From: Al and Masha Sten-Clanton 
Subject: Re: guide dog school hollidayt card photos
Hi, Pete!  Great idea!  I'll write to my school and hope others do the
same.  I add that perhaps chapters could come up with similar cards, some
with cane users and some with guide dog users.  We'd then have full
control of the look and the message of the cards.  Peace!
Al
On Sun, 21 Dec 1997, Peter Donahue wrote:
> 
> 
> hello Fellow Federationists and listers,
> 
> I posted this idea here several nights ago, but am not sure that it made it
> to the lists so hear it is again for your thoughts, and actions in the
> coming year.
> 
> Many of our guide dog shools make it a tradition to thank their supporters,
> and to raise funds by selling holliday greeting cards.  More often then not
> the photos on these cards feature one or more cute adorable guide dog
> puppies in a holliday setting.  Has anyone figured out what is wrong with
> this picture?  While these sceens are attention getting, and eye catching
> they do nothing to promote the normallity, and independence of the blind.
> Those who receive such cards are not reminded that with proper training and
> opportunity, the blind can live normal lives, and that blindness is only a
> physical nuisance, and that the highly trained guide dogs produced by the
> schools they are supporting help to make this possible.  I say that it's
> time that we corect this picture, and call upon the guide dog schools to
> issue greeting cards that show the dogs in their real role as guides for 
he
> blind.  Now what would be wrong with a card that pictured a group of blind
> carolers with their guide dogs singing to an audience, or perhaps some 
lind
> people accompanied by their guide dogs walking down a snow-covered street
> past shops decorated for the season, a blind Santa Claus  with his guide 
og
> lying by his side talking to children asking them what they want for
> Christmas, or a sceen in a store of a blind person making a perchase and 
is
> dog is lying quietly on the floor while he is transacting his business at a
> check-out counter.  such portraits will not only allow the schools to show
> their appreciation to their contributors, but will reinforce in the minds 
f
> those who receive such greeting cards that it is respectible to be blind,
> and that we are just like them, and that there is no mystary about
> blindness.  Now let's get em in the year to come.
> 
> Best wishes from Mary and i for a happy holliday season.
> Peter donahue
> 
>           
> 
> 
> 
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