Monthly Archives: April 2010

Kristie Smith-Armand / Dallas Morning News

blaze n. A brilliant burst of fire. A bright or steady light or glare: the blaze of the desert sun.

Blake Lindsey is not only an author, a full-time employee for The Lighthouse for the Blind in Dallas as a communications specialist, but is also a weekly host, for Zig Ziglar’s weekly Inspire Podcast, at www.ziglar.com/podcast and a dear friend of Mr. Ziglar, one of the most popular and sought after motivational speakers in our country. Zig Ziglar wrote, “You may have heard Blake Lindsay’s voice on Zig Ziglar’s Inspire podcast – now you need to hear Blake Lindsay’s powerful message of hope! Blake has been a radio announcer, Ziglar employee, and published author. He has accomplished more in his life than many people twice his age – and all without the gift of sight.

PHOTO: Blazin’ Blake Lindsey and Wolfman Jack

On the side, he performs radio and TV commercials for a variety of companies nationwide, and TV shows such as Dream by Faith with Sherry Bronson on the ION Television nationwide network . Blake also does voice narration projects for PowerPoint presentations and more as well as owning his own company, Blazin’ Blake Productions. His resume is long and covers such accomplishments as twenty-two years as a Disc Jockey; seven years with KISS-FM in Dallas, and a year, with KLUV also here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He has also worked in San Antonio and Austin radio markets.

Even though Blake was born with perfect vision, at nine months, his eyes were removed because of a cancerous and sometimes fatal condition called Retinoblastoma. However, Blake does not allow his vision impairment to stop him from having a wonderful attitude and love for life, people, animals, and Braille. He does admit, however, that in his earlier years, he was not a fan of Louis Braille or his difficult to learn code, but with the assistance of a wise vision teacher, Mrs. Davidson, who read him, The Little Engine That Could he began to understand and learned how to read Braille although it was quite difficult.

Blake says now that he could not imagine his life without Braille, the code of raised dots for reading and writing that brings literacy, independence, and productivity to the blind.

When he was asked what advice he could give to children who have a visual impairment, Blake says simply, “Children should be as grateful as ever, for fairly new opportunities that didn’t exist thirty short years ago. Today’s assistive technology is making a huge improvement in our lives, and independence. We have an extra opportunity also, to inspire others, with our every day simple success. Looking well groomed and dressed for the day. Wearing a big smile on our faces, showing people we aren’t allowing loss of sight to bother us in the least. Young people with no sight impairment should follow the same guidelines, and keep that big smile on, to show we love life to the fullest. Not every day will seem like a perfect day, but out of seven days a week, I usually have five or six very good ones,” and quickly adds, ” I like those numbers.”

Blazin’ Blake Lindsey has many successes, but feels that one of his greatest accomplishment, is his book, Out of Sight Living. Out of Sight Living takes the reader on a journey of Blake Lindsay’s life from the time he was diagnosed as a baby with Retnoblastoma, a condition that left him totally blind, to his present day life.

The stories in this book generate hope, laughter, and awareness of the challenges and successes that blind people experience not only on a daily basis, but throughout their entire lives.

An easy to follow journey with a powerful message, Out of Sight Living serves as proof that someone with a physical challenge can be handi-capable.

Blazin Blake Lindsey is, as Webster Dictionary defines ‘blazin’- ” A brilliant burst of fire. A bright or steady light or glare: the blaze of the desert sun whose fire burns brighter because of obstacles overcome.

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