The Arkansas Beginning of the World Services for the Blind
By: Bob Clausen
Updated: September 18, 2012
He never promised anyone their sight back, but did promise a life they no longer saw themselves capable of living.
"We are the only facility that does what we do in the entire world," said Tony Woodell of The World Services for the Blind.
In the late 1940's Roy Kumpe, who lost his sight as a child, was on a mission. After getting his Law Degree from UALR, he wasn't about to sit at home in the dark. He didn't want any blind person to succumb to the disability of not being able to see.
So he created a place for people like him.
"To learn how to cook, how to sew how to make a bed how to pour coffee an not get burned. All of these basic things," said Woodell.
"It was a life changer to go from being able to do some things that I was once able to do, to a visually impaired lifestyle" said Breon Fuller who is legally blind and attending World Services.
Over the years, World Services reputation grew as a pioneering facility for the blind.
Blind men and women from all 50 States and as many as 60 countries have found their way to the Little Rock campus and went back home changed men and woman.
Fuller says the time there changes people.
"There is a point of denial where you are like this is not happening to me," says Breon Fuller, a student at the World Services for the Blind, "Then at a point in time you realize if I'm going to be the person I want to be I have to get over this and keep on living"
From day one, people here have to depend on themselves its part of the learning process.
As times change they depend more and more on Technology that helps them read, use the internet and find jobs.
In fact, Woodell says 83 percent of grads found employment after graduation.
Technology costs money, and recently a name change came about to try and bring in more donors.
"After it was named Lions World Services for the Blind we realized that limited our fundraising a bit," Woodell says, "All the people were thinking the Lions are the only group supporting us."
So while the Lion proudly remains at his post at the Little Rock campus, it's no longer in front of the name.
But what happens here has not changed.
"It's a life changing experience for almost all our clients," Woodell says.
That's reflected in Breon Fuller's experience.
"I feel better as I whole my health is getting better outlook on life is better the future seems brighter than before," Fuller says.
That's exactly how Roy Kumpe saw decades ago.
