Rhett’s Victory in Overcoming Challenges!
The Denver Chapter of the Foundation Fighting Blindness would like to acknowledge a young man who is overcoming his vision challenges and exemplifying leadership for many others to follow. In many ways, Rhett Gutierrez is a typical high school student. He’s the quarterback of the high school football team, plays center on the basketball team, carries a challenging academic schedule in his school’s International Baccalaureate program, and he likes to hang out with his friends. What isn’t so typical is the challenge he faces every day to do all of these things.
Rhett is legally blind. With vision of 20/200, what most of us can see at 20 feet, looks like a distance of 200 feet for Rhett. What also isn’t typical from a person with this difficulty, is that most people would never know it. Because he is able to achieve success at a high level and to compensate for his lack of vision by making his own creative accommodations, many times people simply forget, or don’t realize, that he has a vision issue.
Upon learning of Rhett’s vision status, people are often amazed that he can play basketball and football competitively, let alone be the quarterback. His secret weapon is that he pays extreme attention when the plays are introduced and he memorizes them for the most part. Rhett missed a few weeks of playing time last season due to a fractured clavicle, but he didn’t miss a single practice. His coach said that he had been instrumental in helping a first year coach learn the offense, even though it was Rhett’s first year with this offense, as well. The injury provided him with a unique opportunity to practice his coaching skills, a profession he plans to enter after college.
Last spring in a 9News Storytellers feature, Rhett and his family were interviewed and his story highlighted to the Denver community (The response to the piece was wide and immediate in so many ways, as Rhett has received email and phone calls from strangers who have heard about his story. Many shared their own plights and expressed gratitude for his message of encouragement and success at overcoming challenges. One such outreach he received was from a local student, just two years Rhett’s junior, facing some of the same challenges from the same visual affliction. The two boys can now talk about their experiences, challenges, and successes as they navigate their ways through high school and sports. They have become fast friends.
As Rhett, and his classmates, approach the age where teens typically obtain their driver’s licenses, there has been much discussion around the Gutierrez family’s dinner table about driving. At a Foundation Fighting Blindness meeting, Rhett met a 25 year old college graduate with Stargardts Disease, the same condition that Rhett has. This young man was able to successfully pass the Colorado driver’s test, thanks to the use of a low vision aid called bi-optic lenses. Perhaps with increased research funding and support by the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the leading organization intent on eliminating retinal and other vision conditions, Rhett will be able to earn his driver’s license someday, without the need for low vision aids.
Foundation Fighting Blindness is incredibly proud of the Gutierrez family and especially, Rhett for all that he accomplishes…every single day. We are also equally proud of his little sister, Chaye, who is his tireless warrior in her loving support of her brother and her efforts to help raise money for more FFB research. Our sincere hope is that, in the near future, there will be protocols or treatments to reverse Rhett’s condition, allowing him and others visually impaired to lead normal lives without restrictions.
|
