The 2023 Blessing of the Guide Dogs GDUI Convention Event: Here Are All of the Details and an Important Reminder!
Audrey Gunter
We are seeking the names of your guide dogs, current, retired, and departed, to include in our Annual Blessing of the Guide Dogs convention event. Please share your memories with us soon. We need to hear from you by June 15, at the very latest!
We will Welcome Your Shared Memories and Your Attendance at the hybrid Event at 1:00 PM, CT, on July 5, 2023! If you will be unable to join us in Schaumburg, You will be able to attend the hybrid event on ZOOM.
As we get older our hair begins to gray (Some of us prefer the word, “silver!” Our once strong bodies begin to weaken just a bit. And, our memories-ah, our precious memories begin to grow a little hazy. Some of those precious memories though, remain just as vivid in our minds’ eyes and in our hearts as the moment our astonished brains locked them into our memory banks forever!
I remember the anxiety welling up in me as I sat there waiting… Is this really happening? The panic had taken up residence inside my heart.
can you do this? You’re blind! Remember? Blind people need to hang onto sighted people any time they want to do anything… Go anywhere…
Would the dog even like me?…
I had so many doubts and fears, and then –
He jumped into my arms — Tongue licking and tail wagging! At that very first lick, that very first touch, all my fears and doubts subsided, and love — an unconditional love like I’d never experienced before– crept into my heart and continued to grow stronger every day after that!
I didn’t know what I’d ever done to deserve such a huge blessing as my Zack was in my life. But, I knew that I had, indeed, been mightily blessed. I shall always be grateful.
Zack has gone onto a better place now, and his younger brother has followed. although I may not be able to touch their regal heads or stroke those soft, furry ears, the love in my heart remains with me still, even as I age and other memories dim.
Today Bernie walks by my side, carefully guiding my every step, insuring safe travels whether in a store, on the street or in our church. Each pup so very different, yet so similar. Each etching their own little section of forever in my heart. Each proven to be such a blessing!
We honor all of our guides who have brought so many blessings into our lives, as we plan the 2023 Blessing of the Guide Dogs which will wrap up our GDUI convention. We welcome all of you, whether or not you’re members of GDUI, to attend and to participate by sharing with us, your guide dogs’ names, and the names of special people in your lives as well. We Welcome Your Shared Memories and Your Attendance at the hybrid Event at 1:00 PM, CT, on July 5, 2023. Even if you can’t join us in Schaumburg, you will be able to attend via ZOOM, and a podcast will be made available soon afterward.
Laurel Jean and I are honored to have been invited once again to offer a special blessing to future and current guides; retired guides; guides that now live in our hearts but no longer walk by our sides and or anyone of particular importance in your lives.
We’ll hold this Blessing in the comfort of our living room, where it’s
nice and cool and there’s endless virtual seating space for a group of any size! The event will begin with some of Laurel Jean’s toe-tapping, finger-snapping, hand-clapping music. We will offer a few words of wit or wisdom, and begin with a prayer for future and current guides. Next we’ll recognize those guides that have hung up their harnesses and are now living a life of relaxation and retirement. Then we will honor our Guides in Glory with a special audio candlelight service in which we chime a bell after each name is called. We’ll end our service by remembering those special souls who have passed on.
To include your retired guide dogs and your Guides of Glory in our honored list, please share their names with us. We plan to host the blessing in our South Carolina living room, toward the end of June and then to share the videotape with GDUI in plenty of time for the planned convention wrap-up event at 1:00 PM, Central Time Zone, on July 5.
please send your dogs’ names to us by June 15, 2023 and please be sure to indicate if they are working, retired or deceased.
Thanks for honoring our deadline by e-mailing the information we need to
well in advance of our June 15 deadline. We’ll be eager to hear from you.
Blessings,
Audrey, Bernie and Laurel Jean