Page 4 March 20, 2015 Simi Valley Acorn

HANDS THAT SEEBlind teen gets personal, hands-on tour at Los Angeles Zoo to learn about animals through touch

LEADERSHIPBoys & Girls Club of Simi Valley names Melissa Tobey of Moorpark 2015 Youth of the Year

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EXPANDED ER6LPL�9DOOH\�+RVSLWDO�FRPSOHWHV�¿�UVW�phase of $41-million emergency department expansion project

MAKERSPACEThe Vista21 Makerspace at Vista )XQGDPHQWDO��WKH�¿�UVW�RI�LWV�NLQG�LQ�WKH�school district, opens to students today

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Simi Valley Acorn March 20, 2015 Page 13

OPEN 24 HOURS/7 DAYS FOR EMERGENCIES

Our mission is to support and collaborate with your family veterinarian to ensure exceptional healthcare for your pet.

VCA Veterinary Specialists of the Valley is staff ed with leading board certifi ed veterinary specialists and emergency doctors and a highly skilled support staff . We pride ourselves on our expertise and compassion, and strive for excellent customer service. Our emergency doctors are available 24-hours-a-day 7-days-a-week to assess and treat your pet. We will work with you and your veterinarian to get your pet through times of crisis.

BECAUSE ADVANCED CARE GOES BEYOND MEDICINE:

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MEETING NOTICEThe Simi Valley Chamber

Tourism Alliancewill meet on March 26, 2015 at 10:00 AMat the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce

located at 40 W. Cochran Street, #10012S58D

ATTENTION SIMI VALLEY HOMEOWNERS!THE CITY OF SIMI VALLEY HAS LOAN FUNDS AVAILABLE WITH NO MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO ASSIST LOW-INCOME HOMEOWNERS WITH HOME REPAIRS AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT THE CITY WEBSITE AT WWW.SIMIVALLEY.ORG/HOMEREHAB OR CONTACT THE CITY OF SIMI VALLEY HOME REHABILITATION COORDINATOR AT (805) 583-6757. 44S57D

Photos by RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

MEET-AND-GREET—Lynne Getz, a docent at the L.A. Zoo, helps Jenna Barry, a Royal High School sophomore, touch a boa snake at the zoo on March 12. Jenna, who is blind, was given a personal hands-on tour.

TALL LEG—Lynne Getz, left, guides Jenna Barry’s hands up an elephant leg bone. The L.A. Zoo off ers docent-led tours to visitors with special needs.

A touching experience� Teen ‘sees’ zoo animals with her hands

By Carissa Thilgen Special to the Acorn

Like clockwork, at 9:30 on a beautiful Southern California morning, a stream of yellow school buses pulled up outside the Children’s Discovery Center at the Los Angeles Zoo and Bo-tanical Gardens last week. Out of each poured a gaggle of eager kids whose raucous voices and laughter revealed their excitement for a day at the zoo.� $PRQJ� WKH� VWXGHQWV� ¿�OOLQJ�the sidewalk was Royal High School sophomore Jenna Barry, along with about 10 of her classmates. While they lined up with the rest of the students for their guided tours, Jenna nervously waited to embark on her own excursion—one unlike any other zoo guest experiences. Jenna is blind. The 17-year-old has optic nerve atrophy, a condition diagnosed in infancy, said her parents, Glenn and Lisa Barry. While their daughter has no central vision, she does have some peripheral sight, though not in color or great detail. Because she can’t see the animals, Jenna had never been to a zoo. But after Royal High

Zoo ready to meet special needs While Jenna’s day at the L.A. Zoo was crafted just for her, similar experiences are open to any visitor with any kind of special need. Tours will be designed just for them. Docent-led tours are available to Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association members as well as school, university or community groups through the zoo’s reservations or membership department. 2QFH�UHVHUYDWLRQV�DUH�PDGH��JURXSV�FDQ�FRQWDFW�WKH�GRFHQW�RI¿�FH�at (323) 644-4702 or docents@lazoo.org to learn about different tour options. Two weeks’ notice is required. The zoo’s Special Needs Outreach Program provides guided tours as well as off-site visits free of charge. For more informa-tion, visit www.lazoo.org.

looked into what types of ser-vices the L.A. Zoo could offer teens with special needs peers, a specialized, hands-on tour was arranged, allowing her to “see” some of the zoo’s remarkable creatures through the power of touch. “She just loves animals, especially cats,” Glenn Barry told the Acorn a few days before the March 12 tour. “I imagine they’ll let her pet something, which will just be a thrill.”

