That’s Dora–my first Seeing Eye partner–off duty during one of our countless strolls on the beach.

This Thursday Mike, Hanni and I head to North Carolina. I’m doing a book signing at Manteo Booksellers on Saturday, and we’ll spend the rest of the time swimming in the ocean, eating fresh seafood, and visiting old friends

How’d we end up with friends in North Carolina? We used to live there! During the 1990s, Mike worked here in Illinois for an internet company called Spyglass. In his early days at Spyglass, Mike didn’t get a high salary or good benefits. He did, however, receive stock options. And when Spyglass went public in 1995, all of a sudden those pieces of paper were worth a whole lot of money. We decided then to do something we would have never, ever thought possible. We moved to a house on the ocean.

Dora worked until she was 12 and she lived to 17.

Our time on the beach was fabulous, full of simple pleasures. Without worrying about obstacles in my path, I was able to run by myself. Listening for the waves, I’d point my shoulders in their direction and spring towards them like a little girl. Sometimes I’d race to the beach with Dora, my first Seeing Eye dog. She always won.

When the cold and rain arrived in December, Mike stoked the fireplace and I spent quiet time working on writing my first book, Long Time, No See.

The dream ran its course. Before we left Illinois, I wanted to believe I was the type of woman who would be forever happy living by the ocean: listening to books, sitting by the fire, reading, taking daily walks on the beach. Hard as it was to admit, I am not that romantic figure. In the end, two years of dreamy isolation was enough for me.

We made lovely friends in the Outer Banks, but we all lived far apart, and Nags Head had no public transportation. No sidewalks, either, which meant Dora and I were unable to get out by ourselves to do errands. Mike was responsible for getting groceries, banking, mailing packages at the post office, bringing us to doctor appointments. He had the time, and he mostly seemed to enjoy it. But I felt more dependent on others than I wanted to be, and I started feeling disabled.

It’s funny. On the beach or in the water, I enjoyed more of a sense of freedom of motion than I had since going blind. But the sound of the waves, the smell of the air, the feel of salt water on my skin…as fantastic and unforgettable as it all was, the ability to do all the other things by myself was more important. We left the ocean in 1999 and moved back to Illinois. We eventually settled here in Chicago, where public transportation and city sidewalks allow me to feel more independent than anywhere else we’ve lived since I lost my sight. But hey, the city gets a little exhausting sometimes! We’re looking forward to our trip back to the Outer Banks, hoping to return next week relaxed, a little sunburned and full of good beach stories.

Earlier this year my publisher was asked to donate a copy of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound to the Seeing Eye’s 80th Anniversary Online Auction. The idea was to include the book in a birthday party package. Well, Blue Marlin Publications didn’t donate just one copy of Safe & Sound. They sent five. The Seeing Eye was thrilled with the extra books and came up with all sorts of clever ways to auction them off.

One book is being auctioned off all on its own, not part of a package. Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound retails for $17.95. As of today, bids for the book at the Seeing Eye auction are up to $55. Blue Marlin’s generosity must be contagious.

One of the other donated books is included in a birthday party package, just like the Seeing Eye had originally intended:

Children’s birthday party at Seeing Eye downtown center.

Each child will spend time with a puppy to learn obedience exercises and enjoy fun play time. The party includes interactive games with the puppies and their raisers plus activities like “pin the tail on the Seeing Eye dog.” The guest of honor will receive a custom-designed birthday cake from Morristown’s Swiss Chalet Bakery, photos of the event taken by The Seeing Eye’s official photographer and Manager of Instruction & Training John Keane, festive decorations, and a gift bag that includes a book by Seeing Eye grad Beth Finke called “Safe and Sound,” a DVD of Disney’s 1967 series about The Seeing Eye called “Atta Girl, Kelly!”, a plush Seeing Eye puppy, puppy stickers, and other surprise gifts.

Two of the donated books are included with homemade blankets:

• Specially Designed Seeing Eye 80th Anniversary quilt
  

  This beautiful hand-pieced and hand-quilted anniversary lap quilt features star blocks in cranberry red, burnt orange, and forest green on a background of nine-patch blocks. Several of the fabrics used are in dog- and dog-related prints in colors of browns and tans. A section along the border reads: “The Seeing Eye – Leading the Way for 80 Years 1929 – 2009.” As a special bonus, the winning bidder will also receive a copy of Seeing Eye graduate Beth Finke’s award-winning children’s book, Hanni and Beth: Safe and Sound.

