Guiding Eyes president gets new running guide dog

Guiding Eyes for the Blind President and CEO Thomas Panek has gotten a new running guide dog.

The President and CEO of Guiding Eyes, Thomas Panek, has gotten a new running guide dog in Blaze the yellow Labrador.

Blaze is two years old (around 24 in dog years), and a graduate of the Guiding Eyes Running Guides program. He is also equipped to assist Panek through ordinary daily activities as well.

In March 2019, Thomas Panek became the first blind or visually impaired person to complete the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon led entirely by a relay team of guide dogs, receiving coverage from outlets like CNN and the magazine Runner’s World.

Westley started the race for the first five miles, Waffle took over for the next five miles (with two water breaks), and then Panek’s eight year old guide dog Gus finished the event, retiring at the finish line.

According to Panek, while Blaze has big paws to fill, he is more than capable of filling them adequately and propelling Panek to his next goal of a sub-five minute mile.

“Recently the first man to finish a sub-two hour marathon, Eliud Kipcho, proved that no human is limited. My mantra is that no blind human is limited. Running with a dog is as close as we can get to a fountain of youth,” Panek said in a press release. “Thank you to Blaze’s puppy raiser, Kelly Walsh, and the community of people who fuel the passion to help Guiding Eyes achieve our mission of providing guide dogs to people with vision loss, helping them achieve their health and wellness goals.”

Guiding Eyes is a nonprofit organization that breeds, raises and trains guide dogs to assist individuals who are blind or otherwise visually impaired, and two of their human graduates recently got married after meeting during an orientation course at the Guiding Eyes main campus of Yorktown Heights, New York.

For more information and how you can help, please see the Guiding Eyes website.