the overall governing policies of the organizations, while the staff carries out the day-to-day operations. Our board members have backgrounds that cover the gamut of professions and industries: orientation and mobility training, academia, medicine, fundraising, the law, and the military. We are fortunate that such people are dedicated to serving individuals with disabilities.
We are proud to announce longtime board member Don Dea as our new board chair. Dea is the co-founder of Fusion Productions and a recognized authority on association strategy, online education, social networking, and technology development. He has served on the boards of the Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs since 2007.
We’d also like to welcome the newest members of our board of directors:
Command Sgt. Maj. Gretchen Evans, USA, Ret.
Evans, a 27-year Army veteran and Bronze Star recipient, as well as many other awards and commendations, has served in every recent major military operation of the United States, up through Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. She was wounded during her deployment, which resulted in loss of hearing. After returning stateside, Evans completed her rehabilitation and retired from the Army. Her team of doctors recommended a hearing dog to assist with her hearing loss. In January 2015, she was teamed with a hearing dog – a dog specially trained to perform tasks for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, such as responding to sounds and alerting their handler. Evans now works as a peer counselor at the Atlanta VA.
Lt. Col. John O’Brien, USA, Ret.
O’Brien served 28 years in active and reserve service in the U.S. Army, originally enlisting in the Rhode Island Army National Guard while attending college. He was a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps and after graduation was commissioned. He was assigned to various units throughout his career, and served four tours of duty in Iraq and the surrounding Gulf region. He was wounded in Iraq and retired in 2009 as a lieutenant colonel. O’Brien is a recipient of the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and numerous other awards and decorations. Since his retirement, he has earned his Master of Science in Administration of Justice and Homeland Security. He was teamed with his service dog in October 2013.
Major Mary Porter, USA
Porter is a physician in a multi-specialty group practice that serves a large region of eastern Oregon. She studied and trained at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine and Womack Army Medical Center. From 2006 to 2013, she served in the U.S. Army as a brigade surgeon and staff physician. She was deployed twice to Iraq, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. She is the recipient of a Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal for Heroism. Porter continues her service to her country with the Oregon Army National Guard, where she holds the rank of major. Porter was teamed with her service dog in August 2014.
Michael Troiano, Esq.
Troiano is a two-time graduate of the Guide Dog Foundation and has been a guide dog handler for more than 14 years. He attended New York University School of Law and has been a practicing attorney in New York since 1982 as a sole practitioner, specializing in social security disability claims and personal litigation. He is a member of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association as well as the Brooklyn Bar Association. As an attorney and guide dog handler, Troiano is constantly in the public eye, and takes those opportunities to educate the public on the role and training of guide dogs, and the laws that allow people with assistance dogs access to all places open to the public.
Major Peter Way, USA, Ret.
After beginning his military career as a second lieutenant after college, Way earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. He was recommissioned in the Army Medical Corps, where he served as a nurse practitioner. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and served as a Special Forces medic with Army Special Operations. Way was wounded twice, but continued to serve in the Army until December 2013, when he was medically retired due to complications from his injuries. He was teamed with his service dog in January 2013. He is an advocate for VetDogs and often assists his fellow veterans when they want to obtain their own service dog. He volunteers his time with several veterans organizations and is involved with local stray dog fostering and adoption.
A Millenniumof Service
One of the newest organizations to support the Guide DogFoundation is also one of the oldest. The Order of St. Johnof Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller (Malta) has been inexistence for almost 1000 years. Its mission, however, hasremained constant during that time: Pro fide, pro utilitate hominum (For faith, for service to humanity).
The Middle Ages
Knights as we think of them today – encased in armor, mounted on horseback, riding into battle – first came into being in Europe during the Middle Ages. Although they were fighters, they were also bound by a code of honor: to defend the weak, the poor, and those who were oppressed.
The first of the religious orders of knights were the Knights Hospitallers, which had founded a hospital in 1048 to care for travelers – regardless of their faith or ethnicity – who were sick and exhausted when they arrived in Jerusalem.
After the First Crusade, the Knights Hospitallers took the name Sovereign Military Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, or the Knights of Saint John, and were also charged with the protection of travelers as they made their way to the Holy Land. Eventually, they came to serve as the “special operations forces” of their day while also maintaining their charitable and hospital work.
After the fall of Jerusalem, the Order relocated several times over the next four centuries. They established themselves on the island of Rhodes, where they flourished for more than 200 years, with a growing reputation for their hospitals and advanced medical treatment.
In 1523, the Order was driven from Rhodes and, in 1530, settled on Malta, a chain of islands off the coast of Sicily, where its members became commonly known as the Knights of Malta. There they ruled for almost 250 years until Napoleon Bonaparte ousted them in 1798. The Knights scattered throughout Europe, with several iterations of the Order arising in different countries.
Today
The military function of the Knights of Malta ended after the 18th century, and today, members of the Order focus on philanthropic and charitable works all over the world.
The Americas Priory of the Knights of Malta was established in the early 20th century. There are three commanderies (or districts) in the United States (and one in the West Indies); the Commandery of New York is the largest in the Americas. “We are encouraged to find national and international causes, but focus on the local,” says Chevalier James Doran, a member of the New York Commandery, which supports causes throughout the tri-state area.
For Doran, supporting the Guide Dog Foundation has a personal connection: his mother is a Guide Dog Foundation graduate.
In December 2013, the Foundation was one of the recipients of the New York Commandery’s annual autumn fundraising gala at the Yale Club in New York City. The event raised $20,000 to support the Foundation’s mission.
In 2014, the Foundation was again invited to the New York Commandery’s annual gala, this time as sole beneficiary – a unique occurrence, according to Doran.
At the 2014 event, guests had an opportunity to visit with the special puppies who will grow up to be guide or service dogs for people with disabilities, and meet with several Guide Dog Foundation graduates and their guide dogs.
The event also included a live auction, with many items personally donated by members of the Order. The event raised close to $74,000 to support the Foundation’s mission.
To recognize the Order and its members in their support of the Guide Dog Foundation, puppy Malta was named in their honor. He is currently living with his puppy raiser, a University of Georgia student. During his first year, Malta will learn many new things as he experiences the world around him. When it’s time, he will return to the Foundation to begin his formal training as an assistance dog.
Photo: (1) A line of six people. The two on each end are wearing their ceremonial robes, while the others (two men and two women) are in formal wear. One of the women is holding the harness of a black Labrador Retriever guide dog. The caption reads: Dame Diana Frankel; Grand CouncillorVincent Bonagura;Dame Ann Van Ness; Celeste Lopes, Esq.; Wells B. Jones, CEOof the Guide Dog Foundation; and Chevalier James Doran. Photo courtesy Annie Watt/anniewatt.com