Vehicle big help for CNIB, VLRC

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This article was published 04/10/2024 (484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Road-trip ready, Niki Harper loads a 2024 black Chevrolet Equinox with a kit bag large enough to hold a goalie’s hockey equipment and then makes sure there’s ample room in the back seat for co-worker Andrea McIvor and McIvor’s guide dog, Hilda.

The three are about to hit the road for Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada, a sister organization to the CNIB.

The vehicle is hard to miss. On the driver and front passenger doors are the logos for the two non-profits, and on the sides of the rear doors is the emblem of the Wheat City Lions Club, and the words “Donated By,” which Harper said is “amazing.”

“We have a brand-new vehicle. That’s wonderful,” said Harper, who makes home visits for VLRC to people who are experiencing vision loss.

“I do low-vision assessments in homes after getting a referral. It’s my job to educate clients on how to use remaining vision, and I educate them on complications and what to look for,” she said.

“Sometimes people are unable to travel, or they have memory or cognitive issues, and they need to be in their home for the assessment.”

Harper’s client list can vary from 30 to 80 people, and the region she covers can be as close to Brandon as Minnedosa or as far away as Flin Flon and The Pas.

“It’s very important to be able to get where you’re going and know that your vehicle is reliable. And the fact that it’s new gives you a bit more guarantee in the reliability,” she said.

“So, we’re pretty fortunate to have the Equinox. Not every region has a Lions Club that is dedicated to vision rehab and the needs of the blindness community.”

The Wheat City Lions Club has been donating new vehicles to the CNIB for “almost 50 years,” said Jeff Sim, the charity’s secretary.

“We replace the vehicles about every five or six years, free of charge,” he said.

“The staff put a lot of miles on their vehicles visiting their clients, so we want to make sure they’ve got a good vehicle underneath, and they’re safe. Otherwise, they’d have to use their own personal cars. And that wasn’t the business model we wanted to see happen.”

The Equinox was purchased through the sale of the Lions’ Grey Cup Bonanza scratch tickets, where people try to match the football game’s score during the various quarters as well as the final score.

“On average, that Grey Cup Bonanza that we run, after all the expenses including printing, nets between $5,000 and $5,500,” Sim said.

“So, if you multiply that by six years, you’ve got more than $30,000. And that’s what a new Equinox is. We have a great working relationship with Murray Chev, and they know it’s for a non-profit and for the CNIB.”

The vehicle is shared by four drivers from both VLRC and CNIB, said CNIB Western Canada vice-president Christall Beaudry.

“We have one staff who uses the car on a regular basis, and another few who use it on a less frequent basis,” Beaudry said.

“And we’re so grateful to the Wheat City Lions for 47 years of support with providing vehicles to CNIB and Vision Loss Rehabilitation. It really affords us to stay true to our mission and deliver programs and services.”

Scheduling the Equinox is as easy as putting requested dates into an online shared calendar, said Dan Voden, VLRC’s executive director for Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

“The CNIB is the life enrichment side of the organization, providing peer support, where VLRC looks at the rehabilitative needs of people with vision loss,” said Voden.

“So, on our side of the province we serve about 1,300 people, but that’s a very underrepresented number. The majority of our clients do have some usable vision, such as seniors with macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, but we do serve a lot of people who are completely blind as well.

“Not everyone accepts the referral for vision loss. When they get a diagnosis, not everybody puts their hand up and says, ‘I want help,’ right?

“But if a person does want help with being able to do things they did prior to vision loss, we can help.”

Accompanying Harper on home visits is McIvor and her guide dog, Hilda — a seven-year-old black Labrador retriever.

McIvor is a volunteer with CNIB and works part-time for VLRC. She has low-grade optic nerve glioma, and said she went blind in 2015 when she was 17 years old and still in high school.

“That’s when I met Niki (Harper),” said McIvor, who is now a psychology major at Brandon University. She is also adept at teaching people with vision loss how to access voiceover on an iPhone, and how to use a screen reader on a computer called JAWS, which means job access with speech.

“So when I go with Niki, and there’s two clients, she can be with one and I could be with the other teaching them JAWS,” said McIvor. “But if we weren’t together, I would have to find some kind of ride-sharing service.

“And I often hear about people getting denied rides because they have a guide dog,” she said. “So when I heard we got a new car, I thought that was pretty good, especially with winter coming up. You do need a reliable vehicle.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

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