Youth and Young Adult Programs

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Meet Elana Regan and her yellow lab guide dog, Lynna. They sit together in a park.

[ELANA]
My name is Elana Regan and my new guide dog's name is Lynna.

Meeting Lynna for the first time - it was amazing. Um, I was just so excited - we got on the ground together, and we cuddled. It was, it was just so great!

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Elana laughs in a photo with Lynna.

[ELANA]
My first experience with Guide Dogs for the Blind was when I went to Camp GDB in 2019.

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Elana and her fellow campers toast marshmallows around a campfire.

[ELANA]
And at camp we did so many different things about the guide dog lifestyle. We just learned about what it was like to take care of a dog...

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Elana and a friend groom dogs.

[ELANA]
And we got to walk with a guide dog. So that was my first experience walking with a guide. And I feel like it really cemented in my mind that I wanted to get one.

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Elana walks with a yellow lab guide dog and a guide dog instructor.

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Elana rides a tandem bicycle with a camp volunteer.

[ELANA]
I would definitely recommend Camp GDB to any young person, whether you're considering getting a guide dog or not. It's just a very good learning experience.

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
A Camp GDB group poses in front of a waterfall.

[ELANA]
I still stay in contact with a lot of my friends from camp. Um, and a lot of my friends from camp have gotten guide dogs of their own. And we just talk about having our guides now... and... I really chop that all up to Camp GDB and how good a program it is.

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
A Camp GDB group waves at the camera.

[ELANA]
Everything I've heard about Guide Dogs for the Blind, and everything that I've learned, had really made me want to choose this school. Even though I live in Massachusetts, I wanted to come out here because of the support that they have, and the way they train the dogs, and just all the people here that are just so great.

The difference between traveling with a cane and a guide dog is pretty diff - they're pretty big differences. Um, the cane, you have to stop and find the objects you've run into and then kind of creep around them. And Lynna just brings me around them. And we just move a lot faster. Um, I'm a pretty fast walker to begin with, but um, definitely with Lynna we're just clipping along. We're moving, and we're grooving, and it's just a great feeling to walk with her.

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Elana and Lynna walk with their guide dog instructor on a winding path.

[ELANA]
It makes me feel so good. It makes me feel like we can do anything. It makes me very confident to go home, um, and just start introducing Lynna to my life.

Lynna and I will be graduating high school in two weeks, and then I'm going off to Brandeis University in January.

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Photos at graduation.

[ELANA]
I think having Lynna with me at college will definitely impact my college experience. But I think it'll be for the better. Um, people love dogs, so I think that adds to the social aspect of college and forming those relationships. Um, and she will let me get anywhere I need to go, anywhere I want to go, so, um, I feel like she really opens up the opportunities for what I can do and where I can go in college.

Um, if I could send a message to um, the donors and the people that made me having Lynna possible, I would say, thank you so much, because I wouldn't, I definitely will not have the same life that I had before, and it's just going to be better. And keep doing what you're doing, because you can help so many people - like me - who are looking for a new mobility tool, and a friend for life. So ... thank you!

[AUDIO DESCRIPTION]
Elana and Lynna at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

[NARRATOR]
For more information about Guide Dogs for the Blind, please visit our website at guidedogs.com or call us at 800.295.4050.