JCranford
En-Route
This is pretty far afield NA but I though I would relate an experience we had Friday.
My wife and I regularly give charitable donation to different groups. A couple of years ago we started donating to Guide Dogs of Texas based in San Antonio. They breed, raise and train guide dogs for low / no vision Texans.
It started out as a donation of shirts through our side business (screen printing and embroidery) and went from there to sponsoring their fund raising golf tournaments and sponsoring dogs. We had never visited the actual location and wanted to go down and see where our money was going and make sure it really was a good donation match for us.
Here's the aviation component: We decided to fly down and deliver some items we had made for them and tour the facility. Well the weather was iffy in San Antonio on Friday and we decided to drive. Turns out the first 250 miles would have been fine and the last 10 miles into SA would have been dicey, so it was a good call. Except that when we stopped for coffee my wife stubbed her big toe and ripped off half the toenail. I told her we should have flown...
Anyway, we got to the facility and they had invited one of their client teams (Steve and his dog Cody) to help with the tour and give us his story and how Cody (and his previous dog Willow) had changed his life for the better. Great story and really put a human element to the whole thing. You don't realize how blind people get isolated and how the dogs help with mobility and such.
We got to meet Dante, one of the dogs we sponsored and Dante demonstrated his excellent training by guiding one of the instructors thru their 'obstacle' course. It was very impressive the level of training these dogs receive.
We toured the puppy room and got to play with a new litter of future guide dogs. Nothing more fun than a litter of Lab puppies crawling all over you!
Ended the visit with lunch with the staff, Steve, Cody and Dante.
All in all, we are very impressed with the organization and glad they we choose to donate to them.
And then on the way back, we got rear-ended on the highway by a Tahoe. I told her we should have flown...
At any rate, if you are a donation minded person and are looking for a good cause, GDTx would be worth a look.
My wife and I regularly give charitable donation to different groups. A couple of years ago we started donating to Guide Dogs of Texas based in San Antonio. They breed, raise and train guide dogs for low / no vision Texans.
It started out as a donation of shirts through our side business (screen printing and embroidery) and went from there to sponsoring their fund raising golf tournaments and sponsoring dogs. We had never visited the actual location and wanted to go down and see where our money was going and make sure it really was a good donation match for us.
Here's the aviation component: We decided to fly down and deliver some items we had made for them and tour the facility. Well the weather was iffy in San Antonio on Friday and we decided to drive. Turns out the first 250 miles would have been fine and the last 10 miles into SA would have been dicey, so it was a good call. Except that when we stopped for coffee my wife stubbed her big toe and ripped off half the toenail. I told her we should have flown...
Anyway, we got to the facility and they had invited one of their client teams (Steve and his dog Cody) to help with the tour and give us his story and how Cody (and his previous dog Willow) had changed his life for the better. Great story and really put a human element to the whole thing. You don't realize how blind people get isolated and how the dogs help with mobility and such.
We got to meet Dante, one of the dogs we sponsored and Dante demonstrated his excellent training by guiding one of the instructors thru their 'obstacle' course. It was very impressive the level of training these dogs receive.
We toured the puppy room and got to play with a new litter of future guide dogs. Nothing more fun than a litter of Lab puppies crawling all over you!
Ended the visit with lunch with the staff, Steve, Cody and Dante.
All in all, we are very impressed with the organization and glad they we choose to donate to them.
And then on the way back, we got rear-ended on the highway by a Tahoe. I told her we should have flown...
At any rate, if you are a donation minded person and are looking for a good cause, GDTx would be worth a look.