Boys Nation Vice President Nick Frazier is blind. And his service dog/Chief of Staff is the only giveaway to that fact.
You typically hear Nick Frazier before you see him.
It’s not an insult. It’s simply reality.
Whether it’s calling to a fellow American Legion Boys Nation senator, cracking a joke, asking a question or trying to get a round of “Shabooya Roll Call” going on a bus ride, his presence is commanding. Fellow senators, and people in general, gravitate toward him. They want to talk to him. And they want to pet his dog, Morgan, who has been a fixture standing beside him, sitting at his feet or laying in the aisle on the bus throughout the week.
Oh yeah. Morgan also is his service dog.
And yeah, Nick is blind. He has been since 2019, when a swelling of the optic disc caused by a blood clot cost him his vision.
But Morgan is his only tell. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know that this year’s Boys Nation vice president can see flickers of light. Nothing more.
And that’s the way it should be.
“He never changed. Who you see today is who you saw back then,” said Nick’s mother, Tina. “He was a leader then. He was bringing the energy all the time. Extremely competitive. Hates to lose. And does not give anybody any slack. That never changed. And we were grateful and so proud of the fact who he is today is the same person who he was back then. That’s what got him through a lot of this.”
Relearning Life. But it wasn’t easy.
“When this first happened, it was very rough for me to be able to find myself again, I guess you could say,” said Nick, a rising senior at Stanhope Elmore High School in Millbrook. “I had to relearn life, and I had to find a passion for something else. I was able to fight through that, and I am here today, which has made me a person who is more mature and someone who is more understanding and not as willing to take things for granted as most people would.”
Tina said she never really brought up with Nick that he’d never see again. “I don’t think we ever talked about it. We pushed it back, I guess. Try not to act as if anything’s changed. We just went on with life and figured out what we could do to help him.”
That included getting Morgan last February to be Nick’s service animal. The Labrador-Golden Retriever mix came via Dogs, Inc., a Palmetto, Fla.-based nonprofit. Nick said Morgan’s impact goes beyond assisting him.
“I have more independence, and I feel more confident in myself,” he said. “Look at it this way: when you’re blind you have like a magnet. On one side you have the cane, which is going to repel people away from you. But then on one side you have an attractant, which is the dog. So, it’s welcoming to educate people about having a service animal. And it’s educating about being able to inform people about your different situation.”
Nick also became involved in his school’s JROTC program and has now advanced to the unit’s second-in-command. It was through a JROTC connection that Nick became aware of Alabama Boys State, where he was sponsored by American Legion Post 133 in Millbrook and eventually was elected lieutenant governor.
Excelling Elsewhere. Success is no stranger to Nick. His 4.3 grade-point average puts him first in his class of 148 students. He’s already logged around 250 hours of community service. After high school, he wants to attend either Alabama or Samford and then go to law school, eventually working in either sports or finance contract law.
“If you ever tell him he can’t do something, he’s going to do everything he can to prove to you he can. It’s just who he is,” Tina said. “He can just pick up on things. He’s in all the advanced classes. He takes college courses. He volunteers for everything.”
The American Legion’s Impact. Tina said her family has a strong military history. Her grandfather and great-grandfathers on both sides served in the military, while her oldest son, Cam Hollingsworth, is a sergeant in the Army National Guard.
“I have had veterans in my family that have fought for our country,” Nick said. “The American Legion is one of the most, if not the most, important organizations that I’ve ever been a part of. Being able to experience something to this nature – Boys Nation, Boys State – is surreal in the fact people still care about our youth. You don’t hear about it a lot.”
Tina, who accompanied Nick to Boys Nation to care for Morgan when her son was busy, was impressed with what she witnessed throughout the week.
“It’s amazing. Being around these young men here, I’m grateful I was able to be here,” she said. “But watching them embrace what Boys Nation has to offer, seeing their expressions when they hear from speakers, when they go out and visit these places – to see them really get it – is amazing.
“The opportunities they give, the doors they open, are endless. Every parent I wish could see it, could be a part of it. These are the future, all of those boys. And it’s amazing the opportunity they’ve been given.”
And as a proud mom who knows her son well, she wasn’t surprised by the way his fellow Boys Nation senators embraced him. “But it does my heart good,” she said with tears in her eyes.
The Next Chapter. Nick said his week in Arlington, Va., has flown by. But the relationships he’s developed won’t be as fleeting.
“You’ve always been told, at least I have, you’ll still know your high-school friends, maybe two or three of them, at college, and then after college you’ll be friends with maybe one or two of them. That’s just how life is. You grow distant.
“The problem with that statement isn’t that it’s wrong. It’s that it’s the wrong demographic. High school, yeah. Everybody’s going to mature and grow. But when you’re at a level like Boys Nation, everyone’s at the same stage in life. And it’s a miracle to be able to see people write their chapters in the same structure that you are as an author. And being able to connect with them outside of Boys Nation, ultimately, is just going to be the easiest thing.”
And while Boys Nation will come to a close, Nick will go on, as he always has.
“This is a great chapter in a book,” he said. “And every book’s going to have its downfalls, and every book’s going to have its twists and turns. Once this week is over, it will close this chapter. But another one will start.
“What Boys Nation will bring with me for the rest of my life is a legacy that I’ll never forget and something that I want to pass down to my kids and grandkids and future generations after me.”
- Boys Nation