Tribute to Donna Covais

TRIBUTE TO DONNA COVAIS -- (Extensions of Remarks - May 04, 2004)

SPEECH OF
HON. BERNARD SANDERS
OF VERMONT
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2004

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, we live in a nation in which the mass media are so obsessed with the antics of celebrities like Michael Jackson and Donald Trump that we often forget that courage and heroism are all around us, that for many of our friends and neighbors each day is a difficult but victorious struggle against tough conditions.

I want to talk today about Donna Covais, a Vermont woman who represents what is best in American daily life. Seven years ago, Donna began to lose her sight as a result of diabetic retinopathy. A year later, she was blind. Of course, she was afflicted by despair: who wouldn't be, in those conditions?

But she did not succumb to that despair. Formerly a florist, she began taking courses at the Community College of Vermont, and through the intercession of a local business, Gardener's Supply Company, she was encouraged to begin, even though blind, a garden. What a success her foray into gardening has been! Blindness has not impeded her from making the world bloom-or from playing a vital role in our social community.

Donna Covais has won a local prize for the best use of gardening space in Burlington. She has drawn upon her experience and made a gardening video for the Vermont Association for the Blind. She has traveled to Virginia to speak before the American Horticultural Therapy Association. Donna has recently completed her degree program in horticultural therapy at Johnson State College; she's even done a practicum in the world beyond the safe harbors of college classrooms, at Essex High School in Vermont. A wife, a mother, a gardener, Donna has not let physical disability stand in the way of living a rich and fulfilling life, and giving much to the community in which she lives.

I began by saying that many of our friends and neighbors struggle with adversity and triumph over it. Let me conclude by pointing out that not only Donna, but her husband Joe, has been the master of his fate. For Joe too has suffered first deteriorating vision and then blindness, as was the case with Donna. Joe too has had to remake his life, which he has done by earning first a B.A. in psychology and the then an M.A.: he is now teaching Psychology at the Community College of Vermont, and is interested in counseling disturbed adolescents. He will be particularly qualified to bring them proof that facing life with courage, determination, and an openness toward the future can really work. Donna and Joe Covais are examples, I believe, of what is best in America and the American spirit, and I commend them for the example they have provided to all of us.

END