[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 4, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E726]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DONNA COVAIS

                                 ______
                                 

                          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.

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