October 2007

At KMRD Community Outreach Goes to the Dogs

Of the many ways that KMRD Partners, Inc. gives back to the community, a favorite of co-founder, Bob Dietzel, is a family effort. Dietzel’s family raised a guide dog for nearly 18 months. The family took in a puppy (Rhett) at eight weeks of age, and for the next 16 months gave him love, basic obedience and socialization training. Then they surrendered her to The Seeing Eye for final training.

Guide dogs provide sight-challenged people with the ability to be mobile. The skills that a guide dog must learn are many, including how to ignore distractions such as smells, other animals and people. They must be diligent and obedient to keep their master’s safe. Additionally, a guide dog must know to disobey any command that would put the handler in danger. This ability, called selective disobedience, is perhaps the most amazing thing about guide dogs -- that they can balance obedience with their own assessment of the situation.

Bob and his family found that training a guide dog was a great learning experience for everyone involved. It was a sad day to give back the dog for placement in a home but they left with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing their efforts would ultimately help an individual who is in need.  The puppy that they raised graduated and was assigned to a 35 year old gentleman from Ohio. Rhett is his first dog guide dog.  The Dietzel's were very pleased to hear that his new master was active in the community and the lives of his two children.  This means lots of ball games, dance recitals, soccer games, etc. for Rhett to enjoy.

About the Seeing Eye - The mission of The Seeing Eye is to enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of blind people through the use of Seeing Eye dogs.

The Seeing Eye's Vision Statement
The Seeing Eye will be an organization that concentrates on its mission to enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of blind people through the use of Seeing Eye dogs, and on improving its ability to fulfill this mission. We will maintain and nurture the spirit engendered by our founders to adhere to the highest standards of service and assure all people are treated with dignity and respect. We will minimize peripheral involvements, avoid organizational complexity, and measure the performance of the organization and its employees against our goals. We will monitor developments in our society which could affect our constituents and operations, and adapt to changing circumstances as necessary in pursuit of our mission. In the future, The Seeing Eye will continue to be, as it is in the present, the best organization of its kind in the world.

About KMRD Partners, Inc. – KMRD Partners, Inc. is a full service Property & Casualty broker serving the commercial property and casualty insurance market from offices in the Philadelphia, PA region.  Their mission statement, “Making a difference by Managing the Cost of Risk”, is a unique approach that focuses not just on insurance placement, but coverage expertise, service accountability, client education and risk management.