Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome to the taking the lead podcast, where we empower people to be unstoppable. I'm Christina Hepner with my co-host Leslie Hoskins and Timothy Kuo guys. I cannot believe we're already in the midst of summer and traveling and so many fun things. I have such a packed summer. Going to a couple places in Michigan, a couple beach towns excited about that, going to Charleston for bachelorette, you know, just, I don't I'm like, when am I gonna have time to do
Leslie: anything else, but travel you're you're not,
Christina: it's the first summer that, you know, people are getting out.
Leslie: That's very true. Timothy, what are you up to this summer? I know we talked a little bit about it, but, well, we went to the
Timothy: NP convention and, uh, we still, you know, I've got my cruise in August. The end of August, and then we're going to Wisconsin in September and, and that's, I mean, I'm training glacier.
She's been working well with the four by four box that I've built her and she's potting in there. And that's for the [00:01:00] training for the, uh, crew that we going on. And, and it's just exciting time to be doing stuff. And I'm,
Leslie: I'm glad we're doing it. That's awesome. I AER international is happening right now, which is a big conference for, um, certified orientation and mobility specialists and teachers of the visually impaired and all sorts of different things.
I'm really excited about that. It's a great way to network and connect and really share all the things that leader dog has going on. And this podcast, we like to promote this, cuz we talk about all the things we have going on, but so many people still don't know that we are more than guy dogs. And that is like my number one message.
Anywhere I go for a conference or presentation, anything like that is we are more. Because usually people will see guide dogs and sometimes they're like, oh, I don't work with anybody who has a guide dog. Or I don't have a guide dog, or I'm not interested in a guide dog, but we're always like, wait, wait, we have so much more.
I'm really looking forward to sharing all of those wonderful resources. And then this fall, we've got a couple other big conferences. So yeah, the summer's just flying by camp has already [00:02:00] happened, which was amazing. We had such a group, great group of kids and I, I just can't believe how fast it's going. I
Christina: know I'm like slowed down, please.
It's gonna be winter and I'm , I'm not ready for that. I mean, Timothy, you are probably ready for winter because it it's nice down. But, um,
Timothy: winters are not harsh here. Winters are not harsh. Well, it did snow the last year. Oh yeah. I mean early this year. So, uh, eh, well we
Leslie: just don't like snow. It snowed right.
The one day that you were recording for liter dog. And I remember,
Timothy: yeah, when I was recording for liter dog, it was snow everywhere. Snowmageddon,
Leslie: Snowmageddon, listen, glacier. You had to have expected that right. With a dog, with the name glacier.
Timothy: Well, when I first got her, I thought she was gonna melt down here.
So today, uh, that's suppose we've had hundreds and stuff like that in Georgia this year. So it's, uh, pretty rough.
Rita: We've
Leslie: had . We were about
Christina: to say the same thing. We've had real hot temperatures for Michigan. We've gotten into the nineties, a hundreds. [00:03:00] Today is supposed to be a hot one too.
Leslie: So I think it's funny, cuz I, we always laugh.
Right? I use Southern folk when it snows, just like a little dusting and you guys all shut down and you don't know what to do. We're the same. I think when it gets into the hundreds, nineties or hundreds, we're like, we can't go outside. We can't possibly do anything. Like the world shuts down. I literally melt mm-hmm we can't do it.
well, and it's funny too, you know or interesting. We think of our dogs when they're out training. You know, in the winter we put those little booties on 'em, but sometimes we have to put those little booties on 'em in the summer too. Cuz the pavement gets so hot and our ONM clients out here and guide dog clients training, we have to plan accordingly.
So in the winter, you know, we might drive to an intersection and hop out really quick, cuz it's really cold and, and do some training and then hop back in the car to warm up. And sometimes in the summer we have to actually do the same thing because. Too hot. And so we'll drive so that we can be in the air conditioning.
Timothy: Yeah. Glacier hates her booties. Glacier hates her booties. She can. It's like when you put the agenda leader on her, she's just not happy about it. So
Christina: yeah, my [00:04:00] personal dog doesn't duke does not like his booties. He, uh, cannot walk in them. He acts like he, I have a dramatic dog. I don't know where he gets it from, but he cannot walk.
