Thousands To Walk Saturday For Southeastern Guide Dogs

If you want to know all about the Southeastern Guide Dogs, look for Anne Brown at the organization’s 25th Annual Walkathon on Saturday.

Brown, who has been a volunteer for more than eight years, not only speaks with extensive knowledge of the work that the North Manatee County nonprofit does to provide working guide doges for the visually impaired, but she bubbles over with enthusiasm for its mission.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” she said of the Walkathon, the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Southeastern Guide Dogs. “The reward for raising the money is knowing where it’s going.”

The Walkathon will be at a new location this year and will have more of a street festival atmosphere, said Jennifer Bement, a public relation specialist for Southeastern Guide Dogs.

“It will be at Rossi Park (along the Manatee River in downtown Bradenton),” Bement said. “We wanted a place with a little more scenery.”

Registration for the Walkathon will begin at 8 a.m., with NBC Daytime television personality Cyndi Edwards hosting the opening ceremonies at 8:45 a.m.

The walk around the 1-mile course begins at 9 a.m., Bement said.

“Participants can walk around the course as many times as they want,” she said.

While people are walking, others can enjoy the food booths, clowns making animal balloons, a children's train ride, pet-related vendors (including the Southeastern Guide Dog gift shop) and music by the De Lei’e Parrot.

The Out-of-Door Academy Drum Line will also be there.

A silent acution and a raffle with a $10,000 grand prize will be held at 11 a.m.

Participants their own amounts of the pledge for each mile they walk.

Last year around 1,800 people participated, Bement said, raising more than $300,000.

“This year we anticipated 2,000 or more, and our goal is $350,000,” she said. “We’re already halfway there with pledges.”

Brown, a retired antiques dealer who moved to Parrish with her husband, Lloyd, 10 years ago from the Cleveland area, has already collected $4,420.

By raising at least $3,500, a donor gets the naming rights for one of the puppies born at the Southeastern Guide Dog campus at 4210 77th St. E., north of Palmetto.

Last year, Brown and her neighbors raised the $3,500 and named a puppy Lexie, short for Lexington, the subdivision where she and her neighbors live.

“It was a great way to pull the neighbors together,” she said. “The appeal was that the guide dogs are provided to people at no charge.”

Spreading the message of what the Southeastern Guide Dogs does was even easier this year and a lot of fun for Brown this year.

She volunteers with the Ambassador program, where dogs that went through training but just don't make it as guide dogs are taken out to meet the public.

“Because they are well trained and good in crowds, we use them in the speaker’s bureau program,” Brown said.

The animals go to schools, hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities where people need a distraction.

“We take them to the surgery waiting room at Manatee Memorial Hospital,” Brown said, “We found it makes a difference. It takes people’s mind off the worry for their loved one in surgery.

“They will talk to the dogs, telling them all about why they’re there,” she said.

Brown also has been going to shopping centers to help raise awareness and money for the Walkathon with Ambassador Saxon, a 2½-year-old rough coat collie.

“People see Saxon’s Ambassador jacket and come up to us wanting to know who we are,” she said. “The children love to hug the dog and we get to talk to the adults.”

Besides the donations, the reward for Brown is that people hear about the good things Southeastern Guide Dogs does.

“What’s interesting – and it never fails – if we have three dogs with us,” she said, “We get three dollars.”