wbjournal.com | October 29, 2018 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
News Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
higher education)
Staff Writers
Zachary Comeau,
zcomeau@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing)
Emily Micucci,
emicucci@wbjournal.com (Health care)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub
Livia Gershon
Research Director,
Stephanie Meagher,
smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Associate Art Director,
Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
Events & Marketing Intern
Megan Irish, events@wbjournal.com
Distribution and Database Coordinator
A Guide to STUFF, a publication
of New England Business Media
Patty Harris,
pharris@nebusinessmedia.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special
issues in May, September, October, and December by New
England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester,
MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA.
Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please
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PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894.
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A division of:
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
B
ack on Oct. 17, I was blind-
folded and walked from the
Worcester Public Library to
Union Station as part of White
Cane Safety Day, a national
effort designed to raise awareness effort
about visually impaired people. e
Worcester event was organized by attor-
ney Liz Myska, who sits on the Worcester
Commission on Disabilities and herself
is visually impaired. I was put in a group
with one blind person, two sighted guides
and several MCPHS students.
To say I was at the complete mercy of
my sighted guide – an MCPHS stu-
dent who himself had been blindfolded
previously in a similar effort – would be
a complete understatement. Liz and her
team provided me with a white cane, so I
could feel where I was walking, much like
a blind person would. However, learning
the technique of feeling the ground in
front of me with the cane was difficult
in itself, and although I mastered the
tapping technique before my foot hit the
ground, it never clicked in my brain to
process what was actually in front of me. I
could have walked into the open jaws of a
fire-breathing dragon, happily tapping the
white cane the entire time.
My other senses did perk up, particu-
larly my hearing. However, I had a very
difficult time filtering out all the sounds
and sensations from the urban landscape.
To me, there was little difference between
walking on the sidewalk next to a busy
Foster Street and the actual middle of an
intersection. By the time our walk ended,
my grip on my sighted guide's arm had
loosened, but I was no way prepared to do
such a walk on my own.
Aer a brief discussion and Q&A with
the gathered crowd inside the library, I
was able to take the blindfold off. at was
the most profound part of the experience.
Visually impaired people like Liz can't
take a blindfold off. Other than expressing
my newfound realization of the difficul-
ties facing the blind, I felt there was little
I could do to make their lives better. Liz
later reached out to see if I would be inter-
ested in reporting on a program she was
trying to put together for Worcester Re-
gional Chamber of Commerce members,
to learn how they could better employ
visually impaired people. I told her WBJ
I N T H I S I S S U E
would be interested, but it sounds like her
plans are still in the initial stages.
Until something like that happens, my
main memory from White Cane Safety
Day was how much my eyes hurt aer I
took the blindfold off.
- Brad Kane, editor
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NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5 Flash Poll
11 Focus on Outstanding Women
in Business
35 The List: Top woman-owned businesses
40 The Rainmaker
41 Know How
42 Movers & Shakers
44 Photo Finish
45 Opinion
46 Shop Talk: The EcoTarium
6 WooSox vs. WeySox
Worcester's offer of $101 million for the
Pawtucket Red Sox wasn't as good as the
one Weymouth was prepared to offer the
team.
10 Vice competition
The beer industry is confident recreational
cannabis won't chip away at its market.
The guilt in removing a blindfold
