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Last year, in Minneapolis, a group of Lions Club members gathered around the hotel welcome desk, trying to get directions to their meeting site during their Convention.
The woman behind the desk was trying to tell the men which way to turn at which corner when a blind man with a leader dog walked up to the group with a message that left them dumbfounded: "Follow me."
That man was Carroll Jackson, a 1967 graduate of the Iowa Braille and Sight-Saving School.
Leading others in a world of changing technology is a way of life for Jackson, who went on to college after graduating from IBSSS. He eventually became a principal at the Ohio institute for the Blind and the Superintendent at the Illinois facility.
Jackson returned to Vinton this week, where he shared with the Vinton Lions Club the changes he has experienced in technology and leader dog training that help a blind man who has never been to a city before safely and efficiently find his way around it.
First, Jackson showed the Lions the computer device he uses to obtain reading material. Virtually every book -- even college textbooks -- can be downloaded to the hand-held device within minutes.
Then Jackson told the Lions that while the technology for obtaining reading materials has changed, the options of on-foot transportation for blind people is the same as it was decades ago: A white cane or a leader dog.
The difference between using a cane and a dog, Jackson told the Lions, is like the difference between having a driver's license and a pilot's license.
Then he explained how GPS technology can help him find his way to any building in any city, with the help of his dog. The GPS tells him which street his is on, and which streets are near him.
"All I have to do is say 'find the door' or 'find the elevator' or 'find the room' and I am there," Jackson said.
And the dog does the rest. Once the pair has found their way in a new city, the dog remembers the doors, elevators and even the way to the hotel room, he adds.
Jackson is totally blind, but he wears glasses that look like regular prescription lenses. It fools people into thinking he has sight. At one time, he had some tunnel vision. But now, he said, he is totally blind.
The Lions laughed on Tuesday when Jackson told his story about leading the group last year in Minneapolis.
"That is not the response I got that day," he recalled.
On that day, the group of Lions looked at him silently. Finally, one of them agreed to follow Jackson. The others went along.
After the group arrived at the meeting site several blocks away from where they had begun, one of the men asked Jackson how long he had been in Minneapolis.
"It's my first day here," he said.
On another occasion, Jackson was able to use his GPS locator to tell a group of Australians how to find a restaurant for breakfast. He gave them specific directions to a Perkins restaurant. Later the group found him and told him that his directions were totally correct.
Jackson told the local Lions how he is trying to make this kind of safe and efficient mobility possible for more visually-impaired people.
Local Museum shows Lions' role in IBSSS School History
Jackson was one of hundreds of students from all over Iowa who attended school each year in that era. The student body in those years was big enough that the Iowa Rams would compete with students in athletic events from other state blind institutions from Kentucky to the Dakotas.
The IBSSS museum on the third floor of the main building includes a model of that building that Jackson had built in 1967. His signature is still clearly legible on the roof of that model.
The museum also includes relics from the history of the school's educational and residential programs. The dentist's office still has its tools. Uniforms from sports teams and cheerleaders are on display. An entire room is dedicated to the history of the IBSSS band. That room also contains proof of the long-term relationship between the Lions and IBSSS -- the band uniforms have the Lions logo on the right sleeves.
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