He'll just stop and stare at me. I.
Leslie: No, that's one of my favorite things is to watch the dogs put the booties on. It's like they, they completely freeze up. They have no idea what to do sometimes. And they just look at you, like, why, why are you doing this? Um, they don't know that it's for their own good, but my personal pet dog actually freezes up.
If you put any sort of costume on her. Uh, so for Halloween, it's actually really convenient. Sometimes if you dress her up, she just. Like she does not move. She thinks that she's lost all mobility. It is the funniest thing. So, you know, do we take the quick photo? And then we let her out of there,
Christina: but yeah, dogs are the best.
I mean, we could talk about them
Leslie: four days. I know we could, we could, and summer's flying by all that good stuff, but let's get to the good stuff today. [00:05:00] Today's guest believes in living life to the fullest. She has been a speaker for leader dog. She is a lion, a nonprofit leader of her own and has attended leader dog for both orientation, mobility and guide dog training.
Christina: Rita Harris is the founder and CEO of living life team incorporated, which provides a support system for the blind and visually impaired. She serves on the ADA committee for the Heartsfield Atlanta airport and serves local and district levels of Alliance club international foundation, including she's the second vice district governor in Georgia and Rita is also a certified peer supporter through the Georgia peer support training and mentor.
Timothy: Hello, Rita. Welcome to the podcast. It's great to have a fellow Georgian here. Go dogs. but can you first start off and talk about your experience of going blind?
Rita: Oh, absolutely. Thank you. It is a pleasure and a joy to be here today. Um, oh gosh, [00:06:00] to answer your question on elaborating on my experiences of going blind, where do I start?
Well, my vision family is due to RP, which is retinitis pigmentosa. And it started well when. Experienced a significant amount of vision loss was around 2002, and it really threw me for a loop. I, it was totally unexpected. Um, so I went from being this extremely high, energetic, fun, loving life to the fullest person to like going downhill to.
Depression withdrawal feeling ashamed that you know, the whole nine yard. But then, um, once I came out of that dart hole of [00:07:00] throwing a pity party for myself, my life started to be on and puppet. I was out for mission.
Leslie: What helped you get through that? How did you pull yourself out of that? We talk a lot about depression and blindness and how they go hand in hand.
A lot of times, uh, what were some of the things that helped you get out of.
Rita: Well with me, not when I first experienced a vision loss with me, not knowing anyone else, um, who was blind or vision impaired, did not know of any resources. I felt like I was alone. So I really, um, it kind of pulled me away from my foundation of which I was raised all my life, which was.
My, uh, my belief in faith belief in God, um, whom I was very always well grounded in, but I felt like God had, I, God had literally deserted me. I was just absolutely deserted. So, um, but [00:08:00] then when you have that belief that had been embedded in you, even though you've kind of, um, Build away from it is always there.
You hear that voice, that quiet voice to kind of pull you back. And it pulled me back. I was connected with, um, a resource, which was Georgia's vocational rehabilitation agency. And when I was assigned a mobility instructor, it started from. I began to see the light again. Um, I had a glimpse of hope that my life was not over my life was really just beginning, so to speak.
Timothy: So how did you find leader dog? When you went through this with the evoke rehab, how did you eventually find leader dog?
Rita: Oh, wow. That was one of the most wonderful times of my life. I, um, I did very [00:09:00] well with my mobility instructor through vote rehab. And once I mastered the skills, he actually was the one that recommended leaders.
Blind for me. I had never heard of leader dog for the blind. And, um, he asked me, you know, would I consider, you know, traveling to Michigan, you know, getting connected for the accelerated orientation, mobility training. And so that was my first connection with leader dog for the
Leslie: blind. And I have to ask, cuz we met during that time, when you came up for orientation mobility, it was January of what year do you know.
Rita: Square of 2015,
Leslie: 2015. Okay. Um, yeah, because I remember. Specifically that week, where that Rita came to what we were calling jam, which is the first week of January, the week we do ONM. It's always super cold and snowy it's right after the first of the year. And it's a really fun group because we [00:10:00] not only have clients in from all over, but we have our full ONM team working plus contingent O and Mt.
