Co-written by Eric Xu, Andrew Zhang, and Alan Zhu
On August 11th, three members from the San Diego branch of AYLUS (Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States) visited The Braille Institute of San Diego and worked with other volunteers to assist over two hundred visually impaired people and their families at the “Touch the Sky” event.
The Braille Institute is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to eliminate barriers to a fulfilling life caused by blindness and severe sight loss. They have been in service for nearly a century and currently serve over 75,000 people, providing a variety of services to the blind community such as Braille classes, a libraries of audio books and braille books, lessons on how to use a computer through audio, and arts and crafts classes.
After a brief sign-in period where we received our name tags and got briefed on the schedule, we went on a tour of the Braille Institute where we became familiar with the site and learned more about the mission and services of the Braille Institute. We also learned the proper etiquette to guiding a blind person around the site by pairing up and simulating a scenario: one person being blind (by closing his/her eyes) and the other the guide. In addition, we were also taught that being blind doesn’t always mean 100% blind, and our guide was kind enough to give us vision cards that replicated varying degrees of blindness, from peripheral vision loss (which is more commonly known as “Tunnel Vision”) to full on blindness.
After the guided tour, we prepared for the resource fair by furnishing the refreshments tables at the gazebo and the back courtyard with granola bars, water, and coffee. Our duties at the refreshment table ranged from restocking the beverages and serving them to giving each person a warm welcome and small talk if the time allowed. It was important for us to learn to greet each person by name in order to make it clear whom we were addressing. While we were working, lots of action was also happening elsewhere.
Outside in the back courtyard and gazebo, resource vendors set up their stands to promote government paid services, biking clubs, unique art, and fun toys for the kids. Two important things to note was that many, if not most, of the stands were managed by people with varying degrees of blindness, and also that all the stands catered services toward the blind or promoted art done by the visually impaired.
Inside the dining hall, Braille Institute president Peter A. Mindnich gave a speech on the history and mission of the Braille Institute to the guests. Afterwards, special guest Shyamanga Borooah, MD, PhD, FRCOphth, from the UCSD Shiley Eye Center gave a fascinating presentation about his research in stem cell therapy and how that could lead to cures for people with age related macular eye degeneration and those with hereditary eye diseases from birth.
While these presentations were going on, we helped prepare 300 sack lunches for the guests at the Braille Institute. Each sack lunch consisted of a sandwich, a bag of chips, a cookie, and an apple. These sack lunches were brought to the refreshments tables where we helped distribute the lunches to guests. Distributing lunches took over two hours, as guests collected lunch at their own pace. We also helped set up fruit punch, which turned out to be one of the more popular items at the refreshments table.
Following the lunches, there were more events for guests in the dining hall. First was the awards presentation, which was quickly followed by student performances. The events then escalated into a dance party where everyone, both blind and not, grooved to the music and had a great time. After the event was over, we helped clean up the refreshments table and reshelve snacks that were not eaten.
Members that participated: Eric Xu, Andrew Zhang, and Alan Zhu
