Category: Inspirational Stories

John Parker was officiating at a Topeka soccer league game in 1981 when his life changed forever.

He graduated from Hayden in 1979 and played amateur soccer with the intention of trying out as a goalie for a pro soccer team because he was too short to play basketball, his favorite sport, in elite leagues.

But life sometimes has a way of altering plans.

Parker was lining players up for a direct kick when the person taking the kick went before Parker’s whistle and hit him squarely in the head with the ball from 10 feet away.

“To be told by the doctor you won’t be able to see clearly again, you won’t be able to drive, you won’t be able to read, to see people’s faces from outside of six inches — it’s just devastating,” Parker said.

The hit to Parker’s head jarred his optic nerves and inflamed them, which led to their deterioration. Parker has severe bilateral optic neuritis, and he can’t see anything centrally but has some peripheral vision and sees contrast.

“I felt very alone,” Parker said. “I didn’t cope very well at first.”

With support from his brother Phil; an “ornery” friend Dennis Baranski; who still wanted to bet when they played golf; and others, Parker made a spectacular rebound. Since the injury, he has played 20 years of beep baseball, which is for the visually impaired; created the beep baseball team the Kansas All Stars; and was elected the first president of the Kansas Association of Blind Athletes.

“If you help empower somebody they will empower themselves,” Parker said of one of KABA’s aims, “and they spread it around.”

Parker began empowering himself after coping with his condition. One way he did this was through beep baseball. He started playing in 1990 and excelled, despite numerous trips to the emergency room.

“This is a very intense sport,” Parker said, as he rattled off a list of injuries he has suffered — broken ribs, a broken knee, arm, nose and cheekbone and a couple of concussions. His right eye doesn’t close when he sleeps because of the injury to his cheek bone….

Source for complete article: http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-08-16/beep_baseball_keeps_man_active

Hard labour, as a lifestyle choice, has more to recommend it than I could have guessed. From those first few hours of holding Sophia, my firstborn, curled on my forearm learning to breastfeed, to the most recent round of pre-breakfast Ride a Cockhorse, bouncing two “fine ladies” on my tired knees, I have been a fan.

But I always knew that parenting would present different challenges for me, compared with more mainstream mothers because I have been blind since 1997.

The practicalities of bringing up children without eyesight are not, for the most part, nearly as hard as you might think. Changing nappies isn’t especially difficult if you’re used to doing everything by touch. There’s no mystery about it. I don’t explore faecal matter with my fingers, neither do I leave my baby half-cleaned. I simply use a combination of touch and smell to determine how cleaning is progressing, and if it gets out of hand and I begin to lose the will to live, well, 10 minutes suffices for a bath and change of clothes: foolproof.

Feeding is also achievable, if slightly more exciting. In the early days of weaning, I would collect a spoonful of food with my right hand while lightly resting my left hand on her right shoulder. In this way I could monitor the position of her head and use my thumb to assess the in (and especially out) flow. I didn’t aim the spoon directly in but used my fingertips to detect her mouth and its degree of openness.

Next would come the lightning transition from obliquely hovering spoonful to precisely administered tasty mouthful without jabbing the gums, touching the soft palate or twanging the lips or tongue.

Running my household is more complex, yet still not impossible. Recently, for instance, while sorting laundry, I flicked the corner of a duvet cover into Sophia’s abandoned water cup, tipping it on to the floor. I reached for the kitchen roll and knocked over a brand new bottle of multi-surface cleaner which, defying its “sealed” status, sloshed its contents liberally over the kitchen’s cork tiles.

Source for complete article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/aug/08/blind-motherhood-disability

Who turned on the lights?

After spending three years in the dark, a 90-year-old great-great-grandfather from Oregon who had been declared legally blind claims he’s suddenly regained much of his sight.

“God never treated anybody as good as he’s treated me,” Marty Alvey told the Daily News, three days after his vision inexplicably returned.

“When I got out of bed this morning, I looked into the mirror, and I said, ‘Hello there, Marty, nice to see you.’”

Alvey had given up reading and was forced to watch TV from a distance of 6 inches after being stricken with macular degeneration, which causes the loss of central vision.

Now the retired carpenter is hoping to go on sightseeing trips throughout the Northwest and possibly meet “a nice young gal, about 80 years old.”

“I’ve been reborn,” Alvey said, noting he can see clearly 5 feet ahead.

Alvey’s transformation came early Saturday after he awoke feeling woozy. After getting stuck in the bathroom, he crawled to his phone and called 911. On the way to the hospital, Alvey started feeling better.

