Dorin family funds Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired student interns

Natalie Centers, a graduate student at Xavier University, began her internship this summer at Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, thanks to the establishment of the Dorin Fund, which was set up through the Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty to help improve the quality of life for those who are blind or visually impaired.
 
“George and Marion Dorin are just wonderful people,” Centers says. “I asked Mr. Dorin why he decided to do this, and he said, ‘I look out my window every day and am just so grateful that I’m able to see how beautiful the world is, and I want to help other people do that.’”
 
As a result, Centers is able to apply theory and skills from her occupational therapy coursework to assist a population of individuals who are not only blind or visually impaired, but who also have multiple disabilities.
 
“It’s not what I thought of when I thought of working at the Center for the Blind, so it adds another challenge to their lives and a lot more adversity,” Centers says. “But it’s amazing to see that despite that, they’re the most pleasant, friendliest, welcoming people in the entire world despite all the difficulties they face on a daily basis.”
 
The most meaningful part of the experience for Centers is the time she spends communicating with individuals in the Adult Day Program, she says, because it allows her to take time to really listen and get to know the people on a more intimate level than most.
 
“I’m purely there to interact and be with the consumers, and it’s played a big role for them to have someone who has the time to listen,” Centers says. “It’s been most rewarding for me to get to ask the deeper questions and find out more about their lives and the things that make you feel like you are who you are, but you don’t necessarily share when you first meet someone. And those are the things that get looked over in a population like this—what is your favorite movie, what do you do on the weekends, asking about their brothers and parents—it’s just been really neat, and it encourages them to be more social with employees and with each other.”
 
Through talking and engaging in activities with individuals at Clovernook, Centers says she’s learned that her concept of quality of life doesn’t necessarily have to equate to someone else’s.
 
“It’s all about being able to do what you can do and enjoying the things you enjoy, and it doesn’t necessarily matter what your ability level is of doing that,” Centers says. “But everybody—whether you’re verbal, not verbal, can see, can’t see, can hear, can’t hear—everyone has a purpose, and it’s really about helping them to fulfill that purpose and reach their fullest potential.”