Impaired Vision and Hearing Club

The Impaired Vision and Hearing Club’s general meetings are every fourth Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in Clubhouse 3, Room 1 (except July, August and November).

The Impaired Vision Support Group meets every third Friday at 10 a.m. in Clubhouse 3, Room 6.

The Hard of Hearing Support Group meets every second Thursday at 10 a.m. in Clubhouse 3 Room 7.

On April 25, at 1:30 p.m. in Clubhouse 3, Room 1 the Impaired Vision and Hearing Club will have a guest speaker— Mindy Wulff and her guide dog Moto. Wulff is the president of the OC Guide Dogs Alumni chapter of Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB).

Guide Dogs for the Blind is the largest guide dog school in North America with more than 16,000 graduates and over 1,000 teams in the field.

Guide Dogs provides stellar guide dogs individually matched to clients free of charge. Clients benefit from veterinary financial assistance and support services through the support center, field service managers and the Alumni Association.

Guide dogs cannot be trained without the input of volunteer puppy trainers. They love, care and nurture puppies, teaching them how to behave at home and in public until they are about 15 months old. Then, the dogs go back to GDB for more formalized training with expert guide dog mobility trainers on either the Boring, Oregon, or San Rafael, California campus.

Wulff graduated in March 2020 with her 4-year-old male yellow lab Moto from the Boring, Oregon campus. Another graduate from the Oregon campus Annie Funk has had a female black lab Gwen for seven years, who is turning nine in July.

Along with Wulff and Funk, there will be two puppy raisers Gertha Rajagopal with Redding and Nika Brewster with Ford.

—Sharon Kohn

Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy in training.