[Community-Service] Seminar Reflections, Service Recognitions and Collective effort as a Diverse movement.

[Darian Smith]

Federation Family,
 I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon the events of the 2019 convention of the National Federation of the Blind.
I personally felt a sense of renewal  and rejuvenation by attending this years convention. 
I enjoyed reconnecting with a number of members of my and our federation family.
I had a great time supporting our affiliates in the Exhibit Hall and seeing what was new in the Independence Market.
 I enjoyed attending many of our meetings and, of course being a part of the largest general  session I have ever attended in my 14 years attending our annual family reunion.
 Of course, I attended  the community service division meeting and heard about our service project and heard from a number of participants about how much they enjoyed participating.
 I loved hearing from the service agencies that presented. My favorite presentation was the Red Cross presenter.
 I am excited to hear that this organization is building out programs that allow people who have interest in serving but do not have the resources available to them to get to serve in person the ability to remotely serve. I am interested to see how this grows and how we ensure  that the blind may participate fully in what is being rolled out.
I enjoyed hearing from Daniel Frye on Aira. What I most took away from that  presentation was that the service is meant to be a tool, a tool not unlike leveraging a cane, braille, access technology or the daily living skills that we might employ that are basic skills of blindness.        I took away, that if we leverage the service in a similar fashion, that Aira     can enhance our ability to live  the life we want. I am  interested to see how innovative we might be around leveraging this service along with the skills of blindness we have been taught and use every day to serve our community and encourage our blind brothers and sisters to rethink their abilities and worth. 

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank those who served on last years board. Janae Burgmier, Jonathan Franks, Chris Parsons,Kyra Sweeney and Johna Wright were apart of the slate of board members elected to serve our division in the year 2018-2019.
I am sorry that  we did not get to Thank them in person for their service to the board. I Have been fortunate to have worked with each of them, and  I will tell you that the division has been made better by each of these people who believe in the impact service  has on all and the power our federation philosophy has in bringing the best out of blind people so that we may raise expectations of the blind not only for the service community, but in the blind community and beyond.
In the several months since I last served as president of the division, I filled my time by taking care of matters outside of the division and the federation.  Though I needed to do these things, I did make sure to communicate to our division president that I would be here to support the transition of leadership so that it might be a more seamless time of change for her and our membership.    ,
Anyone that knows me knows that this division  has been and continues to be near and dear two me, so of course I Have kept an eye on how it has evolved over the past year. .
 I am excited to get back to the work of insuring that the Community Service Division of the National Federation of the Blind is  discovering opportunities to build up blind people through serving people and places that can benefit from our talents and skills and will accept us for who we are.
President Riccobono has said most recently  during the board meeting at convention, that our divisions are here to support the work of the federation, and I look forward to us doing just that. I know that we as a division, and as members of the federation pledge to participate actively in the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind, to secure equality of opportunity for the blind.
I look forward to seeing what our elected leaders have in store as  it relates to  inventing programming and inviting  membership to innovate and participate in what We all have built over the years. I  know that I have some ideas that I am excited to bring to the membership with the approval of our president and our board, and I encourage all who have ideas to bring them fourth to be heard and to be acted upon. 
Finally, thank you to each of our division members.  You  represent chapters,  divisions and affiliates, and you also represent a diverse cross-section of society. You are  students, and professionals, religious and atheist, Parents and educators, you love who you want, you do what you want, and you are who you are. You span the lifespan, and our country. You were born here, you immigrated here. Many of you are blind, and others are blind at heart.  At the end of the day you are people who make all of us better and our movement as a federation stronger.  Service is at it’s best with you, and the world  is as it’s best when we move together.
 I just want to remind  all of us  of these things. Diversity is not only a thing we believe in  as a federation, it is the thing that powers the love that will get us through these dark times and  I think it is important to remember this.
 So,  let’s serve, let’s get better, let’s  live the lives we want with love hope and determination
 Let’s Build the National Federation of the Blind.

 Darian Smith
Past President, National Federation of the Blind Community Service Division..