Last week, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) District Lodge 4 raised a record $53,000 from its fifth annual charity golf tournament to benefit GuideDogs of America/Tender Loving Canines. The organization provides free seeing-eye dogs to individuals who are visually impaired as well as rehabilitation facility dogs and service dogs for veterans and children with autism.
Receiving a guide dog through the program has been a tremendous benefit to Madeline Babcock, a recent high school graduate from Belmont, Massachusetts. Madeline was born with aniridia, a rare eye condition that has left her visually impaired. Before the Machinists bought her guide dog Enzo for her, she had to rely on a white cane to get around.
“A white cane tells you where objects are, but a guide dog takes you around them. They can find the more direct route along with identifying doors and stairs and things that a white cane can’t,” explains Madeline. “He can do traffic checks and can refuse to go forward if there’s a car coming that I don’t hear or he can speed up or back up if there’s a car coming that I didn’t know about.”
Enzo is also able to find Madeline’s family members in crowded places and identify her parents’ van when they pick her up at school so she doesn't end up getting into the wrong vehicle. While she has never let her disability control her life and has always been strongly independent, Madeline still needed someone to walk her to rest room and other tasks. But with Enzo, she no longer needs that kind of help from other people.
“I’ve gained so much more freedom and confidence because I know that he’s by my side all the time and he is there to protect me and make sure I’m safe,” said Madeline. “Guide Dogs of America has some of the best-trained guide dogs and they are really supportive and good at their jobs.”
Since Enzo arrived, the yellow lab hardly ever leaves her side and she can now take a bus to the train station and go to Boston to have lunch with friends. Her 14-year old brother Henry jokes that Madeline and the dog are practically a “married couple.” They love each other, but the fight sometimes, especially when she goes swimming because Enzo hates getting wet.
Her father Chris Babcock says the dog has completely transformed his daughter and the family’s lives.
“Our entire family is completely different because of this dog Enzo,” he said. “It’s given her a level of independence that is just remarkable and we know she’s safe because Enzo is with her. They have the best relationship and they’re so in love with each other. The dog has also made her so much more social and gregarious.”
This fall, Madeline will be attending Fairfield University in Connecticut on a full academic scholarship. An avid swimmer, she is also Paralympic hopeful. Her father says the family is incredibly grateful to the Machinists Union for what they’ve done for his daughter. He says the union men and women have become like an extended family.
“This is a quintessential story of labor. It’s about helping people you don’t know because it’s the right thing to do and it’s changed our entire life,” he said. “We are enormously devoted to the Machinists Union and Guide Dogs of America. The men and women here are so selfless and they just want to help people. I don’t think labor gets enough credit for that.”