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[Joan Peay] Pick out whichever blindfold you want and put it on.
[narrator] Members of Pennington United Methodist Church in
Nashville, Tennessee are dining in the dark
to experience blindness.
[Volunteer] Everybody got on your blindfold?
[Joan Peay] It's just hard to imaginewhat what they
go through until you actually experience it yourself.
[Volunteer] Hold the front and I'll help you get it over.
There you go.
[Volunteer] Your salad is on the left.
Your dessert is on the right. Your beverage is in the middle.
OK, I'm gonna turn out the lights now.
[Joan Peay] We're going now to be dining in the dark.
[Bill Hardison] I thought it would be difficult and
it's worse than I thought.
[Michael Clay] I just need to remember where I lay everything.
I felt the plate before I touched it.
[Gloria Calhoun] I've got lasagna all over my hand.
I don't know how much is on my fork.
Let me... I can't even find my mouth.
[Michael Clay] Definitely different.
Thank goodness it's not peas or rice or something.
[Bill Hardison] If they had fried chicken,
at least you could pick a leg up.
[Gloria Calhoun] I already spilled a glass of tea.
I wiped my hands on the bread.
And hope that I don't knock anything else over.
[narrator] Joan Peay organized this event as part of a
"change the world" weekend.
One thousand United Methodist churches all over the world
joined hands to help their communities.
This meal raised 800 dollars- and awareness- for the
Foundation Fighting Blindness, a cause close to Joan
and to others here.
[Joan Peay] I have a ten-year-old grandson who has an
eye disease that will eventually cause blindness.
[narrator] The experience was eye opening even for the guest
speaker, nurse Gloria Calhoun.
[Gloria Calhoun] I've never done this and yet I have a grandson
who has an eye disease that will lead to blindness...
I've never done this and I didn't know how long it would
take for me to eat because I didn't know where anything was.
[Michael Clay] When you see people that are blind and you
wonder about the difficulties they have to go through,
and when you experience something like this, it really brings it home.