Guide Dog School in Financial Trouble

For 32 years, Guide Dogs of the Desert International accepted students with special challenges: the man whose limp spooked most dogs, the elderly woman who could only guide from the right and the man with shaky balance who needed a dog for sight and support.

Now, the school faces a different challenge: raising the $750,000 needed to keep its doors open.

“We need cash reserves to keep moving forward,” said Brian Van Dusen, a member of the school’s board of directors and finance committee. “The $750,000 is enough to cut back, reorganize and move forward.”

The school, in White Water, near Palm Springs, has enough cash to last through February and needs the additional funds to continue operations. Already, the school’s board of directors has trimmed the budget from $1.3 million to $880,000, laid off 21 employees and canceled its monthlong February class, which trains students and their new guide dogs.

Guide Dogs of the Desert, one of three prominent guide dog schools in the state, offers free services for its students, helping people from as far east as New York and as far north as Canada. The training class is offered six times a year, and each class has an enrollment of five or six students. Graduates may also receive funds for emergency veterinary bills and on-site training.

“We can’t let our prospective students down or our graduates down,” said Karen Reynolds, president of the school’s board of directors. “We have 200 teams [of clients and dogs] out there. What about their emergencies, their vet bills or their pet insurance? What if the dog just doesn’t want to cross the street and they need a follow-up trainer to go out and help them -- who will do that?”

Guide Dogs of the Desert breeds Labrador and golden retrievers and poodles and is experimenting with the “Labradoodle,” a mix of a Labrador and a poodle. The school spends $28,000 to $30,000 per dog on training, health expenses and care, Reynolds said. She estimated that the school spends $8,000 to $10,000 per class on transportation, training trips and meals.

Board member Cynthia Woods, a 1999 graduate, has a guide dog who is not scared to fly in small airplanes, a necessity since Woods’ husband is a private pilot. When her Labrador retriever retired, an on-site trainer journeyed to Woods’ home in Phoenix to train another.

“A cane is like a hand tool, a very old-fashioned one at that, and a guide dog is like a power tool giving the mobility, the freedom, the independence and the confidence,” Woods said.

The school had depended on individual donations and a primary funder, the Canyon Country Club Charitable Foundation, for money. Every year, the foundation held a golf tournament at the Canyon Country Club in Palm Springs to benefit the school, earning an estimated $300,000, Reynolds said. But a disagreement about the school’s next executive director caused the organizations to part ways in 2000.

“That happened four years ago, and we had a steady flow of cash,” said Joe Hayden, the school’s acting administrator and a board member. “Then 9/11 hit, and the flow went down to a trickle.”

Hayden said the school was able to sustain itself for two years with cash reserves while applying for grants, which did not come through. In spring 2003, the school created a direct mail campaign to reach its donor base. So far, it has raised $114,000 through donations. Last fall, the school was denied a loan.

This month, the school’s licensed guide dog trainer resigned. Without a licensed trainer, the California State Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind can suspend the school’s license.

In their last attempt to raise funds, the board of directors put a portion of the campus up for sale. That portion houses two newly built dormitories, a dining hall and an auditorium. Still, many believe a successful sale will not be enough.

Renata Rafferty, who served as acting executive director for the school for almost two years and specializes in advising charities, foundations and private donors, believes the school might not be salvageable.

“The financial challenges are virtually insurmountable,” Rafferty said.

That news saddens Marilyn Bilderback, 60, who had been scheduled as a student in the February class. Bilderback, who lives in Tempe, Ariz., has retinitis pigmentosa, a condition in which her retina gradually disintegrates, robbing her of sight. She stopped driving in 1987 and began relying on her husband for everything from transportation to her nail polish color.

Bilderback said a guide dog would have given her both independence and confidence. Now, she is waiting to see if another school will accept her or if Guide Dogs of the Desert will survive.

“You get all worked up and excited, especially when they give you a date to come. You have something definite to shoot for,” Bilderback said. “I couldn’t believe they did that. I feel sorry for the school, but I feel sorry for me too. It’s just terribly disappointing.”

To help the school, send donations to:

Guide Dogs of the Desert International, P.O. Box 1692, Palm Springs, CA 92263