Gifts from Watertown school for the blind arrive in Baghdad

October 16, 2008 02:34 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

Twenty braille typewriters and a 72-volume braille dictionary, gifts from the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, have made it across the world to a school for the blind in Baghdad.

Twenty Perkins Braillers have arrived in Baghdad.

David Morgan, general manager of Perkins Products, which makes the Perkins Brailler typewriter and other products for the blind, got the idea after watching a CNN story on the Al Noor School in Baghdad, which had 60 students, 10 of the typewriters, and no dictionary, school officials said.

The items were loaded onto a truck on Sept. 25 at the school, along with 75 new pairs of sunglasses donated by American Harley-Davidson of Leominster. They arrived at 1 p.m. Sunday Baghdad time, the school announced on its website.

“To me, it was thrilling that we could play any role at all to help them get much needed resources,” said Morgan. “I thought it was terrific”

Perkins International partnered with International Relief and Development to arrange shipping. Dr. David Elkins, an IRD official, delivered the supplies to the school. “I had a great time and feel fortunate to play a small role in getting these materials to the school... I think I put sunglasses on 40 kids or so," he wrote in an e-mail Sunday evening to the school.

CNN, in a report broadcast today, showed the staff unwrapping a Brailler and young students trying on the sunglasses.

“I thank everyone for this symbolic gift,” said one boy. “Things will be better now.”