Run for Sight 5k

Tim Tuthill, Director of Planning and Giving at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital and Development Director for the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired joins us to discuss this Saturday's Run for Sight 5k. 

More information can be found here: https://runsignup.com/Race/MI/Muskegon/Run4Sight

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And this is West Michigan's morning News. I see Brett
Pikita and Laurence Smith. I'm Steve Kelly. Adam Rocho is
doing a Facebook live by the way, if you don't
follow us on Facebook, Facebook, dot com, slash when Ready
you see a lot of these interviews. In studio is
Tim Tunhill, who is the director of Planning and giving.
We'll talk about the development director at ab v I

(00:22):
as your role for this conversation. Because this weekend is
the run for Site five k, and although Mary free
Bed has a lot to do with the race itself,
talk to us a little bit about who specifically this
run is set up to cater to.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
You know, our mission is to help people find independence
with blindness and low vision, and so running a five
k is something that's very common, certainly in West Michigan.
Every weekend you can find a different five k. But
what makes ours a little different is that it's accessible.
So we have guided runners, guided walkers as well as
we are starting off the race with a hand cycle race,
so we're not putting it at the end, so for

(01:01):
you know, for for people that you know want to
come for this, we're putting it at the front, so
we're highlighting like individuals with different abilities or were abled
differently in the world have front and center space for
this five K.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Talk to us about the difference that that makes for
those in that community who may have grown up hearing
about races, knowing that they're able body that they want
to pull something like this off, but there have been
some impediments.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Right, and so it's like, well, I want to participate,
but I can't because of I can't see the course
or I can't navigate the course. And what we've done
is we've we've reversed that and said, no, this course
is for you. So we had specialists look at the
route and make sure that this is very accessible not
only for a hand cyclist, but for a guided warner
or walker. And that doesn't mean that the guide is

(01:49):
doing the work. They're they're running alongside and they may
just be voicing we're we're going up an incline, or
we're going to take a left here, or we're going
to take a right here. But they're while they're connected
with a tether, they're not doing the work. They're not pulling,
they're not running ahead, they're just right side by side.
These kinds of things don't happen without organizations like ABVI.

(02:10):
This is a great awareness moment for lots of resources
that you guys offer.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
We are geared toward finding ways to make the world
an accessible place, and we do that primarily through our
vision rehabilitation program, and our vision rehab therapists go out
into the community each and every day. They're teaching people
how to use the white cane. For someone who has
macular degeneration or another disease that is taking away their vision,

(02:36):
we're working with them to keep to use that remaining
vision in different ways through magnifiers, through different therapeutic methods
and modes. But the interesting thing about vision rehab therapy
it's not reimbursed by insurance, so we raise all of
the money and the funds necessary to keep on the
program alive and going. And we are very unique in
West Michigan.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Tim, what a year in twenty twenty five put in perspective.
We're only still in August, by the way, but everything
we've been talking about the partnerships and things that are
developing here, which is so cool. We love with the
medical mile and you folks, the pediatrics, I mean, it's
just been amazing that the outreach continues not only for
the West Michigan community, but all of Michigan who uses
the resources of Mary freebat Right.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
We are looking at this as a way to bring
or make the world a smaller place. And if you
are living in communities that are a little more rural,
you can get connected with us just through the by
the ways in which our footprint goes. So we're making
it very accessible.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
What more can we do to help those of us
in the sited community. I saw a quote on your
website from Justin Bernstein, who we've had on on the
program before, talking about the progress that we're making, But
what more needs to be done and what can we do?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I think the progress is made through awareness and being
mindful that we rely regularly on our site to help
navigate the world, and other people need to navigate the
world as well, they just do it in a different way.
And so I think that you know, highlighting not only
this race, but highlighting that this is an accessible race,

(04:12):
and that there are ways to help people who are
losing their vision to be integrated into our world, not
separated from it.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
What is the best website to find out more information?
About any of it. I see Maryfrebid dot com. Slash
run for Site is where I found the information.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Right you can you can simply find us at run
for Site abv I, and then there's still time to
register or if you're you know, thinking I don't know
what Saturday looks like for me, you can still show
up at seven am and join us for an eight
thirty race. So it starts off with eight twenty eight
actually starts the hand cycle race. The five k follows that,

(04:50):
the walk follows that, and then as those runners and
walkers are coming in, we're going to start the kids dash.
So you know, we've got somebody signed up that's two
years old, and we've got somebody signed up at seventy
nine years old, so nobody gets turned away from this race.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Tim tut Hill is the director the development director for
abv I. A pleasure. Thank you so much for coming
into for having us