Each year, Guiding Eyes for the Blind holds a walk-a-thon fundraiser on the first Sunday in October at FDR State Park in Yorktown Heights, New York.  Since Guiding Eyes is supported solely by donations, this major fundraiser helps to continue their mission of enriching the lives of blind and visually impaired men and women by providing them with the freedom to travel safely.  It is also a homecoming of sorts as many of the participants are Guiding Eyes graduates.

I was looking forward to attending, both to see guide dogs at work and to meet the graduates and other puppy raisers and GEB staff who would be participating.  I drove down to Yorktown Heights with friends Linda and Katherine.  Paxton was the only dog that went with us, though by no means was he the only dog there.

We arrived at the hotel on Friday evening to see dogs everywhere.  I'm sure Paxton thought I'd brought him to Doggy Disney!!  I spent the evening getting acclimated to the hotel because in the morning we'd volunteered to check folks in and escort them to their rooms.

At each table there were at least two working dogs, some had 5 or 6.
The waiters walked VERY careful as they served meals!!

Check-in continued until late in the afternoon on Saturday and we finished up just in time to make the Awards Banquet where participants are honored for fundraising and other accomplishments.

"Winnie," a comely female who was lying under the chair behind us, entranced Paxton (if you look closely, you can see that she even had a pedicure, er, pawdicure? for the event)

Although he behaved well, Paxton was obviously entranced by Winnie.
"Ma, she's makin' eyes at me!"

The day of the walk dawned slightly overcast, great for walking! Linda, Katherine and I did shifts - walking (or in Katherine's case, running) and helping to impede traffic in and out of the parking lots.  An orange flag and vest - oh, the power!  Linda took Paxton for the first lap of the walk and burned off a lot of his energy.  I took him for two more laps.  On my last lap, I left him with Linda at her parking lot and got to spend some time chatting with people and seeing the guides work. It will make my transition easier to know what Paxton will be doing, when his turn to leave for training comes on April 5th.

Katherine ran the 5K, one long lap around the park. The walkers did 3 smaller loops to make a 10K walk.  Linda took Paxton on her first lap.  Since I had the camera, I have no pics of me walking, but I did, honest!!

After the run/walk, there was lunch and lots of puppies and demonstration dogs.  This one, due to go home with his new raiser after the weekend, was arguably the cutest.

On the way home we stopped at the Training Kennel for a short tour and got to visit with some of the Monroe Region dogs that were in training.  "Juliet" and "Yoga" were the most excited to see us as they'd spent some of their overnights at Katherine's and my houses.

Juliet was happy to see Katherine. Juliet is now matched with her partner and they are in training together.

Yoga was equally happy to see me.  She was bouncing so much it was difficult to get a picture!

On February 23rd, Juliet and two other dogs raise in the Monroe region will graduate with their new partners.  I hope to attend the graduation (and perhaps peek in on the new little one that might be Paxton's successor).

2006 album - http://www.guidingeyes.org/site/PhotoAlbumUser?view=UserAlbum&AlbumID=5671

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