Members and Western Michigan practicum students. So it is like so much fun to get everybody together. But Rita's group, especially, I don't remember all of the things, but I know we had so much fun that week. Like we laughed so much.
Rita: It was absolutely amazing. I mean, I got Georgia I didn't no. So I was like, Saw in a can store when I saw all the snow.
Leslie: Oh my gosh. And you were matched with the perfect O and M instructor. Uh, Lynn, he is one of our contingent team members who lives in Louisiana and he comes up to help us with different weeks because we wanna be able to serve as many people as we possibly can. And. We don't have like a full big team. Um, so we do bring in contingent team members and you two were so great.
You were the perfect match because they both were loving the snow, doing snow angels going for all these extra walks up into the Hills and things like that. [00:11:00] Whereas the rest of us were like, get on the bus. It's so cool. This is terrible. But these two Southern folks were like, this is great, cuz it's only one week of their lives.
Yeah. Right.
Christina: one week versus, you know, the rest of us years of our. Rita. So you came for both orientation and mobility, I guess. What was that deciding factor? Cause you just said you had never heard of leader or dog before. What was that deciding factor for you? That said, okay, I'm gonna take a flight to Michigan and come.
And see what leader dog is all about.
Rita: Well, at that time, when, um, my ONM instructor introduced me to the white tip came, I had never even heard of a white tip cane before. And so when I was starting to learn the cane skills and it just opened up a whole new door and mind frame for me as well. So when he mentioned leader dog for the blind, I just wanted to dive in.
First and see what it [00:12:00] was all about. Even though I was a little, um, reserved about flying, you know, alone for the first time, you know, um, since experience and vision law, I was determined. I would not let that hold me back. I just wanted to just go and just indulge and learn and just, you know, and, and block them basical.
Leslie: Well, thank you for taking that leap and getting on that plane and coming. Um, and hopefully it's been a very positive experience since I do really wanna quickly talk about that. You were able to receive VO rehab through your state, which is an incredible, um, I know we've talked about on the podcast before, how sometimes it's really challenging for clients to receive services through their state because they don't qualify or various other reasons.
So, um, I think that's incredible that you were able to get services through your state and that you had such a positive experience and we would always. Always encourage clients to try to get services through their state, because we're going to only be in addition to [00:13:00] those services. So we're not gonna take away from anything.
We strongly, strongly encourage that. Um, so I just think that's incredible.
Rita: Absolutely.
Timothy: So you came back and got a guide dog. His name is mad. So how much has Madden changed your
Rita: life? Oh my gosh. My life has not been the same and nor will it ever be the. I mean, I went from even using the can, um, mad with Madden.
You have, it's just a total different level of independence because if I had not, um, chose the God dog route, I don't personally, I don't feel I would have it settled. in areas that you know, that I have, for an example, um, traveling solo, I, you know, travel solo, but I don't think it would be to the extent.
Without Madden because I will go anywhere and everywhere, um, with, with my God dog, of [00:14:00] course. Um, because I don't have to with the cane, I can't tell the cane to, you know, find my purse or take me to the ladies room or, you know, You know, I get out of the car. I don't have to have anyone to, and I use no, no employee assistance from the airport.
You know, I just tell Madden, take me to security. Um, find an escalator, an elevator, or just whatever I need. I tell him and he does it. And so it is it what mad in your independence is just really. In hands, really in hands.
Christina: So that is amazing Rita. And you know, you just talked about the airport, you're on the ADA committee for your Atlanta airport.
How did you get onto that committee and what is it like for you to sit on that committee and have a voice on that?
Rita: Okay. And once again, it goes back [00:15:00] to Madden. Madden is the reason I own the ADA committee. Um, I was, um, president of the G G D U, which is Georgia guide users at that particular time. And one of the projects that was being implemented, um, well, when I stepped into the position of president, um, was implementing, um, Cat relief areas inside the secured areas of the airport.
