[il-talk] Illinois Independent, Fall 2016

Tue Oct 18 02:54:06 UTC 2016

Dear Bill,

Convention is from October 28 to October 30, with most events on the 29th. The online registration is closed, but you are welcome to register at the door. Please contact Patti Chang, who is making name tags and working with the hotel about meal planning. You can reach her at pattischang at gmail.com or (773) 307-6440. I hope you can join us!

Debbie

-----Original Message-----
From: IL-Talk [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of William Balis via IL-Talk
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2016 5:52 PM
To: NFB of Illinois Mailing List <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: William Balis <billbalis at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [il-talk] Illinois Independent, Fall 2016

Thanks for the information! When is the convention? Is there a cost to come I do not need overnight accomodations? Thanks! Bill
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 10/17/16, Deborah Kent Stein via IL-Talk <il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

 Subject: [il-talk] Illinois Independent, Fall 2016
 To: "'NFB of Illinois Mailing List'" <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
 Cc: "Deborah Kent Stein" <dkent5817 at att.net>
 Date: Monday, October 17, 2016, 4:28 PM

 ILLINOIS INDEPENDENT

 Fall 2016

 National Federation of the Blind of Illinois

 President: Denise R. Avant, (773) 991-8050

 davant1958 at gmail.com

 Editor: Deborah Kent Stein, (773) 203-1394

 dkent5817 at att.net

 Coeditor: Robert Gardner, (309) 236-6606

 rgardner4 at gmail.com

 Formatting: Glenn Moore and Janna Harvey

 NFB Newsline Edition: David Meyer, (708) 209-1767

 datemeyer at sbcglobal.net

 Print and Braille Editions: Bill Reif, (217) 801-2996

 billreif at ameritech.net

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 From the President's Desk, by Denise R. Avant

 The Chicago Marriott Naperville Hotel, Convention  Information, by Patti  Gregory-Chang 

 Come Spin with Me, by Cathy Randall

 Skiing with the Vikings, by Denise R. Avant

 Playing with Clay, by Deborah Kent Stein

 In Memoriam: LeAnne Mayne

 FROM THE PRESIDENT's DESK

 by Denise R. Avant

 The fall convention season is now underway. But before I  talk about the  excitement surrounding our NFBI state convention, I want to  bring an  important matter to your attention. The National Federation  of the Blind  does many things well. We educate and advocate across the  country on behalf  of blind people. And as I write this article, we the blind  once again need  to advocate for ourselves and educate the public. To raise  money for medical  research, the Foundation Fighting Blindness has launched the  HOWEYESEEIT  campaign. The campaign asks sighted people to put on  blindfolds and try to  do everyday tasks such as cooking, shopping, and caring for  children.

 The NFB does not oppose medical research to find treatments  and cures for  eye conditions that may cause blindness. However, this  campaign is misguided  and dangerous. We in the Federation know that if blind  people are properly  trained in mobility and daily living skills, we can perform  the same  everyday tasks that are done by our sighted peers. The  Foundation Fighting  Blindness campaign fails to tell the whole story. Instead,  it plays on the  public's fears and misconceptions about blindness. If not  confronted and  addressed, the campaign will perpetuate these misconceptions  and foster a  culture of discrimination.

 One of our greatest concerns with the HOWEYESEEIT campaign  is the way it  portrays blind people's ability to care for children. We in  the Federation  see many cases in which the ability of a blind parent to  care for his or her  children is questioned, and we have seen cases in which  parents lose custody  of their children based on blindness alone. Several states  have introduced  parental rights bills that say children cannot be removed  from the home due  to the parents' blindness. The Foundation Fighting Blindness  campaign serves  to undermine our efforts to protect blind parents and their  children.

 As Federationists we know the truth about blindness. We  work, we play, and  we take care of children. The list goes on and on. Please  help educate the  public by taking a video of yourself doing some everyday  task. Upload it to  social media with the hashtag HOWEYESEEIT. Be sure to say  that you are a  proud member of the National Federation of the Blind.

 Once again at our convention we will show that blind people  are able to live  the lives we want. Everyone in the Illinois affiliate of the  NFB has been  busy choosing topics, inviting speakers, making arrangements  with the hotel,  and preparing convention materials. This year's convention  will be held on  the weekend of October 28-30 at the Chicago Naperville  Marriott in  Naperville, Illinois. For more information about convention  activities, go  to www.nfbofillinois.org. Following this letter you will  find an article  describing the layout of the hotel.

 Our national representative and keynote speaker at this  year's convention  will be Joe Ruffalo, Jr., president of the New Jersey  affiliate and board  member of the NFB. Other speakers include John Olson of 3d  PhotoWorks, Peter  Tucic from HumanWare Inc., makers of the BrailleNote Touch  and other  blindness and low vision products; John Gordon, chief of the  Illinois Bureau  of Blind Services; Karen Woodfork, director of student  education at the  Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired; and  Camille  Caffirelli, executive director of Horizons for the Blind.

