USD Magazine, Summer 2002

Lee Morton spends a quiet moment with guide dog Elaine.

"The majority of our board of directors and our staff is blind, so we know that people are watching to see how we do," Morton says. "We're showing that blindness isn't something you have to fear. If you lose your sight, you don't give up. You figure it out, you find a way, and you keep on trying." For information about the Blind Community Center, call ( 6 I9) 298- 5021.

their interests and match them up with others.They start to learn that they can go on." The opportunities for Morton to foster this contact are growing, but still limited. The Blind Com- munity Center in July 2000 opened a new, desperately needed three- story building in Balboa Park. The facility includes a talking book library, a Braille transcription service and a computer lab with voice-recognition software, but the group used a large portion of

its funding to finish the project and lost many of its volunteers during the transition. In addition to running the building, taking care of the budget and speaking to community groups, Morton is slowly bringing back the educa- tional, social and recreational opportunities that were lost, including a youth program, more computer training and, eventually, enough classes and activities to keep the building humming seven days a week.

Morton envisions the Blind Community Center as a place where people come together to figure out how to cope without sight. The organization, funded so lely by private donations, is designed to pick up where gov- ernment-sponso red skills and rehabilitation programs leave off. "A lot of blind people are at home, isolated and miserable," Morton says."I try to get them to come to at least one of our events so I can fi nd out about

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