When a doctor walked into his room, Alvey says he realized his vision had improved.

“He started talking to me, and I said, ‘You know, I can see you! I can see you!’” Alvey recalled. “I went crazy, completely crazy.”

A pair of ophthalmologists examined Alvey’s eyes two days ago and found no explanation for his improved vision.

“There are no anatomical changes within the eye to account for his subjective visual improvement,” said Dr. Anthony Cirino, of Kaiser Permanente in Portland, noting that Alvey’s performance on an eye exam showed no improvement. “From my standpoint, I can’t explain it.”

Alvey has spent the past few days tidying up his home in Tualatin, a suburb of Portland. The feisty nonagenarian has also relished gazing at photos of his five children and numerous grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren – and greeting his neighbors.

“Now when I meet people, I say, ‘Good morning, nice to see you,’ and I really mean it,” Alvey said. “Some people think I’m an old ding-a-ling, but that’s okay. I can see.”

Source for complete article: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/08/12/2009-08-12_gramps_gets_vision_back_outta_sight.html#ixzz0OeIkxrNK

He can’t see very well. She can’t see at all.  Not exactly recruiting poster material, this couple. Nevertheless, Jenine and Kent Stanley of Minerva Park are members in good standing of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. They’re proud to be of service to their country.

“I think being part of the U.S. military, it’s an honor,” said Kent Stanley, who was elected to the Minerva Park Village Council in November 2007.

“That means a lot to me,” said his wife, the consumer relations coordinator for the 63-year-old Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind Inc., based in Long Island, N.Y.

“It’s a chance to do something for ourselves and our country,” Kent Stanley said.

Staying too serious for too long, however, isn’t exactly Kent Stanley’s way. “Maybe I could get lighthouse duty,” he suggested last week, even though Boston Light, built in 1716 as the first American lighthouse, today stands as the only manned lighthouse in the country.

Even that doesn’t daunt the councilman. “We’ll build a lighthouse down here at the end of Minerva Lake,” he said.

“I don’t expect to be doing inspections or search and rescue,” Jenine Stanley said.

Kent Stanley was a licensed pilot until a head injury 25 years ago damaged both the visual and audio parts of his brain. So maybe, Jenine Stanley said, her husband can teach regular Coast Guard personnel in flight ground school.

“Which would be something somebody wouldn’t expect,” she said.

“You quip about this, but it’s interesting to be part of a team,” Kent Stanley said. “We try to mainstream as much as we can.”

The Stanleys, who each have a guide dog, are not the first visually impaired people to join the Coast Guard Auxiliary, which was authorized by an act of Congress on June 23, 1939 as the “reserve” — the law was amended to include an auxiliary on Feb. 19, 1941 — to serve as “civilian volunteers to promote safety on and over the high seas and the nation’s navigable waters,” according to the Web site of the organization.

“We’ll be guide dogs two and three in the Coast Guard Auxiliary,” Kent Stanley said.

It was a friend Jenine Stanley met through her Guide Dog contacts, San Antonio resident Robert Dittman, who joined the auxiliary seven years ago, in spite of having been born blind….

Source for complete article: http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/northland/stories/2009/08/05/0806nocouple_ln.html?sid=104

West Texas Lighthouse for the Blind’s motto is “Creating jobs, changing lives,” and it’s a role the San Angelo manufacturing plant takes seriously.

The facility has been providing local jobs for the blind and visually impaired since 1963 when it started out making brooms and mops, said Executive Director Dave Wells. Now, roughly 44 employees — 25 of whom are blind or visually impaired — assemble and package products, including writing instruments and safety items for the federal government, the state of Texas, local businesses and individual consumers.

“We had one guy come in and he said we had saved his life by giving him a job,” Wells said. “He was really depressed because he had had a stroke and started losing his vision. Nobody would hire him until he came to us, and he said it really changed his life; he had a reason to get up in the morning.

“We don’t treat these guys like they’re blind people, we don’t coddle them, we don’t baby them,” he said. “We have the same expectations we have for our sighted folks. The majority don’t want a handout — they want to work.”

While the business must make a profit to keep its doors open — 99 percent of its funding comes from sales — providing jobs is the priority, Wells said…..

Source for complete article: http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2009/aug/02/beacon-of-hope/

Paratriathlon continues to break down barriers, with Sunday’s Accenture USA Triathlon Paratriathlon National Championships attracting 53 athletes – the most ever at a paratriathlon event worldwide.

Every athlete completing the course under 4 hours qualified for the World Championships in Australia later this season.