• Crocheted Afghan Plus Award-Winning Children’s Book
  

  Curl up under this cozy, hand-crocheted afghan made by the mother of a Seeing Eye graduate. The afghan measures 48″ x 48″ and was created in shades of midnight blue, azure blue and white diagonal stripes. As a special bonus, this package also includes a copy of the hardcover children’s book by Seeing Eye graduate Beth Finke. “Hanni & Beth: Safe & Sound,” is the winner of the ASPCA Henry Bergh Children’s Book Award of 2008.

The piece de resistance, however, is that our book is included with a package that lets the winning bidder name a Seeing Eye dog after him-or-her self!

The Seeing Eye Breeding Station Tour for 2

This, of course, will include some play-time with puppies in the special playroom designed to introduce pups to the sounds, textures, and experiences
of the world they soon will encounter.

And be sure to decide which puppy most pulls at your heartstrings, because you will have the chance to name one of the puppies you meet on this special day. You and the pup will be photographed, and you’ll receive a framed photo of the event.

Additional gifts with this item? An overnight stay at the Westin Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown, dinner at the hotel’s Copeland Restaurant, a chocolate dog bone from Morristown’s Enjou Chocolat, and a gift bag that includes, guess what? An award-winning children’s book by Seeing Eye grad Beth Finke!

There’s all sorts of other cool stuff being auctioned off, too: getaway vacationss, passes to see the Colbert Report, lunch with Betty White, baskets of gourmet chocolates, even a year’s supply of Eukanuba dog food! Bidding Ends on Sunday, September 13 at 10:00 pm EDT – sign up now to jjoin the fun, donate to a GREAT cause and…bid up the price on our book!

To celebrate its 80th birthday, the Seeing Eye invited all its canine and human graduates to a reunion in Morristown last weekend. I love the Seeing Eye. I am very proud Hanni and I are graduates. But we didn’t go.

Here’s a dirty little secret: Being around a lot of blind people with guide dogs makes me nervous.

The American foundation for the Blind reports 1.3 million people in the US are legally blind. Only 7,000 of us use guide dogs. That means of the estimated 12,000 people who are legally blind living in Chicago, only 60 of us use dogs for guides. In any given situation, Hanni and I are usually the only guide dog team in the bunch. Here’s an understatement for you: Hanni and I both enjoy attention. And among the 300 who showed up for last weekend’s Seeing Eye reunion, we’d just be two more cute faces in the crowd. Worse than that, any attention we might get would probably be negative.

Just like parents at a playground, we guide dog users find it difficult to resist judging and comparing the behavior of our little ones. My dog handling skills are not ideal, and as a result my Seeing Eye dogs do not rank Best in Show when it comes to discipline. Both Dora, my first Seeing Eye dog, and Hanni, my current dog, have kept me safe for 18 years, and in all sorts of situations. But both dogs broke many Seeing Eye rules along the way. And the one rule Hanni especially likes to break? “Don’t sniff at other dogs.” She tries to ignore the dogs who cross our path, she really does. More often than not, though, she finds other dogs, well…irresistible. A reunion of 300+ Seeing Eye dogs could have been disastrous for us.

The people and dogs of The Seeing Eye were featured as the Pioneers of the Week on ABC World News with Charles Gibson last Friday, and the segment included footage from the reunion. Of course Hanni and I are now second-guessing our decision to stay home. Remember, we like attention. Maybe, if we had gone to Morristown, we would have been on TV!

Ah, well. Somehow, some way, the Seeing Eye managed to look fantastic on the TV segment without us there to help. The feature included an interview with Seeing Eye president Jim Kutsch and his wife Ginger. You might remember them from a post I published here after Mike, Hanni and I stayed at their house during a visit to the Seeing Eye a year ago.

Ginger Bennett (L) and Jim Kutsch (R), great hosts and great guides to Morristown, NJ.

The ABC TV crew also accompanied an instructor training a dog, and they filmed a litter of Black Lab puppies. You can link to the two-and-one-half minute story online, but be sure to have a Kleenex or two on hand. Mike teared up when he saw those pups!

Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan visited Jackson Middle School in Orlando this morning. Know why? Because Jackson is an outstanding school. And know why it’s an outstanding school? Because my sister Marilee works there.

