Blueprint: Blind man has own needs, but puts another first

An Athens man who lost his sight a year ago hit upon the idea of making a little money by recording a CD of Christmas carols - but then donated the sales receipts to help a needy Madison County woman through the holiday.

"I thought it would be cool to make a little money for Christmas," said Michael Barnes, who ekes out a living on a limited disability income and has a modest apartment in East Athens.

Barnes, 28, was born with glaucoma and lost one eye to the disease when he was 3. But he could see with the other eye until October 2008, when an infection robbed him of the limited vision he had left.

He recorded the six-song CD of favorite seasonal songs such as "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" in his apartment with the help of a karaoke machine and some friends who know a little about making records.

He's only sold a handful of the discs at $5 each, mainly to members of his church, Central Baptist Church. But instead of keeping the money to supplement his own meager income, Barnes decided he could help someone else.

"I want to do for somebody what I want people to do for me, and that's just put out a hand," said Barnes, for whom prejudice against the blind is a fact of life.

"I've received a lot of rejections from a lot of businesses," both in shopping and in seeking a job, he said.

When he took his idea to Central Baptist's pastor, the Rev. Joel Dover, Dover thought of the Madison County woman - who also lives on disability income and recently had asked Dover if she could get some canned goods from the church's small food pantry.

She needed the food for Christmas dinner for her, her 4-year-old daughter and her teenage sons, Dover said.

Thanks to the $50 Barnes made selling his homemade Christmas album,

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