Under sleepshades, students quickly gain self-confidence and come to trust the blindness skills they are practicing. Modeled after our Center, the Louisiana Center is run by Joanne Wilson, a graduate of the Iowa program. We have incorporated several ideas we gathered from the Louisiana Center into our program. Each new student, for example, is now assigned a fellow student as a mentor to help in the adjustment to Center life. Probably the biggest change, however, is the Center's new sleepshade policy.
Students now wear sleepshades from eight to five, with an hour break at lunch if they wish.
Sleepshades are also becoming a greater part of outside activities. As a result of this change, both staff and students have already noticed that students are developing more quickly a high level of self-confidence and proficiency in the alternative techniques of blindness. The Easter Rabbit died in a surfing board accident at Lacuna Beach, Hawaii, on May 6 under suspicious circumstances. Larry Sidwell, cane travel instructor at the Adult Orientation and Adjustment Center, alleges that Rabbit, who disappeared from the Center just before Easter, had secretly stowed himself away in the luggage Sidwell and his wife took on their Hawaiian vacation. A witness to the mishap, Sidwell claims that his rescue efforts were unsuccessful and that Rabbit never resurfaced after disappearing under the waves.