You're listening to a Community Story from Be My Eyes. Hi, Be My Eyes users and volunteers. My name is Bryce Weiler. I am the co-founder and events facilitator of the Beautiful Lives Project. The Beautiful Lives Project is a national nonprofit to help individuals of all disabilities be able to live their dreams, taking part in programs with sports teams, cheerleading teams, dance teams, ballet and art programs across the country. I currently live in Claremont, Illinois and I have been helping run the Beautiful Lives Project. As the co-founder of the Beautiful Lives Project since May of 2017. That isn't the only work that I do though. I am also the disability consultant for the Baltimore Orioles. I have helped the Orioles become the first team in sports to wear braille on their jerseys to honor people who are blind, which they did back in September of 2018 when the Orioles were playing the Toronto Blue Jays. The reason for this game was that the Orioles wanted to show the importance of people who are blind learning how to read braille and how reading braille can change someone's life because it opens up the world to them. I have also helped the Orioles make both their spring training stadium accessible in Sarasota, Florida, as well as their home stadium in Camden Yards, so that fans of every disability can enjoy going to the Orioles games. Now, using the Be My Eyes app was something that I became aware of in July of 2017. One of our nonprofit staff members at the time, Tony Loiacono, was doing some camera work with the New Britain Bees. The New Britain Bees are a baseball team based in Connecticut that I have helped to do Field of Dreams Programs with as a part of my nonprofit since 2017. So, Tony was doing camera work with the New Britain Bees and he became aware of the Be My Eyes app. Tony emailed the Be My Eyes founder, Hans, and he told Hans about how he thought the Be My Eyes app was a great thing for individuals who are blind to be able to get the assistance that they needed in their everyday life. So, Tony asked me, had I ever used that app before or had I heard of it? I told him that I hadn't, so I downloaded that app to my iPhone and the first Be My Eyes call that I made was to have someone help me read the directions on a Stouffer's Potpie dinner, and that was a good phone call. It went really well, didn't have any issues with that. So the second time that I did a phone call or did a call on the Be My Eyes app, it was to warm up another microwaveable dinner and that call turned out really well. Some of the other great things that I found about using this app are the Microsoft Help Desk. Anytime, I have a problem when I'm on my laptop, on our nonprofit website, beautifullives.org, or something with my screen reader, JAWS, has been messed up, I call the Microsoft Help Desk. It doesn't matter if it's 3:00 in the morning or 12:00 in the afternoon, the staff members of Microsoft are there 24 hours a day to assist individuals who are blind, to be able to fix the issues and troubleshoot problems they may have when they're on their computer. So, that was useful for me to be able to always have the Microsoft Help Desk whenever I might need it. One recent time that I used the app was when I was in Bloomington, Illinois last year, preparing for my second day of speeches to the members of the state government who work with individuals who are blind or other disabled groups, and I wanted to go take a shower, but there were two bottles sitting on the counter of the bathroom, in the room I was in in the hotel, and they both felt about the same. I didn't know which one was shampoo and which one was conditioner. So, I called on the Be My Eyes app, and they told me that the one that I had in my hand was the conditioner. I didn't want to use that because I don't use conditioner on my hair, so I sat that bottle back on the counter, and I found the bottle that was shampoo, and I was able to go and finish doing what I needed to do to become prepared for my speech to the Illinois State Government members. That was just one of the recent times that I used Be My Eyes. I've used it so many times that it just feels as if it's a part of my everyday life, because the volunteers really care about helping everyone to be able to overcome the obstacles and challenges in their life and to be able to have a successful life, and to be successful. Everyone has the choice in their day, what they want to do with the 24 hours that they're given in a day because everyone has the same opportunity to have 24 hours in his or her day to do with as they please. For the volunteers who take part in the Be My Eyes app, using some of their 24 hours to help individuals who are blind to be successful, is a great thing. And for the people who are blind, knowing that anytime in a 24 hour day, there's someone who can answer the phone and help them if they're lost, stranded in a city, having trouble finding if it's the right bottle of shampoo or conditioner, needing the food box read to them, needing the help getting their clothes matched for that all-important job interview so they can land their dream job, those are just some of the reasons why using this app are so important for the individuals who are blind, and also for the volunteers, and also these stories talking about the members of the app who will use Be My Eyes, whether it's the volunteers or the individuals who are blind who are taking part. These stories, based on the Be My Eyes members, really shows how the app can change people's lives by always having someone there to help them, and by always being able to help others. So, it is really something that everyone should be involved in. Everyone should be interested in participating in the Be My Eyes stories because it can impact someone's life. It can show them why they should use Be My Eyes. Hopefully, you'll be inspired to use Be My Eyes, and hopefully, you'll be able to take some time to pull up my nonprofit website. If you want to be a chapter president, you want to volunteer, or you want to help set up an event or take part in an event in your part of the country or the world, we are able to help you out with all those things. Our website is www.beautifullives.org. If you would like to contact me, my email is bryce@beautifullives.org. Thank you Hans and the staff of the Be My Eyes app, for all you've done to help individuals who are blind be able to live their best life, and for the volunteers who selflessly sacrifice their time to help people who are blind be able to overcome not being able to see at all, or if they're visually impaired for having some lack of sight. This has been Bryce Weiler. Thank you for listening to my Be My Eyes story. Thank you for listening to this community story from Be My Eyes. You can share your story too. Send it to mystory@bemyeyes.com. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, download our app or visit bemyeyes.com/community-stories for more.