Volunteer 'can see better' than those with sight

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Ruby Rieder’s plaque from the city’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program names her 2001 Volunteer of the Year.

   Ruby Rieder, blind since birth, remembers well what nearly crippled her early in life.
   It wasn't her inability to see, but those who were blind to what she was capable of.
   In grade school, a teacher wanted her to go away to a school for the blind; Ruby's father said no.
   When Ruby was about to enter high school, her mother had to go before the Sinton school board and convince trustees to give her daughter a chance and admit the school district's first blind student.
   Volunteer of the Year
   Today, Rieder, 69, named 2001 Volunteer of the Year by the city's Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, uses her valuable insight to give people with disabilities a voice in issues that matter most to them.
   "Somebody has to care," Rieder said of those for whom she advocates. "Helping them makes me feel needed."
   Her most extensive work has been with the Corpus Christi State School's Human Rights Committee, where she serves as community representative hearing grievances and making quality-of-life recommendations to the facility on behalf of state school residents.
   "Ruby can see better than a whole lot of us who have sight," said Jon Stephen Harwood, who volunteers alongside Rieder on a Regional Transportation Authority committee that works to improve B-Line bus service for the disabled. "She goes to the heart of the issues that need addressing and is very vocal when trying to help her fellow man."
   Facing challenges
   Rieder, who earned a master's degree in rehabilitation teaching from Western Michigan University in 1968 and worked 10 years with the Texas Commission for the Blind in Austin, faced yet another challenge six years ago.
   She lost the use of her legs because of a progressive disease that affects the nerves and leads to paralysis of the extremities.
   Rieder said she has had days when she felt sorry for herself, but that didn't last very long, she said.
   She never acted helpless growing up blind, she said, and she wasn't about to start when she needed to use a wheelchair.
   "I believe very strongly in God and decided to do the best that I can," Rieder said.
   It's that personal courage and can-do attitude that Harwood, 51, admires.
   'She's such an inspiration'
   "Personally, she's such an inspiration to me," said Harwood, who has cerebral palsy, is blind in one eye and depends on a motorized chair to get around.
   "No matter what I'm going through, she inspires me to keep on truckin.'"
   Another person Rieder has inspired is state school chaplain Tom Dowdy, who recalled one occasion in particular that showed what lengths Rieder would go to for the people she cares deeply about.
   "One time the weather was so bad, she wasn't able to make it outside, so she sat in her wheelchair at home on the speakerphone and we held a two-hour meeting with her," Dowdy said.
   "She is amazing. She doesn't let obstacles get in her way, and she appreciates the value of life and life's opportunities."
   Staying home and retreating from life, Rieder said, would be just mere existence.
   "I don't want to merely exist," she said.
   "God still has a purpose for me."