And when it was finished, um, the director of the, the, uh, coordinator director of ADN customer experience asked me if I would attend the press relief, press relief conference, um, you know, to speak on behalf of Georgia, God, about users. And I did. And after that, um, he was very impressed and. Invited me to join the ADA committee to be able to give [00:16:00] insight on, um, making the airport 100% ADA compliance for travelers with disability.
Leslie: I love that. I think that is so awesome. And what an important role and what an important voice to have on that committee to share your experiences and really advocate for all guide dog users, um, and, or just service dog users in general, not just guide dogs. I think that's so great. And so tell us all the other things.
So you're a part of the lions club international foundation. You're in vice district governor. What does all that mean?
Rita: It means serve, serve, serve . And I have to say that, you know, since I went through such a terrible ordeal, um, of transitioning from independent to dependent, and once I overcame that and came out of that literally dark place in my life, I made a [00:17:00] commitment of lifetime.
To God that, um, you know, because, um, vote rehab leader, dog for the blind poured into my life. And I gained, regained my independence that my life would never be about myself. Never again, that my life would be 100%, um, committed to serving and helping others. And that is what, um, drew me to the lion. And I have been serving ever since.
Um, I've served in my local club as, um, in Madison, as president two consecutive years. I've served on the district level as reading action, chairperson, um, zone chairperson. And now I am district second vice district governor elect. So as of. First, um, the elect will drop and it will be ized district governor, and it just keeps going [00:18:00] from there.
And it's all about doing what you can do to help others, um, in need where there's a lion, um, where there's a need. There's a lion
Christina: that is amazing Rita. And not only are you a lines member, but you started a whole organization, nonprofit that supports people who are blind or visually impaired. So you're not only doing that as line you're doing.
As, as your life, you're the CEO of living life team incorporated. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Rita: Yes, yes. Um, yes, I start and once again, it goes back to me wanting to help others, to keep them from going, you know, through a difficult transition, um, when experience and vision loss. So in 2000 we've been in existence since 2016, living life came incorporated and, um, And what we do.
We have a, and I always like to use the word unique because we, unlike none other, we have a unique support system for people who are [00:19:00] blind or visually impaired, um, through a, under the umbrella, we have a support group. We also also workshop trainings. We use certified, um, ONM instructor. And we provide workshop trainings to teach orientation, mobility, anything from, um, organizing medication that any, anything that covers, um, under daily living skills.
And we also do unique, well, I say outside of the. Activities and outing things that the, nor the average person with vision laws can't imagine doing, you know, um, that they used to do when they could see, um, we like horseback riding kayaking. Oh my gosh. Um, tandem bike riding. Even blind dart, throwing, beat baseball.
I mean, you name it. We pretty [00:20:00] much bring it to them, experiencing them, going to the movie theater, um, using the audio descriptive headset bowling because whatever they did before they had vision loss. They can still do it now. Just have to find a different method of technique for doing it. And it's all about them feeling good about themselves and, um, gaining their self-esteem and confidence, which then leads to want wanting to regain their independence.
And then you can live life to the full.
Leslie: I absolutely love that. I know you've said that about everything that you're doing, but Rita, we wanna thank you for not only being a lion for starting this nonprofit to help other people. Reach a level of independence and help other people who are blind or visually impaired who may not have additional resources.
We wanna thank you for being an ambassador for leader, dog, sharing your experience for joining us on the podcast. All of the amazing things that you are doing, you are an incredible [00:21:00] woman. We're so excited to have you as part of the leader, dog, family. And again, thank you for being here today. We also wanna thank all of you for listening to the taking the lead podcast.
I am Leslie Hoskins with host Timothy CUO and Christina Hoeppner. We hope you enjoyed learning all about Rita's experience. Um, her nonprofit, all of the things, check her out and please do join us next week as we continue to dive into the world of blindness. Yes. And if you'd
Christina: like to learn more about applying to leader dog, you can head to leader, dog.org or call us at eight eight.
7 7 7 5 3 3 2. And don't forget, you can reach us at taking the lead at leader, dog.org with any questions or ideas. And if you'd like to learn more about Rita's mission, you can head to living life team.net. And if you'd like today's podcast, make sure to hit subscribe and check us out wherever podcast street.