Overbrook School for the Blind
64th & Malvern Ave.
Philadelphia, PA
1962 to present
My family home was
around the corner from the Overbrook School for the Blind. This massive
institution had a profound effect on all of us in my family. From taking those
kids to church on Sunday, to watching them learn to walk with canes, to passing
hundreds of seeing-eye dogs throughout my lifetime and watching young, blind,
strong athletes compete in their fields, I was consistently humbled and moved
by their tenacity and determination to minimize the effects of their blindness.
As an adult, I have only one Christmas event that interest
me: The Blind School’s Christmas Show. When I was a child, the school catered
only to blind children. Now the school only takes in children who are blind but
also have multiple disabilities. So now their needs are even greater. However,
when I go to this Christmas show, I don’t see kids with disabilities. I see
kids with big hearts, big smiles, big successes and monumental achievements. I
leave the show wiped out. All my emotions are abuzz. I leave feeling hopeful
and joyful. And when I leave this way, I’m always so surprised because I can be
so jaded.
And because the school has had such an effect on us, our
family, who knows no one at the school, designates this school as a memorial
beneficiary when we have a death in our family. This school has inspired us,
complete outsiders, beyond words.
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