“THE
WATER DISH”
Issue
#1 | Fall 2014
MESSAGE FROM THE COAGDU
PRESIDENT:
Welcome to the first issue of the COAGDU
newsletter. I hope that the information provided in this newsletter will
be helpful and informative.
This issue will talk about what has been happening in the “dog run” with COAGDU since the start of its development in October 2013 until now, as well as featuring upcoming events. If you would like to contribute and or make suggestions, please send them to Dishon Spears at either of the following email addresses.dishonspears@comcast.net or at dspears@cocenter.org.
This issue will talk about what has been happening in the “dog run” with COAGDU since the start of its development in October 2013 until now, as well as featuring upcoming events. If you would like to contribute and or make suggestions, please send them to Dishon Spears at either of the following email addresses.dishonspears@comcast.net or at dspears@cocenter.org.
Finally, thank you to all of those who made our
first seminar a success. Please feel free to provide feedback about the
seminar. Send a message with “feedback” in the subject line to: coagdu1019@gmail.com
Behind The Fence:
This part of the newsletter will
highlight a “pack” member that has gone to one of the Guide Dog schools and
just wanted to share their experience with the rest of us.
Sherry Gomes is a “pack” member that
lives here in Colorado in the city of Longmont. She lives with her current
guide dog named Petunia, who is a Golden Retriever. Sherry also has her retired guide dog named
Bianca, who is a black Labrador living in the house with them. Sherry received her first guide dog from
Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB) back in 1975, and every dog that she has had
since then has come from the GDB organization.
Sherry has the luxury of working from her “dog house” as a tech support
agent for the company known as Freedom Scientific.
In the past, Sherry has worked for other
companies that have had some type of blindness affiliation, like the Admissions
Department at Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB), as well as the Lighthouse for the
Blind located in Seattle, where she taught computers to blind adults. Sherry enjoys music, shopping, movies,
musical theater reading and writing in her “down” time. Sherry has a blog which can be found at the
following address; WWW.sherrygomesWrites.com or you can
follow her on Twitter @SherryGomes and you can also find her on Facebook at WWW.facebook.com/sherriola, if you want to
get in touch with her.
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSORIES:
COAGDU would like to bark out a very special happy
birthday to all of those guide dogs and service dogs that have celebrated their
birthdays during the months of May through July.
Birthdays:
Randall – (June 17)
P.J. – (May 11)
Anniversaries:
Melissa Green & P.J. – (May 20th, 3 years)
Marty Rahn & Monty – (June 4th, 6 years)
May you and your guide or service dog celebrate many more birthdays and
anniversaries together.
FOCUS ON COAGDU:
On
May 31st COAGDU had our first ever seminar that was titled “Tails, Wags, & Pack Guide Dog 101
Seminar”. The seminar took place at the Colorado Center for the Blind,
located in Littleton. And it took place from 10:00a.m. To 4:15p.m… Areas of discussion were;
Ø Access Rights
Ø Care Of Guide Dogs
Ø Guide Dogs In Your Life
Ø Guide Dog Verses the White Cane
Ø Deciding If A Guide Dog Is For You
We had speakers from
the A.D.A. (Americans with Disabilities Act), R.T.D. (Regional Transportation
District) Littleton Housing Authority, as well as a veterinarian and
representatives from guide dog schools.
We had in attendance about 38 to 40 and everyone that was there had a
great time and learned a lot.
NOTES FROM THOSE IN ATTENDANCE:
Penn Street – “As I
sought out door prizes, gathered gift bag donations and received RSVP’s, my
excitement grew.” Penn also stated that
her guide dog from The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind was even more excited
than she was, as they entered the Colorado Center for the Blind (CCB), to be
greeted by other dogs and friendly humans.
“At times, I even felt tears of joy as I watched people that were going
outside to take a Juno walk and as they came back from their walks with an
actual guide dog, I found myself overwhelmed with emotions.” Penn has been a guide dog user for almost 15
years, and couldn’t imagine life without any of her furry friends.
Dishon Spears – “I
was really surprised at the number of people that attended the seminar”. “In
the beginning, we were sending out email after email to make sure that our
message was getting out to as many people as possible, insuring a great first seminar.” “As the seminar got closer and there weren’t
many RSVPS are coming back, I started to doubt the success of the seminar. But
on the day of the “Great Gathering of Guide Dogs,” my tail started wagging
harder and faster and it truly was a great seminar overall.” Dishon has been a guide dog user for almost
15 years and loves having the versatility of either using his guide dog or
cane. “There are places where I would
rather use my cane instead of Randall, and just the same, taking my guide dog
to a place where the cane wouldn’t be the best choice for me at that time.”
