Guide Dogs Of The Desert Celebrates International Guide Dog Day At Foundation For Blind Children, Phoenix, Arizona
Guide Dogs of the Desert celebrated International Guide Dog Day at the Foundation For Blind Children, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in the morning on the front patio, 1234 East Northern Avenue, Phoenix, AZ, 85020. Sun Lakes Breakfast Lions Club will be presenting a check to Guide Dogs of the Desert.
Guide Dogs of the Desert Executive Director Robert Maher will introduce Guide Dogs of the Desert and showcase a trained guide dog and guide dog puppies in training. The public is invited to learn about a unique volunteer opportunity – becoming a Puppy Raiser! Guide Dogs of the Desert is actively seeking more Puppy Raisers to teach and train guide dog puppies as they grow, until they are ready for formal training. The extraordinary 18-month experience is an odyssey filled with cuteness, discipline and adventure.
Guide Dogs of the Desert relies on special volunteers, called Puppy Raisers. With support and training from the Guide Dogs of the Desert’s professional Puppy Trainers, volunteer Puppy Raisers are supported throughout the entire process and learn the skills necessary to ready these exceptional dogs for formal guide dog training.
In the next few months, the organization will need 30 more Puppy Raisers, who take the critical first steps in creating a guide dog, a gift of freedom and independence for individuals who are legally blind/visually impaired.
Importantly, Guide Dogs of the Desert provides these custom-trained guide dogs to individuals who are visually-impaired at no cost.
Celebrated on the last Wednesday in April each year, International Guide Dog Day celebrates the work of guide dogs around the world and raises awareness of the importance of guide dog services to help people who are blind or have low vision live
life on their terms.
About Guide Dogs of the Desert
Mission: Guide Dogs of the Desert provides mobility, companionship and independence for the blind with custom-trained guide dogs.
One of only 14 internationally accredited guide dog schools in America, Guide Dogs of the Desert serves blind and visually-impaired people from throughout the United States. Founded in 1972, Guide Dogs of the Desert adheres to the premise that every person who is legally-blind or visually impaired should have the opportunity to utilize a guide dog, including those with multiple disabilities. Because of this commitment, class sizes are small and focus on the individual needs of each client.
Guide Dogs of the Desert is one of only a few schools in America that provides the highly specialized curriculum for people with multiple disabilities including hearing loss, autism, mobility disabilities, learning differences, etc.
Further, Guide Dogs of the Desert is one of only 3 schools nationally that works with the highly desirable, intelligent, and hypoallergenic poodles.
About Foundation For Blind Children
Mission: Foundation For Blind Children provides education, tools and services that enable all persons with vision loss to achieve greater independence.
The Foundation for Blind Children was founded in 1952 by parents of blind children who wanted services for their blind children in Phoenix, instead of having to send them to the State Institution for the Blind in Tucson.
The Foundation for Blind Children serves the blind and visually impaired of all ages, from birth to currently 102 years old. As the only agency of its kind in Arizona, the Foundation for Blind Children is an essential resource to families and children with blindness or low vision.
Foundation For Blind Children’s vision is to have a world where vision loss is a diagnosis, not a disability.