[Mt-blind] Missoulian Article on Camp Eureka

[Edward C Robbins]

Jim,
        Thanks.  This is a great program, and it doesn't matter who
speaks for you, as long as the words taste alright.
        Thanks again for putting this on the list.
Ted Robbins
On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:59:14 -0600 "Jim Marks" <jmarks at cybrmail.com>
writes:
> Here is a link to today's Missoulian article on Camp Eureka.  I 
> copied and pasted the text of the article below my electronic 
> signature, too.  BTW, I was not interviewed for this article, so the 
> quotes attributed to me are not mine.  My guess is that Dan Burke 
> was the one who was interviewed, and the reporter confused us.  You 
> know how it is.  Put a cane in someone's hand, and we all look 
> alike, right?  In any event, the quotes are very nice, and I sure 
> wish I had said them.  Enjoy!
>  
> http://missoulian.com/articles/2006/06/20/news/local/news04.txt 
> http://missoulian.com/articles/2006/06/20/news/local/news04.txt
> Jim Marks
> mailto:jmarks at cybrmail.com jmarks at cybrmail.com
> Missoulian
> June 20, 2006
>  
> New worldview: Camp Eureka! encourages blind children to explore 
> independence
> By PERRY BACKUS of the Missoulian
>  
> Blake Edzek, 17, left, and fellow campers at Camp Eureka! are led by 
> University of Montana botanist Peter Lesica, third from left, 
> through a multi-sensory
> exploration of plant life at the Teller Wildlife Refuge on Monday 
> afternoon.
> LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian
>  
> CORVALLIS - When Geerat Vermeij was a boy, his teachers thought he 
> was joking when he told them he wanted to be a scientist studying 
> natural history when
> he grew up.
>  
> Expectations for the blind weren't that high back then.
>  
> Vermeij has since proved them wrong.
>  
> *
> With an insatiable curiosity about the natural world and some help 
> along the way from family, friends and his wife, Edith, Vermeij has 
> traveled to the far
> corners of the earth to touch, smell, taste and listen his way into 
> a better understanding of his surroundings.
>  
> Vermeij didn't let the fact that he was blind get in the way of him 
> becoming a professor of marine ecology and paleoecology at the 
> University of California
> in Davis. And he certainly didn't let it didn't stop him from 
> publishing more than 175 scientific papers and five books.
>  
> Along the way, Vermeij learned that to succeed, the blind can't 
> settle for average.
>  
> “The trouble is you can't be just as good,” Vermeij said. “You have 
> to be better and be willing to work hard to achieve the same amount 
> of success.”
>  
> For 11 Montana youngsters - each with their own visual impairment - 
> Vermeij will become a role model at this week's Camp Eureka! at the 
> Teller Wildlife
> Refuge in Corvallis.
>  
> “I may not be terribly good at it,” Vermeij said, while sitting in 
> the shade under a large willow tree. “My blindness isn't at the 
> center of my world.”
>  
> That message may be the most important one the youngsters hear 
> during the weeklong natural history camp, said University of Montana 
> Disabilities Services
> Department director Jim Marks.
>  
> Too often, society's expectations of the blind aren't high.
>  
> “Unfortunately, most blind people are unemployed and all they have 
> to do is deposit the monthly check,” Marks said. “Society's message 
> is, ‘We can take
> care of all that for you.' That's the wrong message.”
>  
> For a time, the youngsters at Camp Eureka! have a chance to hear 
> that there are no limits.
>  
> “They get to hang out with blind people,” Marks said. “They learn 
> it's OK to be blind.”
>  
> For instance, one of the requirements of the camp is the youngsters 
> need to become proficient with their canes.
>  
> “We require them to carry their canes. When some dropped them last 
> year, we invented a song, ‘Not Going to Drop My Cane by the 
> Riverside,' to encourage
> them to keep it with them at all times,” Marks said. “At first, some 
> see it as a sign of infirmity, or being different.
>  
> “We want them to think of their canes in a different way,” he said. 
> “We want them to think of their canes as part of their path to 
> independence.”
>  
> In Montana, kids living with a visual impairment are often isolated. 
> Their teachers aren't always prepared to teach the blind. And it can 
> be a rare thing
> to actually sit down and talk with someone who truly understands 
> what it means not to be able to see.
>  
> Beth Underwood wants these youngsters to know what it feels like to 
> be on level ground with their peers.
>  
> Underwood is the driving force behind the camp, now in its second 
> year. She worked as an environmental education specialist for 26 
> years at the National
> Bison Range and the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge before a 
> bout with glaucoma changed her life.
>  
> After learning Braille, getting a teaching certificate and tutoring 
> a blind preschooler, Underwood returned to what she knew best to 
> create the summertime
> nature camp for blind children.
>  
> Her goal - along with a cadre of dedicated teachers and mentors - 
> was to create a camp where blind kids would become empowered, more 
> independent and gain
> a new confidence about science.
>  
> It worked. This year, all but one of last season's campers returned 
> excited and ready for another week of learning about nature.
>  
> The camp is a partnership between the Montana Conservation Science 
> Institute, the National Federation of the Blind and Montana 
> Association for the Blind.
>  
> “We want these kids to get out and do mud-and-boots exploration,” 
> Underwood said. “We want them to begin to understand the larger 
> relationships occurring
> all around them in the natural world.
>  
> “To be able to do that, they have to develop observational skills 
> using all of their senses,” she said.
>  
> That's not an easy task, Vermeij said. In today's world, not many 
> take the time to truly explore and observe the natural world.
>  
> “That's one of the messages I hope to give,” he said. “If you really 
> want to understand the nature, you have to learn to be a good 
> observer. ... That's
> unpopular in our society where we all want center stage.”
>  
> People always like to be talking and that isn't terribly conducive 
> to studying nature, he said. “Observation is a skill, rather than a 
> born ability. It
> has to be honed.”
>  
> Reporter Perry Backus can be reached at 523-5259 or at
> mailto:pbackus at missoulian.com pbackus at missoulian.com
> .
>  
>