Kevin Worley – “MAN!
You guys really did a GREAT job with the seminar, and I can’t wait to see what
the next one will be like.”
“Congratulations!”
ON THE NATIONAL FRONT:
During
the first week of July, guide dogs from all over the United States and the
world, came together in one LARGE hotel “dog kennel” in Florida to attend the
National Federation of the Blind (NFB) convention. During this convention, the National Guide
Dog Division (NAGDU) had a meeting where board members were either elected or
reelected to further the work that needs to get done to make sure that guide
dog teams all over the United States and beyond have equal rights. There have been many times where as a person
with a guide dog doesn’t have a loud enough bark to be heard, but as the work
of NAGDU along with other guide dog affiliates continue to educate the public
about the rights of those using guide dogs and how to treat the working teams,
the bark of every guide dog teams will be heard loud and proud.
The
NAGDU meeting started off with a roll call of states. This portion of the meeting is set aside for
each state that is represented at the meeting so that their representatives can
speak about what has been going on in their own “back yard”. After the introductions were over, members
from the national board spoke about what they had been doing on the national
level for fund raisers and to give other affiliates ideas as to what they can
do to raise money in their states.
Tim Elder a lawyer
from California spoke to the entire pack about a new transportation alternative
named Über and how some of the drivers were not allowing guide dogs in
their vehicles. If you or if you know of anyone that has had problems with Über,
please let Dishon Spears know at the
following email addresses dishonspears@comcast.net or dspears@cocenter.org, you can even call him at the Colorado Center for the Blind at (303)
778-1130 Ext. #246.
Other areas of
discussion were;
Ø
The
new NAGDU APP, which will allow the guide dog user to pull up laws in his or
her state of residence, so the user will be well versed as to what the laws
pertaining to guide dogs are and how they are applied. As soon as more information is available, it
will be passed down to all of our members.
Ø
The
NAGDU hotline, this hotline has been set up for guide dog users to call in and
either speak with a fellow guide dog
user about issues that he or she is
going through, or they can simply listen to recorded information that
relates to them at any given time 24 hours a
day, and 7 days a week. The number for the hotline is
1-888-NAGDU-411(1-888-624-3841). For
more information, visit the National Guide Dog Users page at www.NAGDU.org.
Ø
NAGDU
is working to try and pass laws that will punish people that try and pass their
pet dogs off as service or guide dogs, as well as a law that will hold people
with dogs that attack guide dogs responsible for their dog’s actions.
Ø
Building
new divisions of guide dog users; at this time, there are about 11 guide dog
packs throughout the United States, and more will be popping up in the very
near future.
Ø
Freedom
Dogs for the Blind has opened up another satellite school in the state of
Florida, congratulations to them.
Ø
The
following schools gave presentations about each of their schools; Leader Dogs
for the Blind, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Guide Dog Foundation as well as The
Seeing Eye.
Ø
The
final topic of discussion was placing guide dog relief areas in airports all
over the United States, and putting them in such a place where a person can
take out their guide dog before taking off on a flight, as well as when they
land. If something like this could be
located in every airport, then a person traveling through the airport doesn’t
have to go back through security and risk missing their flight. There have been several ideas discussed for
example, using natural lighting as well as pet grass to give the guide dog the
illusion of actually being outside to make them feel more comfortable and
relaxed.
Congratulations to
the newly elected board which is composed of;
President – Marion
Gwizdala (Florida)
Vice President –
Michael Hingson (California)
Secretary – Sherrill
O’Brien (Florida)
Treasurer
–Antoinette Whaley (Pennsylvania)
Board Member – Tina
Thomas (California)
Board Member – Margo
Downey (New York)
Board Member –
Jessica Snider (New York)
FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
To all of our pack members that are reading this
newsletter, Brian Skewis, who is the new Executive Officer of the California
State Board Of Guide Dogs for the Blind(Board) would like all of you that have
been a graduate of Guide Dogs for the Blind(GDB) to participate in taking a
survey that will assist the board in gathering information from you as a GDB
graduate to insure the quality of the guide dog industry by protecting,
promoting, and educating everyone that has a particular interest in the
schools, from its’ instructors to you as graduates as well as the public. The survey is completely anonymous and brief;
it can be done in three different
ways. The first way is online at the
following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GuideDogBoardConsumerSurvey.