The sport of partriathlon, formerly referred to as physically challenged triathlon, is striving to be on the world stage by the 2016 Olympic Games. What the International Paralympic Committee is looking for in a potential Paralympic sport, according to USAT Paratriathlon Committee Chair Jon Beeson, is the three R’s – records, results and races. Sunday’s event had a little bit of everything.

“These are athletes who want to win in the worst way,” Beeson said. “They’re not finishers. They’re not participants. They’re battling it out.”

Aaron Scheidies, a visually impaired athlete, continues to show that he is not only at the top of his class in paratriathlon, but also is competitive with the top able-bodied athletes in the sport. Scheidies won his class with a time of 2 hours, 2 minutes, 15 seconds, in the 1.5 swim, 40k bike and 10k run event that consisted of a swim in the Hudson River, biking on Westside Highway and running through Central Park. Scheidies holds the paratriathlon world record at 1:58:26….(continued)

Source for complete article: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/pace-of-chicago/2009/07/paratriathletes-shine-at-national-championship.html

Louise Brown, 91, has read up to a dozen books a week since 1946 without incurring a single fine for late returns.

She borrows mainly large print books because she is partially sighted, and has almost worked her way through her local library’s entire stock.
Library staff in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, say the pensioner’s rapacious reading habits over 60 years could earn her a place in the record books.

Mrs Brown, a widow, said: “My parents were great readers and I’ve always loved books. I started reading when I was five and have never stopped. I like anything I can get my hands on.”

She said her favourite genres are family sagas, historical novels and war stories, but added: “I also like Mills and Boon for light reading at night.”

She said she had read too many books to have a favourite or top five, but if she had to choose a preferred genre it would be family sagas or historical novels.

Louise Pride, her daughter, said: “She has aids to help her sight and usually borrows large print books. But the trouble is she has read nearly all of them in the local library. She still finds time to ready a newspaper every day and to watch TV.”

Welsh-born Mrs Brown joined a library in Castle Douglas, near Stranraer, in 1946 when she moved there after getting married.

Seven years ago she moved to Stranraer to live with her daughter and has been regularly borrowing books from the library ever since.

Over the past six decades she has borrowed at least six books every week throughout each year and has recently increased that to about 12 every seven days.

Janice Goldie, of Dumfries and Galloway Libraries, said: “We are amazed at Mrs Brown’s achievements. When she first joined the library service she was allowed to borrow six books a week. This has now risen to 12 and she always takes her full quota.

“Although she has borrowed nearly 25,000 books, she has never once had to pay an overdue charge.The staff at Stranraer Library think she’s a remarkable lady and look forward to her weekly visits. They would like to know if anyone can beat her reading record.”

Source for complete article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5932159/Britains-most-avid-reader-91-has-borrowed-25000-library-books.html

MVP Kenny Johar was recently awarded the Microsoft MVP Award, for his contributions towards Internet Explorer. He has carved out a successful IT career by helping to make technology, more accessible to Australia’s visually impaired. News of his Award, was also picked up by The Australian newspaper and you can read an excerpt of the interview below. (continue reading…)

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Blind high schoolers from across the country this week will build an environmentally friendly model home, launch weather balloons or create robots. And some will even drive a car!

The University of Maryland is hosting nearly 200 blind or low-vision high school students to try their hand at careers never thought possible for them: engineering, architecture, robotics and science. The National Federation of the Blind is holding its biennial Youth Slam here at the suggestion of Leigh Abts, a research associate professor in the College of Education with a longtime interest in opening science, technology, engineering and math fields to people with visual impairments.

“We’ve done some research and found that a lot of blind high school students go into college with a notion of what they are going to major in, but it’s not usually their choice,” said Karen Zakhnini, education project manager with the federation’s Jernigan Institute. A lot of times and their teachers or their guidance counselors or their parents have told them, “This would be good for you because you can actually do this.”

She said this program helps young people understand what they can do and decide if it’s what they want to do. As part of the weeklong event, college students and working professionals serve as living examples.

Nathan Redman, a rising high school senior from Nebraska, didn’t know what to expect. In the universal language of teenagers, though, he sums up what many of them feel on the first day: “It’s going to be awesome.”

On Monday, he and his peers flicked their canes open to navigate an unfamiliar, large campus to attend different sessions based on their interests. Nathan worked on designs for a green model home using wood blocks, flexible wax tubes and paper with raised grids….

Source for complete article: http://www.newsdesk.umd.edu/culture/release.cfm?ArticleID=1934