1. Page 4 March 20, 2015 Simi Valley Acorn
HANDS THAT SEE
Blind teen gets personal, hands-on
tour at Los Angeles Zoo to learn about
animals through touch
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2015 Youth of the Year
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2. 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 staffed with leading board certified
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-
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BECAUSE ADVANCED CARE GOES BEYOND MEDICINE:
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OF THE VALLEY
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MEETING NOTICE
The Simi Valley Chamber
Tourism Alliance
will meet on March 26, 2015 at 10:00 AM
at the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce
located at 40 W. Cochran Street, #100
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ATTENTION SIMI VALLEY HOMEOWNERS!
THE CITY OF SIMI VALLEY HAS LOAN FUNDS AVAILABLE WITH NO
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HOME REPAIRS AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS.
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT THE CITY WEBSITE
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CITY OF SIMI VALLEY HOME REHABILITATION COORDINATOR AT
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Photos by RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers
MEET-AND-GREET—LynneGetz,adocentattheL.A.Zoo,helpsJennaBarry,aRoyalHighSchoolsophomore,
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
offers 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.
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.
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
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-
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,

3. Simi Valley Acorn March 20, 2015 Page 19
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Zoo
From 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
trict aide who works exclusively
with Jenna.
Along a path lined with na-
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
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
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-
a little nervous . . . (but after a
while) I started to feel excited
because I was touching stuff
that no one else could.”