How MCB helps:
Kara Sittig, MCB Supervisor and Counselor
“Empathy is the consistent thread of people working at MCB. The counselors who have thrived here can really listen and feel what their client is telling them.”
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs, MCB Counselor
“I really love this work, and I want people to see that. If I can show you the optimism that I have — based on seeing so many people thrive in their blindness — it can help them believe in the process, too.”
Brittany Taylor, MCB Counselor
“When I was in school, I wanted to do something that made a difference — a real, impactful difference in somebody's life. I didn't know exactly how or what that would be. That was the driver for me: the helping.”
Kara Sittig
“It's very moving work. You're walking into someone's home who's just been declared blind. They can be scared, angry, skeptical, apprehensive. But when you see them begin to embrace the services we can offer them, you admire their resilience and motivation.”
Brittany Taylor
“I have had such a relationship with these people for years and years now. With families and their kids. Clients from 3 years old to 65. It's just so rewarding to help them through all the stages and seasons of their life.”
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs
“I love working with students. They're my people. It's such a blessing to meet them, their families, and figure out how we can really impact their lives. To see them grow and progress? It's just everything to me.”
Tim Leahy, father of an MCB Client
“It was reassuring meeting our son's counselor for the first time. He comes through the door with his cane and instantly I knew it would all work. It all made sense. Seeing him living a capable, full life as a blind man just helped us know we would be in good, knowing hands.”
Kathleen Leahy, mother of an MCB Client
“He was just the perfect person for us; so wonderful and understanding. It was all so new to us, not knowing what MCB could do. I felt so reassured and supported that this man would help lead us through this new experience.”
Mayanne MacDonald-Briggs
“We often work with new counselors to make sure they don't get overwhelmed by the job; to focus on just making relationships with the students, the clients, the families, the teachers. If those relationships work — if there's trust in us — everything else we do will fall into place.”
Kara Sittig
“The best counselors are ones who go the extra mile. I had a client who was moving and sat with her sorting through her junk drawer and then even old wedding cards — talking about who was at her wedding. We're there for those times, those moments because we want to be.”
James Leahy, MCB Client
“I talk about MCB's counselors really as my angels. They're family. They're guides. They helped me understand that becoming blind was just the beginning of the next thing, not the end of everything.”