Removing the Blind Spot

Working at an electrical supply house at an early age ignited P1 Electrical Service Division Manager Chris Carr’s interest in the industry – and in helping others.

Chris’s first job was working for BA Electric in Warsaw, MO, when he was 16. He later moved back to Kansas City and worked at the Lee’s Summit location. After finishing his undergrad at UMKC in 2008, Chris worked for a local lighting company where he operated a bucket truck and performed service work on outdoor lighting systems.

When Chris moved into management at a large third party logistics company, he was managing a warehouse and fleet of drivers in the KC Metro, while also traveling to support other start-up operations.

“It was while doing service work that I realized I had a passion for helping people solve their problems,” Chris said.

His passion for helping people solve problems has been a great asset in his career but it has also carried over into his personal life.

Chris is married, and he and his wife Nicole have three children: two daughters, Nora (10), Aubrey (8), and a son, Mac (6).

Mac was born blind.

“We found out when he was five weeks old that Mac’s optic nerves were not fully developed and that he may have impaired vision.”

“We later discovered he had no vision at all,” Chris explained.
Mac has seen many specialists to help him with his day-to-day life since this discovery.

“Just teaching him how to eat, walk, use a white cane, and hone his speech abilities took a lot of commitment to help him thrive in the sighted world,” Chris said.

A majority of the assistance came from the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) and their Early Childhood Services, which provides education through kindergarten.

When Mac aged out of the early education program through CCVI, the Carr’s options for his continued education were the State School for the Blind or the public school system.

When looking into the options of public school, they realized that many public school districts were poorly equipped to manage the needs of a visually impaired or blind students.

That’s when Chris and Nicole came up with the idea for Blind Spot KC - a non-profit organization with the mission to bring inclusion and awareness to both the sighted and visually impaired communities and provide resources for public schools to better accommodate students with visual impairments.

“When people see a blind person, they have a tendency just to ignore them,” Chris said. “We wanted to do better, by educating people on how to interact with a visually impaired person.”

Blind Spot KC raises money at its annual gala. The gala is set up by the Carr family with help from board members. Last year’s gala was hosted at The Bardot in downtown KC, MO where they had approximately 150 people attend and raised over 140K from sponsorships and auctions (live and silent).

The funds raised support multiple causes, like technology for the blind.

“We buy digital braillers and an iPad that integrates to it so the primary classroom teacher can administer tests and assignments to the students without the need of specialized training” Chris said.

”We also buy games, like the ball-kick game that allows sighted kids to play with visually impaired kids. The sighted kids wear blind folds and the ball produces an audible beeping sound,” Chris explained.

Blind Spot KC also teams up with local organizations to host events where the sighted and visually impaired can participate in activities together.

In addition, Blind Spot KC provides funds to groups and individuals who are supporting the visually impaired community in some capacity.

One example is the “Blind Rock Climbing” at ROKC in Olathe, an event where sighted individuals are blindfolded and climb 50’ rock walls.

For the adults, there’s a “Blind Whiskey Tasting” at Apogee, a restaurant connected to ROKC.

Other events included “Dining in the Dark”, where individuals spent three hours blindfolded for drinks, dinner, and dessert at the restaurant Silo, and an event at Tall Trellis brewery for a “Blindfolded Corn Hole” competition.

Chris’s wife Nicole works full time at Children’s Mercy Hospital and runs the Blind Spot KC organization while Chris assists by managing the finances and accounting.

“I really enjoy being a part of something that is helping bridge the gap between the sighted and visually impaired community, and hope that ultimately it will help create a better world not only for my son, but the many others like him,” Chris said.

Cheers to Mac and the Carr family on the great work they’re doing with Blind Spot KC!

Small World

Chris found out about P1 from his wife, who works with the P1 plumbers at Children’s Mercy.

”Nicole frequently mentioned how amazing the plumbers at P1 were,” Chris said.

Chris was just ending a contract position with a company in Virginia, and decided to check out jobs at P1. And it paid off when he was hired as the Electrical Service Division Project Manager.

“I have enjoyed my time at P1. The culture is great, and I really appreciate the “intrapreneurial” spirit P1 promotes for its employees” Chris said.

Chris also enjoys cars, playing disc golf, camping and riding dirt bikes and 4-wheelers with his family. “Both of my girls are avid horseback riders, and all of our kids love anything involving swimming,” Chris added.

Chris says Mac especially loves anything with a motor and anything that stimulates his other senses (sound, vibration, smells.

“He has a small dirt bike with training wheels and a 4-wheeler. We often go around the neighborhood and he is very good about listening to directions while I run next to him”.