The other ways that you can take the survey are by paper or over the
phone at (916) 574-7826 and you can leave your name and phone number along with
your address so a representative can return a follow-up call to you.
If you are taking the survey on paper, please allow ten
(10) business days for the survey to reach you.
If you’d like to email them for more information, you can do so at guidedogboard@dca.ca.gov. If you
would like to know more about the California State Board of Guide Dogs for the
Blind, you can do so at www.guidedogboard.ca.gov.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
We
the members of COAGDU are happy, and wagging our tails to share with you things
that will be coming up in the future that will be happening in our “back yard,”
and if you’d like to attend, please contact any of us on the COAGDU board for
more information.
Ø
State
Convention – The dates of the state convention will be Thursday October 30,
2014 through Sunday November 1, 2014.
. Friday will be the day when the
exhibit hall will be open. There will be
venders from all over displaying and demonstrating their services and
technologies, and the exhibit hall will run throughout the day on Friday as
well as running through the lunch break on Saturday. On Thursday night, for those that love music,
in particular the Beatles, one of our NFB members by the name of Art Schreiber
will be taking us on a journey with the Beatles informing us about what went on
during their first U.S. tour. Art was one of
two journalists with “a ticket to ride”. The fun will continue all weekend long
with informative presentations, seminars, and much more! There will also be a band called the Fab 4
that is a Beatles tribute band that will be playing many hit songs from the
Beatles.
The room rates are $89 a night
plus 5.0 percent room tax. General
sessions will run Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings with breakout sessions
taking place on Friday and Saturday afternoons.
Last year the guide dog breakout sessions took place on Saturday
afternoon from 1:15p.m. To 5:00p.m… The location of the state convention will
be held at the Marriott Denver South at Park Meadows at 10345 Park Meadows Dr.
in Littleton, CO 80124 and their number to make reservations is, (303) 925-0004
Ø October is also meet the blind
month, this is a time when we as blind individuals would like to have the
public come out and meet us at various locations around Denver and learn about
what it is that we are doing and about who we are and learn about our movement.
Ø
–The
75 days of action is about building and strengthening NFB chapters and
divisions all over the United States, for example, Guide Dog divisions. We would like to see many more Guide Dog
divisions “packs” get started so that they can join with our movement towards a
better and brighter future for all of our fellow Guide Dog and service dog
users, to continue to change the public’s view about how our dogs, assist us in
the day to day tasks of going to work, school, or just going out with friends
and family to have a good time. We must
come together and continue to work together so that we can change laws and make
new ones in all of our states, in order to do this, we need to work together so
that we as blind people as well as our
guide dogs and service dogs will no longer be looked upon as second class
citizens.
Ø The 75 days in action will start
on September 2nd and will run through November 16th, 2014. If you would like to participate in the 75
days in action campaign, PLEASE send an email to 75days@nfb.org to get started.
Ø The month of September is also
national guide dog month, so remember this for you and other teams that you may
run across while out and about.
Ø August 28, was national dog day
for all of us with pet dogs, as well as service and guide dogs.
If
you want to learn more about the Colorado Association of Guide Dog Users
(COAGDU), or just want to send us a message or to join any of the mailing
lists, pleas follow our “scent” at the following;
Like us
on Facebook.
Listservs:
There
are two lists for Coagdu; the subscriptions for each of them are listed
below.
Reply
to confirm. You will get a message that states that you have been
subscribed to the list.
The
COAGDU list is for announcements and information.
To join
COAGDU go to: www.nfbnet.org and
click on the join or drop NFB lists. Search for COAGDU and follow the
instructions.
Conference calls:
Coagdu
will have a conference call for pack members that will deal with certain topics
every other month. Announcements concerning this call will be distributed
to the Colorado talk, coagdu, and Colorado guide dog user’s lists.
Information on how to join the call will be posted in the messages. To be sure that you are added to the lists,
please follow the links above and if you don’t have a computer then please
contact one of the board members listed below.
The Board Members:
President
– Melissa Green (Greeley) - (970) 356-8630
Vice
President – Dishon Spears (Littleton) - (720) 275-1991
Secretary
– Marty Rahn (Greely) - (719) 271-9496
Treasurer
– Becky Sabo (Denver) - (720) 291-8028
Board
Member 1 – Beth Alred (Englewood) - (720) 272-6895
Board
Member 2 – Daniel Sweeney (Denver) - (720) 686-2624
Board
Member 3 – Jenny Hwang (New York) - (631) 662-8485
No comments:
Post a Comment