The Guide Dog Users, Inc. 2023 Convention Program: Highlights and Schedule

After three long years of cautious isolation, we in GDUI are so pleased to share our 2023 Guide Dog Users, Inc. convention program with you. There’s something here for everyone!

Do you love drawings for prizes? Plush puppies in hand-made harnesses? The suspense of wondering who will win, and who will be bringing the labbie or the golden or the GSD pup home with them? Our annual drawing is back. Watch for all of the details! Buy some tickets, and plan to attend the GDUI Luncheon and Wrap-Up event on Wednesday, July 5 to break bread with treasured friends and get answers to all of those questions!

Do you look forward to hearing from all of the guide dog schools at our conventions? This year, we’re dedicating nearly three hours to those conversations, and there’s no need to make air travel reservations for that event – because everyone can attend the Guide Dog Schools update on ZOOM!

Again this summer, we’re stocking all kinds of canine paraphernalia and offering it for sale in the GDUI Lounge! And, your favorite guide dog instructors will be welcoming you when you are wandering through exhibits, roaming through the hotel corridors and the convention center venues, and meeting and greeting and helping in the relief areas.

We have something for everyone, whether you can be with us in person in Schaumburg or you’ll be hanging out on ZOOM, no matter if you’re a seasoned guide dog owner or just beginning to wonder if a guide dog is the right life-style choice for you. Check out our convention program below, e-mail or call us at 866.799.8436 if you have questions, register for only $10.00, to attend and to help us cover our convention expenses, and make plans to get together in-person or on ZOOM. We are so happy to be planning our convention again!

Week Number One:

All events are available online or via telephone on ZOOM. Contact information will be shared with registrants via e-mail. Please note that all event times are in Central Time (CT).

Thursday, June 22, 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM, CT. The Guide Dog School Updates

Come to our double-plus session(If we skip the break, we’ll have two hours and 45 minutes!) to hear from all of the guide dog training program representatives. Learn how each program is recovering from the disruptions that COVID caused, and what they expect as each looks toward achieving a new kind of normal.

Friday, June 23, 11:30 AM, CT. A Focus on Your Guide Dogs’ Eye Health

How and what do dogs see? Do humans and dogs share some of the same eye diseases? Do some breeds commonly used as guide dogs have a predisposition to certain eye conditions?

Dr. Alexandra Van Der Woerdt, DVM, MS, DACVO, DECVO, who is Senior Veterinarian, Specialist in Ophthalmology,

Service Head of Ophthalmology,

Director of the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Institute for Postgraduate Education, at Schwarzman Animal Medical Center in New York, NY, will be answering these questions and more.

Saturday, June 24, 11:30 AM, CT. The Unique Matching Process

How do they do it? What considerations go into matching just the right dog with the person who has some unique characteristics or needs that must be addressed? how do instructors figure it out? Alyssa Otis, GDMI/Outreach Specialist, for Leader Dogs for the Blind, in Rochester Hills, MI, will describe how Leader arrives at so many perfect matches!

Week Number Two:

All events will take place at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in Schaumburg, IL. Some , but not all events will be hybrid, and podcasts of all events will be made available after convention. Please note, all scheduled events are in Central Time (CT).

Tuesday, July 4, 2:30 PM, CT Traveling to Paradise with your Guide Dog

Hawaii is blessed in so many, many ways. Its status as the only state in our nation that does not have rabies is just one of them. Hawaii aims to keep it that way! Their strict animal admittance procedures which are administered by their state Department of Agriculture, may seem daunting to guide dog users who plan to bring their dogs with them when they travel to Hawaii. But, Vickie Kennedy, a guide dog user herself, knows how to smoothly navigate those bureaucratic waters! Whether you’re traveling on a jet plane or by cruise ship Vickie, who has lived in Hawaii, for many years, loves helping to ensure that your trip to paradise is nothing but the delightful experience it should be! Come and meet Vickie Kennedy, from Ewa Beach, HI, and let her help smooth your way to paradise! This event is in-person only.

Wednesday, July 5, 12:00 PM, CT. The GDUI luncheon

Mingle with friends and their guide dogs, and enjoy the Chef’s Choice of pasta and vegetable with a dessert of white chocolate mousse cake, adorned with a blackberry coulis. This is an in-person event. Stayin the room, or connect with ZOOM for the follow-up presentations described below.

Wednesday, July 5, 1:00 PM, CT.

The GDUI Wrap-up Event

A highlight of every convention, our final wrap-up features announcements of the winners of our annual GDUI awards, drawing of the winning tickets that will decide which of our three plush pups in harness will travel to which homes of our 2023 drawing ticket winners, and the moving annual Blessing of the Guide Dogs event which honors past, present and future guide dogs, puppy raisers, handlers, and those who love them. Margie Donovan, Chair of the GDUI Awards Committee, from Folsom, CA, will introduce her committee and present the 2023 GDUI awards. Audrey Gunter and Laurel Jean Walden, from Charleston, SC, will lead the blessing.

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

retired51837@msn.com

well in advance of our June 15 deadline. We’ll be eager to hear from you.

Blessings,

Audrey, Bernie and Laurel Jean