Guiding Eyes for the Blind
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| Formation | 1956 |
|---|---|
| Type | Not-for-profit corporation |
| Headquarters | Yorktown Heights, New York, US |
| Donald Z. Kauth | |
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President and CEO
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Thomas A. Panek |
| Website | www |
Guiding Eyes for the Blind is one of eleven accredited schools in the U.S. for training guide dogs — dogs trained to lead the blind and visually impaired. With its 10-acre (40,000 m2) headquarters, training center and veterinary clinic in Yorktown Heights, New York, Guiding Eyes also operates a canine development center in Patterson, New York and a training site in White Plains, New York.
The school offers a program designed for blind and visually impaired students with additional developmental or physical challenges, such as deafness or seizure disorders. Dogs and staff are specifically selected and receive extra training to enable them to assist these students. Over 1,300 volunteers commit their time and talents to the Guiding Eyes mission. From fostering members of the breeding colony to spending time with the dogs in training to assisting with administrative tasks – each volunteer is essential to the organization's goals.
Guiding Eyes for the blind was founded in 1954 by Donald Z. Kauth in a 19th-century farmhouse. Since then it has graduated over 7,300 guide dog teams and placed 61 service dogs in homes with families challenged by autism. Headquartered in Yorktown Heights New York, thirty-five miles north of New York City, Guiding Eyes for the Blind was the first guide dog training school to be accredited by the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped. Guiding Eyes employs more than 140 people who raise, care and train dogs from their own established gene pool and make them available to recipients free of charge. It depends on donations and a community of more than 1,000 volunteers to provide its numerous programs at no cost to all who use them. Guiding Eyes for the Blind was one of the first schools to accept elderly students and legally blind students who have a degree of residual vision.
Guiding Eyes is an internationally accredited dog school with a 50 year plus legacy of providing the blind and visually impaired with superior Guiding Eyes dogs, training, and lifetime support services. In 1966, Guiding Eyes began breeding their own dogs. This helps them to ensure a reliable resource of quality dogs to train as guide dogs. Prior to that time, extensive time and effort was invested in searching in shelters and other sources for adult dogs and puppies. Today, Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s breeding program supplies more than 90% of the dogs used by the school.
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