- January 2, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Ormond Beach resident Kathleen Trutschel first learned about the Lions Club when she was still a kid.
She remembers the Christmas events they hosted for the visually impaired, and as a teen, she attended one of their camps. But it wasn’t until many years later that she decided to join them.
The year was 2009 and Trutschel was hosting her annual convention at the La Playa Resort in Daytona for her nonprofit, Guide Dog Users of Florida, which she founded in 2007. The convention, called “Top Dog,” saw a large attendance from the visually impaired and blind community, many of whom flew in with their guide dogs from around the U.S. It was a lot of work, and she needed a lot of help — and the Ormond-by-the-Sea Lions Club answered the call.
“I said, ‘OK, since they helped out so much for me, I’m joining their club,’” Trutschel said.
She’s remained active since, including serving as president of the Lions Club last year. In 2021, she also received the Melvin Jones Fellowship award, which recognizes exemplary service.
Trutschel said she was surprised when she received it.
“It’s a big honor to get that,” she said.
As a kid, Trutschel had pretty good eyesight, she said, despite having been born with glaucoma. She played sports, rode her bike and all that.
About eight years ago, the retina detached in her left eye following a cornea transplant. It wasn’t painful, she said, but it was scary.
“I knew what the outcome was going to be,” she said.
Though she retained some of her independence, there was less she could do on her own. She had to rely on others — including her guide dog, M.J., whom she got in 2022.
But Trutschel doesn’t let her visual impairment get in the way of what she wants to do, whether that’s helping others or being outdoors.
“I’m a people person,” she said. “Everyone tells me I’m a people person. I love to be outdoors and out doing things. I can’t stand to sit around doing nothing.”
I believe she should be named a Standing O because Kathleen doesn't think of blindness as a deficit. She learned the skills she needed to live independently and in control of how she wanted to live her life and did not give herself any limitations.Some sighted people can't do that. She always has a smile on her face and is always ready for the next challenge and willing to help others at any time." — BOBBIE CHEH, 2024 Standing O
Trutschel was a member of the local blind rowing team when it was active (she’d love to do it again, but the team needs a coach), and she’s also part of the Braille Bandits, a beep baseball league for the visually impaired based in West Palm Beach.
Trutschel also loved to ride a tandem bike with her partner, Vaughn, who died earlier this year.
They met at the Lions Camp Trutschel attended as a teen, going their separate ways afterward. Fourteen years later, she met one of his friends in Daytona Beach, and were able to reconnect.
Bobbie Cheh, fellow OBTS Lions Club member and 2024 Standing O, described Trutschel as an “amazing person.” She doesn’t let her visual impairment stop her from living life and helping others, Cheh said.
“She learned the skills she needed to live independently and in control of how she wanted to live her life and did not give herself any limitations,” Cheh said. “Some sighted people can’t do that. She always has a smile on her face and is always ready for the next challenge and willing to help others at any time.”
When recalling the convention where they met, as Cheh was a volunteer, she said there must have been over 100 guide dogs in the room at one point. Not a bark was heard during the banquet. She remembered seeing people dancing with their guide dogs at the welcome party, too.
“It was absolutely amazing and I had never volunteered at anything like that before,” Cheh said.
Guide Dog Users of Florida remains active today. Their scope, according to the Florida Council of the Blind, consists of providing fellowship between guide dog users; education on the needs, rights and services available; and advocacy.
Members will travel to Tallahassee to fight for rights, educate business owners on what questions they’re allowed to ask when a guide dog enters an establishment, and overall, they support one another.
Like when she and a few friends tried to eat a Chinese restaurant and were denied entrance due to their guide dogs. After they filed a police report, the officer told them they were welcome to go in there and eat if they wanted to, though he said he personally wouldn’t after the way they treated them.
“I was just standing up for my rights and I said, ‘Yes, I’m going back in to show them that we’re coming in no matter what,’” Trutschel said.
People call her a daring person, Trutschel said. She likes taking on new challenges.
And she loves helping others in whatever way she can.
“I just think all the time that there’s other people out there a lot more needier than me,” Trutschel said. “They need what they can get to keep them going, make them feel better too.”
