On January 20, 2010, former state representative Doug Spade, accompanied by Lucky, his leader dog, came and spoke to the youth at the Holy Cross Children's Services Boysville campus in Clinton about overcoming adversity in his life. Doug told the youth he was born legally blind and can only see a little bit of light if it’s bright enough. He recounted stories of growing up on a farm, and deciding he wanted to be a radio personality.

Countless doors were closed before WLEN in Adrian took a chance on the young college student and hired him part-time while he attended Adrian College. By his graduation, Doug had proven himself and went on to become the operations manager.

After 20 plus years at the radio station, Doug decided to take on a new challenge and run for state office. Again, he was told this was something a blind person couldn’t do and he was being unrealistic. He failed in his first attempt but two years later was only the second blind person to serve in the Michigan House, and the first to bring a leader dog. Doug has now set his sights on running for State Senate and if he is successful, will be the first blind Senator our state has ever had.

The boys were full of questions about daily life without your sight. During an interactive twenty-five minute sessions with the youth he fielded questions and offered responses including:

• How do you match your clothes? (Initially, someone has to tell me what matches and then I attach Braille tags)
• How are you able to pay for things if you can’t see the amount on the bill? (I fold the bills in different ways once someone tells me what denomination it is)
• How does your dog know where to go? (I can give Lucky, my fourth dog, basic commands such as forward, right and left but I have to know the route ahead of time. Lucky is also always on the lookout for dangers - curbs, barriers for repairs, tree branches etc.
• How do you visualize things when people describe things? (I visualize through my other senses, for instance fluffy clouds – I know what fluffy feels like so I imagine what they look like)
• How do you know if you want to talk to a girl if you can’t see her first? (I have an advantage being blind because I have to get to know the person inside and can’t base things on how they look)

The questions only came to an end because it was time for lunch. Doug, his sighted helper Mike Clement, Lucky and Eric Schroeder, campaign assistant, all joined the youth for lunch in the dining hall. After everyone had eaten, Doug removed Lucky’s harness so he wasn’t working and met each group one on one so everyone had a chance to pet Lucky. HCCS thanks Doug and his staff for an insightful morning.

Sometimes with all the challenges our youth face, it’s good for them to see someone with a totally different challenge to overcome and learn that if you set your mind to it, you can accomplish it. HCCS, one of Michigan’s largest private, non-profit providers of child welfare services, has been serving Michigan’s children and families for over 60 years. Last year, HCCS provided services to over 2,600 children and families from 78 of the 83 counties in the state.