For the Thrill of It

For the Thrill of It

The Braille Monitor

January,

2004

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For the Thrill of It

by

Lohr McKinstry

From the Editor: The

following news story first appeared in the February 8, 2003, edition of the

Press Republican, in Plattsburgh, New York. Some of the details about Braille

classroom equipment are garbled, but the spirit of this active, normal boy shines

through in the reporter's words. In the spirit of winter fun, here is the story:

Blaise Bryant doesn't see

the bobsled run when he hurtles down it on his small sled. Some people might

close their eyes out of fear as they plunge along at forty miles an hour on

a steel sled down a narrow, ice covered track, but Blaise doesn't have that

luxury.

Blind since birth, the

eleven-year-old Moriah Elementary School student steers the bobsled by

instinct.

He counts turns, each of which has a name, and knows just when to turn, when

to lean, and how high to go on the icy sides to find that perfect racing

line.

"I have the track mapped in my head," he said. "I can tell where

the turns are. We start at 'Shady,' which is a wicked big turn. I can just

feel

it in my body."

He must be doing something

right. Blaise and his sister Joy won the gold medal in bobsledding for the

eight

to twelve years age class at the 2000 Empire State Games in Lake Placid. In

the Pee Wee Bobsled Championships last year, they won the bronze medal for

best

time and the award for most consistent sledding. This year they took a silver

medal for best time.

Joy is twelve years old.

She and Blaise switch off on driver and brakeman duties on the pee wee sled,

which is about one quarter

the size of a regular bobsled.

"She's

usually my teammate," Blaise said. "I do fight with her, though."

Piloting

a little sled down a long track runs in the Bryant family. Blaise's father,

Daniel, was a skeleton racer for fifteen years and was part of the World Cup

team. His mother is Marla Rodriguez of Port Henry.

"My

father talked about it; that's how I got interested," Blaise said.

"His dad was a skeleton

team captain right

up to when it became an Olympic sport," said Moriah Elementary Principal

William Larrow. "Blaise takes after him."

Blaise

started bobsledding three years ago. "It was awesome," he said. "My

classmates thought it was awesome too."

It's

not his only interest. His favorite subjects in school are spelling and geography.

In fact he just won the school championship in the National Geographic Magazine

Geography Bee at Moriah.

"The

[final] question was: the currencies of Mexico and Argentina? I said peso. When

they told me I'd won, I couldn't talk for thirty seconds."

For

his win he received a medal, a cash award, and a certificate.

Blaise

is in fifth grade at Moriah, and he's usually well prepared for his schoolwork,

said his teacher, Gail Baker.

"He's

lots of fun," she said. "He listens so carefully that he finds humor

in things other kids miss."

Blaise has an aide, Lynn

Anderson, who works with him. "He has a Brailler in class, and he types

his answers," Baker said. The Perkins Brailler is a typewriter like device

that can translate the raised dot system of Braille into written English. Blaise

also has a set of Braille textbooks, and Anderson translates into Braille for

him.

"He's

a great little guy," Larrow said. "He's very pleasant. We enjoy having

him at Moriah."

One of Blaise's other pursuits

is pee wee football; he has played center for three years.

"The

coaches and the other players tell me where to go. I just kind of feel my way

through."

The

coaches line him up in the right direction, Larrow said. "He knows where

to go. He does it." Blaise has excellent orientation and mobility, Larrow

said. "He can travel the community on his own. He functions very well in

the school. He gets around."

When Blaise gets out of

school, he's not sure what career he wants to follow. It might be teaching,

but it's hard to tell if he's serious when he smiles and says, "I think

about doing a bunch of stuff. But maybe I'll be a teacher. A wacky teacher.

The teachers here are nice and wacky."

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