Find out which fundraising efforts the judges chose as best of show in our 2006 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“Dear Reader, Imagine yourself on your 40th birthday — you’re a successful businessman, with a daughter about to go off to college … a great life … and now, a wonderful surprise party! Then, as I began to open my birthday cards, my life collapsed — I discovered I could not read the cards.”

Salpietro continues on to tell how he was declared legally blind and how Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation helped him get a guide dog, which changed his life and enabled him to do things he never thought would be possible again. The letter discusses the guide dogs, the training that’s involved for both the dog and its human partner, and the costs of such a program. Throughout the letter are black-and-white photos of Salpietro with his guide dog.