“Leader Dogs for the Blind wants teens like
Neil, who can not see the stars, to keep
reaching for them.”
- Joan Milroy
Photo caption:Neil Milroy, August 2007
“Our world changed during a camping trip,” recounts Joan Milroy. “When our 11-year-old son Neil should have been admiring the stars, he admitted he couldn’t see them.”
A stunning diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, soon followed for the previously active boy whose blindness forced him to give up soccer, hockey and karate.
“He was a child withdrawing from the world around him,” Joan explains.
With parents devoted to keeping him engaged, Neil, now 17, still participates in horseback riding competitions and plays the guitar. The teen years, however, brought even greater challenges to the Milroy household. As he grew up, Neil had a normal desire for more independence and stronger peer connections.
The young man’s wishes were seemingly impossible to accomplish until the family learned of Leader Dog for the Blind’s Trekker Camp.
Photo caption:Students at Trekker Camp, August 2007. Left to right: Juanita Lillie, Barry Stafford, Jordyn Castor, and Neil Milroy
Designed for high school students like Neil, Trekker Camp blends cutting edge technology with old-fashioned human interaction. The live-in summer camp teaches visually impaired teens to operate Trekker, a hand-held GPS unit. The electronic travel aid uses talking digital maps to guide students around formerly unidentifiable streets, intersections and businesses. Used on its own or with a Leader Dog, Trekker is destined to revolutionize independent travel for the visually impaired.
Trekker Camp’s five days of instruction are paired with five evenings of extracurricular group activities bowling, excursions to the local ice cream shop, games of four-square. Leader Dog provides normal teen activities for kids who deeply desire a normal teenage experience.
“Since returning from Trekker Camp, Neil is a changed young man,” says his mom. “At Leader Dog, he met other teenagers just like himself. He came back happy, outgoing, and filled with self-worth.
In short, the camp returned his confidence.”
Leader Dogs for the Blind depends on your support to offer this life-altering program.
Like all of the school’s instruction, Trekker Camp’s winning formula is provided to participants completely free of charge. Students receive in-house scholarships to cover the cost of instruction, room and board and the specialized GPS device.
In keeping with our mission to enhance the lives of blind individuals, this program provides dignity to its youthful participants striving for independence. With your assistance, Leader Dog can help these students fulfill their potential.
Your gift is crucial to continuing Trekker Camp. Leader Dogs for the Blind wants other teens like Neil, who can not see the stars, to keep reaching for them.