About The Seeing Eye

Founded in 1929, The Seeing Eye is the oldest existing guide dog school in the world. Twelve times a year, as many as 24 students at a time visit the Morristown, N.J. campus to discover the exhilarating experience of traveling with a Seeing Eye® dog.

Our students – people who are blind or visually impaired – come from all over the United States and Canada to spend up to a month training with a new Seeing Eye® dog. They range in age from 16 to senior citizens, their home environments may be rural or urban, and they may be homemakers, volunteers, or judges. But they all have this in common: They are motivated by a sense of independence and armed with the knowledge that Seeing Eye® dogs will provide an extra edge to attain success, however they may choose to define it.


What Our Graduates Tell Us

Seeing Eye® Graduate Maria Meade

The difference The Seeing Eye makes in the lives of people who are blind can best be demonstrated by the graduates themselves … people who are living their lives – some ordinary and others not-so-ordinary – enhanced by their daily experiences with their dogs. We strive to make constant improvements to our program, listening closely to what all our students have to say during exit interviews at the end of class and in surveys that take place several months after they return home.
Five years of survey results revealed the following:

• 93.4 percent said they are more mobile now than before they had a dog.
• 83 percent described their overall Seeing Eye experience as “excellent,” and 13 percent as “good.”
• 97.7 percent said they would recommend The Seeing Eye program to others.
• According to National Industries for the Blind (NIB), 70% of people who are blind are unemployed, while our graduate data shows that 70% of Seeing Eye® dog owners have jobs!

Seeing Eye® Graduate Jesse Acosta

The Seeing Eye is a philanthropy supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, bequests and other planned gifts. The school receives no government funding. In addition to one-time gifts that support our annual operating expenses, gifts may be made to the endowment, which is a long-term investment ensuring the future health of The Seeing Eye.

Support often is demonstrated in other ways, as well, whether through making a tribute gift in honor of or in memory of a loved one, asking an employer to match a contribution, purchasing Seeing Eye merchandise, or participating in a fundraising program called Pennies for Puppies®. Just as significant are the gifts made by our hundreds of volunteers, who devote their time, energy, and talents to advance The Seeing Eye mission.

Please visit SeeingEye.org/SupportUs to find out more or to make an online donation.

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Content for this page provided by The Seeing Eye, Inc., www.SeeingEye.org