Hi everyone! Thought you might be interested - the Lighthouse of the Big Bend Summer Transition Students were able to experience swimming with dolphins yesterday as a part of their end-of-the-year trip. Very fun to watch them interact with these amazing creatures : ) Articles are below, and click on the links to see the videos. Enjoy! - Barbara *Visually impaired kids get a chance to swim with dolphins* http://www.newsherald.com/news/impaired-85843-dolphin-swim.html August 03, 2010 06:17:00 AM KATHERINE CONCEPCION / News Herald Writer<http://www.newsherald.com/reporter-profile/katherine-concepcion-newsheraldwriter-1591> PANAMA CITY BEACH — A group of visually-impaired teenagers got the unique opportunity to swim with a dolphin at Gulf World Marine Park on Monday. Breonna Willis, 17, and Chance Jackson, 14, two of the 13 person group and both Tallahassee residents said being up close to a dolphin was a new experience for them. “At first I was scared, but you never get a chance to [swim with them] so I got over my fear and I’m glad I did,” said Willis, who wants to major in psychology and become a therapist. Jackson, who aspires to be a business entrepreneur, has gotten a lot of useful experience by participating in a high school transition summer program at the Lighthouse of the Big Bend. Big Bend brought the group to Gulf World. “We learn different skills like how to budget money, learning about different jobs, how to dress appropriately,” he said. Jackson was born with optic nerve hypoplasia, is unable to see out of his left eye and has minimal sight in his right eye. He related his experiences with visual impairment to those of a dolphin using echolocation to maneuver through water. “People with visual impairments can have a heightened sense of everything else, so we can have an idea of how it is for them to not have a sense that we don’t have either, so we have to adapt and they have adapted too,” he said. The participants were happy about bonding with each other during the last week of the summer program. “When we’re in a big group like this we’ve got to learn how to get along, said Willis. “We do bump heads, but we’re like a big family.” Lighthouse of the Big Bend, a nonprofit agency which provides free outreach and group services to legally blind individuals residing in one of the eleven Big Bend counties which includes Franklin, Gadsden and Liberty counties. All participants in the high school program are between the ages of 14-20. “We have a large variety of students we serve,” said Amanda Bernath, teacher of the visually impaired at the Lighthouse of the Big Bend. Bernath, who is proficient in Braille, was inspired to pursue teaching the visually impaired by chance during her college career. “I decided to do elementary education as my major and the school sent different representatives to our education learning dorm, one of them Brailled our names.” The chance to swim with dolphins during the last week of the summer program was a reward for the hardest working students. “They worked to get points and develop different daily living skills or assisted technology skills,” said Bernath. “They worked hard for this.” Although Gulf World offers a daily reservation-only opportunity to swim with dolphins, this was the first time they had hosted an event for a nonprofit benefiting individuals with special needs. Pam George, marketing director for Gulf World said the experience may lead to reaching out to other organizations for future events. “The group is wonderful,” said George. “What do you do if you lose your vision? It’s a panic, so I can totally understand why you would need a support group like this.” For more information about the Lighthouse of the Big Bend, visit http://www.firesight.org --- *Gulf World Hosts Visually Impaired Students* 08/02/10 - 09:14 PM http://www.panhandleparade.com/index.php/mbb/article/gulf_world_hosts_visually_impaired_students/mbb7725100/#ixzz0vZqPXJ9r <http://www.northwestfloridaonline.com/panhandleparade/images/gallery/firstframes/02aug10_awalker_dolphins.jpg><http://www.northwestfloridaonline.com/panhandleparade/images/gallery/firstframes/02aug10_awalker_dolphins.jpg><http://www.northwestfloridaonline.com/panhandleparade/images/gallery/firstframes/02aug10_awalker_dolphins.jpg> *Bay County**, Fla**: * Gulf World hosts several opportunities to swim with dolphins, but a special group of blind and visually impaired students got the experience of a lifetime today. The group is Lighthouse of the Big Bend, a non-profit organization from Tallahassee. The group works with special needs children through age 20 to provide life skills. For many of those students today, meeting dolphins face-to-face was the chance of a lifetime. Swimming with dolphins isn’t an experience many enjoy during the course of a lifetime. That’s why this group of visually impaired and blind students out of Tallahassee are soaking up every detail. One of the directors, Amanda Bernath, describes the group chosen to attend, “This is our transition group. We’re ages 14-20 so they’re transitioning from high school to the next phase in life whether it’s college or career.” Bernath says that the field trip to Gulf World to swim with the dolphins has a specific purpose. “I am so thrilled for these students. It really is once-in-a-lifetime for them, unparalleled concept development that they were able to experience. Such a large mammal in front of them. They got to touch the belly, touch the back, touch the fins…how powerful they were with the swim. That’s not something that you can describe accurately in words.” Students with the group stood amazed as they got to interact with the dolphins. One student, Michael Fleming, describes his experience, “my favorite part was swimming with her and touching her…to feel how it is to feel a dolphin.” Fleming says the experience was more than he could have imagined after learning about dolphins in a classroom. “I think it was pretty awesome because I learned more today than what we actually learned at lighthouse…stuff that I never knew about dolphins.” The group will return to Tallahassee on Thursday with a new learning experience and plenty of memories. They’d like to thank Gulf World for hosting them today. Lighthouse of the Big Bend “*Guiding People Through Vision Loss*” *NEW LOCATION!** ** **3071 **Highland Oaks Terrace** **Tallahassee, FL 32301** * (850) 942-3658 x 201 Fax: (850) 943-4518 bross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.lighthousebigbend.org *~ Please consider the environment before printing this email ~*