from KAKE News – Andrew Crane knows a lot of people around Sedgwick County. With a consistent smile and a vibrancy about life, the 36-year-old Wichita man is the founder of Guiding Paws ICT. He lives the mission as he is low-vision and also lives with cerebral palsy.
His father, John David Crane, talked about when he encouraged his son to take this step. “You are going to become the face and the feet!” said Crane about his son. “He has a lot of contacts in Wichita in that’s how he can get donations. He’s not ashamed to go up and talk to anybody about it!”
The true calling from the group is to get the low vision and the blind with the resources to have a trained guide dog for the daily tasks. Guiding Paws ICT reports the cost for training and caring for a guide dog is about $45,000.
“They operate just like we do,” said John David Crane. “They just use different techniques.”
That’s also where Crane said Andrew found that motivation to offer the pathway to his asset to others.
“He said ‘Dad, I want to give back’,” said John David Crane, in describing Andrew. “A young man with the gumption to go forward and he started Guiding Paws to give back to the people who provided him with a guide dog and start working in our community.”
Back on October 12, Andrew and Guiding Paws were part of White Cane Day 2024 at the Envision Arts Gallery on East Douglas. This has been observed, around the nation, since 1964 to “acknowledge the abilities of and promote equal opportunity” for people who are blind and visually impaired. The white cane serves as the symbol for independence.