Submitted by Mary Haroyan
Jonathan Gale has been a member of the Bay State council of the Blind for about 20 years and became a BSCB Life Member in 2023. He and his wife have four grown children, and currently live in Dighton with two of their grandchildren whom they have been raising.
As someone who has always been both politically active and community oriented, Jonathan serves as Chair of his Town’s Democratic committee, ADA Coordinator, Clerk of the Zoning Board and chair of the Open Space Committee. He also consults with organizations which involves traveling and educating in the arena of disability rights and affordable housing.
Jonathan remembered first hearing about BSCB from David Kingsbury, Brian Charlson and Rick Morin. He says he was drawn to the organization when learning about all of its advocacy work for people who are blind or have low vision. He envisioned himself getting involved in the advocacy work of BSCB, but as he discovered due to his family, work and community commitments, he has not been able to devote the time he wanted, directly to BSCB. This has not kept him from continuing to support BSCB through is membership. Jonathan says he admires those who are able to devote their efforts to BSCB in spite of busy lives. He was pleased to be able to show this appreciation when he made the choice to become a BSCB Life member.
In 1994 through a connection with Schepens Eye Institute, Jonathan and his wife spent 54 days tandem biking across the country to raise funds for eye research.
Jonathan loves hiking, tandem biking, traveling, and meeting and getting to know new people. He looks forward to this summer visiting his daughter in Idaho while at the same time volunteering at a summer camp for blind kids, being negatively impacted by federal funding cuts.