Blind Foundation to Host Youth Retreat

It’s likely that most of the sighted middle-school students taking part in a two-day leadership retreat this weekend have seen visually impaired people going about their daily routines.

It’s probably just as certain, though, that their knowledge of blindness doesn’t extend beyond that cursory look.

To close the gap between visually impaired and sighted youth, the Foundation for the Junior Blind is hosting a weekend leadership development program that begins today at Camp Bloomfield in Malibu.

“The interaction between disabled and non-disabled youth widens their worlds [and] builds perspective, understanding and bonds,” said Dena Schulman, a foundation spokeswoman.

Sighted students from A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas and Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills will join visually impaired students in activities designed to foster understanding, teach communication skills, promote teamwork, develop social skills and address risk behaviors, Schulman said.

More than 60 youths, ages 12 to 17, will share meals and lodging, perform skits, participate in discussion groups and play games for the blind such as beeper baseball and soccer, where players listen for a beeping tone to find the ball, Schulman said.

Campers also will play a series of rope games requiring them to navigate a “spider’s web,” move in unison and make a square out of a rope while blindfolded.

The rope games will be overseen by Peter Wiere, who devised them for Rotary Outreach Program Encourages Self-esteem or ROPES, a youth leadership training program sponsored by the Calabasas and Westlake Sunrise Rotary clubs.

“At a time when young people often face a vacuum of character-building experiences,” Schulman said, “this teen retreat . . . provides models [for] positive growth.”