“I want to counsel families of children with disabilities,” says Blake Tucker, an active, energetic and outgoing 18 year old high school graduate from Camp Verde. “That, or be a massage therapist!” At an age when most teens are just forming career ideas, Blake knows his goal is to help people.
When Sun Sounds of Arizona, through a partnership with the Foundation for Blind Children Independent Living Training Program, offered him a summer internship, Blake hesitated. The 5-week program meant living away from home for the first time, taking the bus by himself, and leaving behind, even temporarily, all that was familiar-- intimidating for most teens, and perhaps more of a challenge for Blake, who has been blind since birth. But Blake says he soon realized this was a chance he just couldn’t pass up!
Two days a week, Blake interns at Sun Sounds of Arizona, a radio reading and audio information access service for people who cannot read print. Staff members at Sun Sounds of Arizona are impressed with Blake’s positive attitude and outgoing personality – no matter what his task at hand. Blake helps staff and other volunteers with mailings, on-line research using specially-adapted computers, and office tasks, and he always does it with a smile on his face. He’s learned social and business skills, basic radio operations, and most of all, self-reliance.
“This internship has given me the confidence to go out and experience the world, and to consider attending college away from home.”
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Heidi Capriotti, Marketing Coordinator - Sun Sounds of Arizona