That's my big sister Marilee.

If you read this blog, you probably recognize Marilee’s name. She practically raised me, taking care of the house and making dinner for us every night when she was in middle school and high school; that’s when Flo had to start working full-time, our father had died and we were a single-parent household.

Lately Marilee has been accompanying me during book events at Printers Row Lit Fest and the American Library Association convention. She helps guide Hanni and me safely to our destinations, then makes sure everything is set when it comes time to sign, Braille and pawprint books.

Jackson Middle School is a school where most students are minorities and more than 80 percent receive free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty. It has seen improvements in the percentage of students meeting high standards in reading, writing and math in recent years.

The VP and Education Secretary were at Jackson today to talk about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The vice president made his remarks at Jackson Middle School in Orlando, where he and Education Secretary Arne Duncan discussed the recovery act’s impact on education and the economy with a group of parents, teachers, students and administrators. Biden credited the stimulus plan with saving 26,000 school jobs in Florida, including 16 teaching jobs at the school he was visiting.

Hanni and I are going to be visiting that same school, Marilee’s school, and giving some presentations to students there at the end of September. It’s always a thrill to visit Marilee at work – she is highly regarded by teachers and students alike. I feel proud just holding her elbow as she guides me through the school hallways. She has always taken her role as an educator very seriously, going out of her way to attend conferences and take workshops and courses in order to learn all she can about education. She has heard Arne Duncan give the keynote at more than one of those events she goes to, so I know she was especially tickled to have him visit her school.

More from the AP story:

“What we tried to do is stave off an education catastrophe,” Duncan said. He called for raising expectations, including state standards that in some places are so low that even those who meet them are unprepared for college; encouraging the best teachers to go where they are most needed – including inner city and rural areas; tracking students and turning around failing schools.

In this instance, Arne was preaching to the choir. My sister Marilee is one of those “best teachers” he is talking about, and she already opted to work where she was most needed: at “a school where most students are minorities and more than 80 percent receive free or reduced lunch, a measure of poverty.” Marilee has been an integral part of turning Jackson Middle School around. I sure am proud of her.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver was buried today. An advocate for people with physical and developmental disabilities, Shriver was a co-founder of the Special Olympics, an organization that means a lot to people at Easter Seals.

I guess I don’t talk very much about my part-time job at Easter Seals Headquarters, huh? I’m the Interactive Community Coordinator there. That’s a fancy-schmancy title that means I moderate the Easter Seals Autism Blog. You have Easter Seals to thank — or blame — for this Safe & Sound blog; it was at Easter Seals that I learned to use the blogging tools.

I’ve learned a lot about autism at Easter Seals, too, and I’ve met some pretty wonderful people who happen to have the disorder. One of them is Maurice Snell.

Maurice met Richard M. Daley when the Chicago mayor visited Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago.

Maurice Snell is a young man with a college degree and a job. Maurice also happens to have autism. Unlike many of his peers with autism, Maurice has strong cognitive skills, which make it easier for him to learn. After his first birthday, however, Maurice was nonverbal. No one had an answer until, at age six, he was diagnosed with autism.

When Maurice was seven, he and his family visited the Easter Seals Therapeutic Day School in Chicago. They liked what they saw, and Maurice was enrolled immediately. During Maurice’s 10 years at the school, a team of professionals helped him develop his speech, language and communication skills. They helped with his social skills, too: he learned to swim and play baseball, and he competed in the Special Olympics. Today, Maurice works as a classroom aide and mentor at his former school.

When I heard the sad news about Eunice Kennedy Shriver, I contacted Maurice to see if he’d be willing to give us a quote describing his experience in Special Olympics.

I was an active participant in the Special Olympics during my days at the Therapeutic School and Center for Autism Research. I enjoyed the opportunities to participate in various events and meet many different people. To me, Special Olympics kept me going throughout my life. It motivated me to achieve higher standards and make me grow as a man. I’m grateful for Special Olympics and Easter Seals’ involvement in Special Olympics.

I don’t think I can say it any better than Maurice did. So many, many, many lives have been changed for the better thanks to Eunice Kennedy Shriver’s work. Thank you, Eunice. And thank you, too, Maurice. I’m glad Special Olympics helped bring you out of your shell. And I’m really, really glad we’re friends.