Seeing through feeling Jenna’s morning began in a classroom inside the Children’s Discovery Center. Docent Lynne Getz didn’t waste any time, immediately OHDGLQJ�WKH�WHHQ�WR�D�WDEOH�¿�OOHG�with animal pelts and bones. Getz guided Jenna’s hand over each one while describing the animal and teaching her about why they feel the way they do. First up was an otter pelt. “Feel how thick and how close all the hair is,” said Getz, a docent since 2005 who has experience working with the visually impaired. “Doesn’t that feel good?” Next they rubbed the pelt of a margay, a small feline that is native to Central and South America. Getz advised Jenna to run her hand from head to tail to get a sense of its size, and then along its claws, which retract just like the teen’s beloved house cat, Baxter. Together they examined many more specimens: the rough fur of a pronghorn ante-ORSH��D�À�XII\�UHG�IR[�SHOW��D�EDE\�bear paw, a pair of antlers, shed

snake skin and two kinds of bird nests. Jenna also felt bones—real and replica—including the skulls of a warthog, polar bear, rhinoceros, giraffe and elephant, comparing the size of their teeth and the placement of their eyes. “The zoo is about connecting people with wildlife, and a tac-tile tour for those who are visu-ally impaired is the best way we can make that connection,” said Kirin Daugharty, manager of volunteer programs. “It allows the visitor a mental takeaway that they wouldn’t otherwise have available to them. A ver-bal description of a tiger is one thing; touching a pelt, skull or claw is another.”

Though shy around strang-ers, Jenna listened intently to Getz during the classroom experience, and eventually the docent’s enthusiastic personal-ity worked its magic. Jenna began to feel more comfortable, a smile forming at — Please See Page 19

the corner of her lips. The highlight came when the 10th-grader got up-close with an elephant’s leg bone. “Right now you are stand-ing next to the bones of an elephant,” Getz told Jenna,

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ZooFrom Page 13 —

RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

ROUGH ANTLERS—Jenna Barry and Lynne Getz examine a set of antlers during a tour of the L.A. Zoo. Because Jenna is blind, she received a personal, hands-on tour, learning about animals through touch.

instructing her to reach down and feel its toes and then move upward, higher and higher. “I can’t reach it,” Jenna said with a giggle, to which Getz replied, “I know! That’s how tall an elephant is. It’s amazing, isn’t it?” The duo then left the class-room to tour the zoo grounds. Jenna walked slowly, making her way with the help of a cane and verbal assistance from her aide, as other schoolchildren ran past. If she was daunted by the noise and activity around her, or the unfamiliar environment, Jenna didn’t show it; she kept moving forward. “That’s why I think she’s so courageous, to overcome those fears and still be a normal teenager,” said Kristine Bates, a 6LPL�9DOOH\�8QL¿�HG�6FKRRO�'LV�trict aide who works exclusively with Jenna. Along a path lined with na-WLYH� FKDSDUUDO�� À�RZHUV� EORRP��trees sway in the breeze and birds dart from branch to branch. Though Jenna couldn’t see

these things, Getz helped her envision them by having her feel the leaves on the trees and VKUXEV�DQG�OLVWHQ�WR�WKH�¿�QFKHV�and sparrows as they dined at a hanging bird feeder. “She’s very detail-oriented,” Bates said of Jenna. “She’s very inquisitive. She wants to know what’s going on around her. She asks a lot of questions. And she wants to know ‘why.’” Interactive stations at the dis-covery center provided personal encounters with live animals, including a rabbit and a boa constrictor. And later Jenna met—and petted—Shetland sheep, Nigerian dwarf goats and a miniature horse at Muriel’s Ranch. She left the petting zoo with a souvenir: a piece of sheep’s wool she stuffed into her pocket for safekeeping. “When I tell my mom about my day at the zoo, she’s going to be so jealous,” Jenna said. Her last stop before meeting her classmates for lunch was a ride on the zoo’s carousel. Getz and Bates described the various DQLPDO� ¿�JXUHV� VKH� FRXOG� ULGH��and Jenna said she wanted a cat; any cat would do. So they

helped her climb aboard a lion, king of the jungle. Just like when she hopped off the bus that morning, Jenna was a bit nervous, unsure of what was about to happen.

But as the ride got going, she let her guard down, smil-ing from ear to ear as she spun round and round. “It’s been really fun,” Jenna said about her time at the zoo,

listing most of the day’s activi-WLHV�DV�IDYRULWHV��³$W�¿�UVW�,�ZDV�a little nervous . . . (but after a while) I started to feel excited because I was touching stuff that no one else could.”