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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Greetings Cincinnati Federationists </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">The 2014 NFB Ohio convention was a wonderful event, and my intention was to come home and immediately write about some of its highlights for those of you who may have missed it. Life intervened, as it so often does, and I am writing th</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">at report a week later. Suffice to say that I came home to a freezing house, followed by several hours of furnace inspection, then</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">three long work days trying to make up for time lost while in Columbus, and an early Thursday flight to meetings in Portland, Oregon. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">I’m back and have now read through most of the email</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">accumulated</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"> over the last four days, and am happy to tell you that</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">, even one week later, the glow of our fabulous 2014 convention still glows brightly in my brain for sharing with you. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Highlights of th</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">e convention are perhaps too many to mention, but here are a few; </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Dr. Marc Maurer, immediate past president of the National Federation of the Blind, and his wonderful wife, Patricia Maurer, were among us the entire weekend. And when I say “among us,” I mean they were truly in our midst for every event, s</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">inging with us, bidding on our auction items, sharing a true treas</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">u</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">re trove of wisdom and insight and organizational history and philosophy. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Our fundraiser was</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">a</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">true</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"> success – from the</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">riveting presentation about his time with the Beatles in 1964 by author and federationist Arthur Schreiber to the fabulous band our state president</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">Eric Duffy</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">hired</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">to entertain the crowd with Beatles tunes,</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">to the auction itself</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">, which was well represented by both items and bids from our very own chapter. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Cincinnati was well represented in so many ways. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">First, six of our seven-person board were in attendance (and yes, kim, we truly missed you!)</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri"> Altogether, I counted 15 people from Cincinnati, and there may have been more.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"></FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">Those of you who were unable to attend this year, I want you to know you were truly missed and I do hope you’ll be with us in 2015!</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"> </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Kaiti Shelton did an amazing job of learning and leading a number of Federation songs. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Paul Dressell was his usual entertaining self dolng out thos</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">e door rpizes at every possble interval, and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">Marianne made a great presentation with NFBO board member, Debbie Baker, to share the highlights of our fabulous 2014 BELL program. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Since your own president</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">(that would be me) was the one with the bright idea to hold the board meeting Thursday night this year, President Duffy handed me the challenge of assembling some Friday morning programming that would be of particular interest to members and BSVI counselors alike. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">I did so – and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">once again was extremely proud of Cincinnati. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Two blind Cincinnatians who have not yet joined our chapter were among the speakers, and they did a fabulous job. Kelly Schlaffman, a manager at Procter and Gamble, talked about the reverse mentoring program she has initiated t</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">here, where Procter and Gamble team leaders are mentored by employees with disabilities. And</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">Dr.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">Michael Lichstein spoke beautifully about the significance of braille in his work as a psychologist. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Another</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">outstanding</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">speaker, Bob Bosken, was born and raised in Cincinnati, so we can claim him, too, although</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">he now lives in Columbus where I hope he will soon be joining chapter meetings there. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">We</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">had an outstanding group of scholarship winners this year and – you guessed it- -- they all happen to hail from Cincinnati! Elif Emir Oksuz and Kaiti Shelton are members of our chapter, and I hope Jonathan Thomas will one day be joining us as well. All three are from Cincin</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">nati. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Lillie Pennington presented on the STEM2U program. Kaiti Shelton spoke about the value of braille (even when you can see enough to read some print), and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">all of our members were loud, proud, and counted! </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">And then there was the surprise at our Awards banquet. Well, first, of course, there was Dr. Ma</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">urer’s brilliant address, which was not a surprise because any of us who have heard him before knew to look forward to it. But when the awards</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">themselves were presented, no one was as surprised or delighted as your president when the 2014 Gavel Award was presented to our ver</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">y own chapter. I am and was truly humbled by the honor and congratulate all of you on our success. And, now that we have been so warmly reco</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">g</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">nized, let’s keep</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"> moving and make our chapter even better and stronger by next time this year. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Another thrill during the awards banquet was seeing the student division recognized as the chapter on the move! M</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">any of the students who represent the vibrant spirit of that division are our own chapter members as well – including Emily and Lillie Pennington,</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"> Kaiti S</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">h</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">ehlton, Elif Emir Oksuz, and Brandon Misch</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"> I am so ha</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">p</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">py for and proud of all of you. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> </SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">A stunning piece of our Sunday morning program</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri"> was when Eric Duffy played the beautiful rendition of “The Prayer” performed by Dr. JW Smith at the wedding of Sheri and Jessie. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">It is so beautiful and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">was</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">such a lovely way for all of us to pause and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">reflect on</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">their happiness. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> </SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">There is much more that could be said about the convention and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">I hope that others who were there will chime in on those areas I may not have touched. What I want to say to every one of you is how very humbled and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">pleased</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">I am to be your president</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">and how happy</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">I was</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">each time I heard one of your voices somewhere in the lively, productive, and</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Calibri">always celebratory gatherings that made up the NFB Ohio 2014 convention!</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Let’s all keep building the Federation!</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Peace,</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Calibri">Deborah</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"></SPAN></P>
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