It was business as usual at the Sierra Services for the Blind on Thursday. Clients met in a private room for a group counseling session. In the reception area, an employee fielded phone calls and waited to drive clients home. And Richard Crandall was writing a grant proposal in his office.

The only difference between this day and any other in the past 14 years was that Crandall was working as a volunteer, not the agency's executive director, his job of 14 years.

"I will do everything I can to keep this place alive," Crandall said, placing his palms firmly on his desk. "Somehow I've always managed to trip over something and pull it out at the last minute. This time I couldn't."



Director's position suspended

Crandall and his board of directors decided to eliminate Crandall's position at their monthly meeting on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to keep servicing the agency's 350 clients. Crandall's salary of $33,000 - almost one-third of the agency's budget of $103,000 - was the only expense that the nonprofit could cut while continuing to provide transportation, counseling and education to the area's blind and visually impaired, 95 percent of whom are seniors. Among the agency's senior clients, 44 percent are over the age of 85.

Working on a shoestring budget, driving clients to medical appointments as far away as Sacramento in a GM Astro van with 146,000 miles on its odometer, the small staff has been squeaking by. Recently, when the van needed service, Tripp's Auto Body and Paint Shop in Grass Valley repaired it for free.



Why are funds down?

"We've been cutting every year for five years. We've cut supply costs. We've cut personnel," Crandall said, during a discussion in which he candidly described his fundraising efforts in the last five years and what he perceives as a lack of community support for "a forgotten issue."

"This community is worn out," Crandall said, when asked to pinpoint the falloff in donations to the agency.

When Crandall started his job in 1992, he said there were only a dozen or so nonprofits in the area compared to more than 300 vying for donors today. The most significant loss for Sierra Services for the Blind have been $100 donations, what Crandall calls "the middle class donation." While he didn't blame anybody for wanting to support their local school or another charity, he felt that the community was being squeezed and there was only so much money to go around.

Crandall also suggested that for some of the community's Bay Area transplants, services to the visually impaired is not a fashionable cause, or one they are even aware of when it comes time to take out their checkbooks.

The agency's size also prevents it from applying for grants from larger foundations that don't want to mete out their millions in $20,000 and $30,000 grants to small organizations, according to Crandall.

Board member David Ayala said that another fundraising problem facing the agency has been dwindling funding for the elderly in general. Many foundations have turned to specific causes, restricting their giving to youth organizations or organizations that specialize in education, Ayala said. Four years ago he gave up his position at the agency because of budget cuts, but he's still advocating for the group. He says that board members have even gone to the offices of local politicians to lobby for funds from the State Department of Rehabilitation, to no avail.

"There's always things that could have been done better, but it's not that we haven't talked ourselves blue in the face about his subject," said Ayala. "I'm in the process of writing letters to all of the Lions Clubs right now."

Last year Crandall wrote 10 grant proposals and received two grants. One came from Catholic Health Care West and the other was a state Community Services Block Grant. The two awards comprised about 10 percent of the agency's budget.

Besides sending out regular appeals to their mailing lists, the group's annual fundraisers include a Rotary dinner dance, a golf tournament at Auburn's Ridge Club, a yearly raffle, and a $100 a plate abalone dinner, which is coming up on Sept. 23.



Services are critical

For more than 25 years, Sierra Services for the Blind has offered its staff and office as a touchstone for those who have lost their sight. The most difficult obstacle for someone with failing vision is the depression that accompanies the loss of mobility and self-sufficiency, said Crandall. Vision loss compounds whatever other health issues a person might have. It affects one's ability to exercise, eat and maintain a healthy lifestyle. A task as simple as getting to a doctor's appointment can become a logistical challenge.

As of Thursday, the agency had only two paid employees. Carol McNally works full-time as the office manager and driver. Frank Durham is the agency's program specialist, a position that must be performed by a blind person. Durham counsels clients and teaches them independent living skills. Because he still receives Supplemental Security Income, he is limited to 24 hours a week, which actually helps the agency keep him employed. Both employees make $9.50 an hour with no benefits.

"They'll come in angry, scared, depressed. We talk about the loss," said Crandall. The first question he tries to answer for the clients that he counsels is, "What do we do now?"

Woody Hanson, 86, of Grass Valley, has been a client for six years, ever since he was diagnosed with macular degeneration.

"It just looks like a foggy day out there," he said, describing his eyesight.

Hanson talked about the experience of slowly losing his eyesight as "devastating."

"There are so many things you have to depend on somebody else for. You have to change your whole thinking. You don't have that self-respect that you had before. And you're hesitant to ask people; I can't even check the oil on my car."

He said that the counseling he gets from Sierra Services of the Blind is a blessing, and he looks forward to group meetings every week. What he enjoys most about the sessions, he says, is connecting with other seniors who share his difficulties.

A person is legally blind when their vision reaches 20/200 or worse, which means they have a radius of sight of less than 10 degrees. Visual impairment can occur slowly and is caused by disease and malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization. While diseases such as glaucoma and cataracts are the most common causes of reduced vision, age-related macular degeneration also plays a role. In a community such as Nevada County where 16 percent of the population is over 65, this points to a possible need for increased services for the visually impaired in the future.

During a financial crisis in 2002, the agency was able to hold out for a promised bequest of $100,000 which ultimately came through, Ayala said. The nonprofit is currently operating in crisis mode. He said that the board meets weekly now and unless donations flow in, Durham and McNally might lose their jobs. Because most of the services the agency offers are people-oriented, like counseling and transportation, such a fate might mean the end of crucial services for its clients, many of whom are home-bound with no spouse or family member to assist them.

"We're taking it one day at a time," said Ayala.