 In addition to hearing from our speakers on various program  topics, you will  meet the NFBI scholarship class of 2016: Ashley Eisenmenger,  Adnana Saric,  Gabe Stanforth, and Aziz Zeidieh. One of the highlights of
 2016 for the NFBI
 was that all four scholarship winners from 2015 attended our  NFB national  convention in Orlando, Florida. This has never happened in  Illinois before.
 We hope that the 2016 class will fully participate in our  organization and  join us in Orlando in 2017.

 We have expanded the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest,  which began in  Illinois in 2013. In 2015-2016 the contest was open to  students from  Illinois and Minnesota. The 2016-17 contest will be  regional. Children in  grades K-12 from most of the Great Lakes states can now  participate. On  November 1, 2016, children in these states can begin to  submit their  registration forms. From December 1, 2016 to January 20,  2017, children  compete for cash prizes by reading as many Braille pages as  they can. The  NFB knows that strong Braille reading skills help to ensure  that blind  children will live productive lives.

 Do you want to represent Illinois at the 2017 Washington  Seminar? The dates  for the next Washington Seminar are January 30-February 2,  2017.
 Applications can be found on our website, and must be  submitted to the state  president by December 1, 2016. Meanwhile, please call  Senators Richard  Durbin and Mark Kirk and ask them to support the Marrakech  Treaty. The  treaty allows books for the blind to be made available to  blind people all  over the world. Also please call your senators and  representatives and ask  them to support the Space Available Bill, (HR 2264 and S
 2596) and the
 Accessibility in Instructional Materials and Higher  Education Act, AIM HI  (HR 6122).

 I look forward to seeing all of you at convention. I thank  you for your  support over the past two years. I could not do it without  your help!

 THE CHICAGO NAPERVILLE MARRIOTT HOTEL, Convention  Information

 By Patti Gregory-Chang

 This quick article explains the layout of the Chicago  Marriott Naperville,  our hotel for the 2016 NFBI convention. It also gives you  basic information  about the facilities and amenities.

 Address and Phone: The hotel is located at 1801 N. Naper  Blvd, Naperville,  IL 60563. The phone is: (630) 505-4900.

 Sleeping Room Types: There are two types of rooms, suites  and standard  rooms. The suites have a parlor with a sleeper sofa, two  easychairs, and a  coffee table. The room rate for standards is $104. The rate  for suites is  $129. All rooms have hair dryers and coffee makers.
 Connecting rooms can be
 reserved upon request.

 Keycards and Electrical Power: This hotel is modernized. You  need to insert  your keycard in a slot inside your room to the side of the  door to turn your  power on. Leave it in the slot until you exit your room.
 When you remove it,
 the power goes off again.

 Check-in/out: Check-in time is three p.m. Check-out time is
 12:00 p.m.

 Wi Fi: There is free Wi Fi in all lobby and common areas.
 This includes our
 meeting rooms.

 Facilities: The hotel offers an indoor pool, fitness room,  and Jacuzzi.
 There is lots of parking, especially by the side door.

 Shuttles: The hotel runs free shuttles within a five-mile  radius. Trains are  scheduled to leave for downtown Chicago at 12:30, 2:30, and
 4:30 PM. The
 hotel has a contract with a limo company that provides  discounted service to  and from each airport. The cost is under forty dollars,  which compares  favorably to a cab, which would cost approximately  sixty-five dollars.

 Layout: If you enter the hotel through the main doors, the  layout is as
 follows:

 The Starbucks is to the left. You should walk ahead to where  the tiled  flooring forms a cross. If you turn left at the "lobby  cross," with the  doors at your back, you can enter Starbucks by taking the  first left. If you  take a right, you can go to the elevator bank. If you pass  the elevators,  you head toward the meeting rooms.

 From the front door, if you simply bypass the crossing of  the tiled portions  of the lobby and keep going straight, you will find our  information desk on  your left and the hotel desk on your right. If you pass  both, there is a  restaurant directly ahead. You can find the bar, which also  serves food from  the restaurant, by turning left after passing the hotel  desk. The bar will  be on your right, although people can also sit on the left  side at this  point in the lobby.

 If you stand facing the hotel front desk, the elevator bank  is down the  tiled hall to the right. There are three elevators on your  left side down  that hall a short way. They are fast.

 Our meeting rooms are laid out past the elevator bank. Right  after the  elevators there is a cash machine on your left, and there  are restrooms on  your right. Past those, first you come to a hallway where  conference rooms  A, B, and C are on your left heading away from the lobby.
 Conference rooms
 D, E, and F are on your right.

 Past that hall the hall divides at a Y. There is another set  of restrooms  down by the other conference rooms near Bailey. If you go  left, you come to  Bailey-Hobson and if you go right you will get to the Naper  room, which is  where our general sessions will be held. Outside of the  Naper room we will  have exhibits, and we will have our registration.

 There is a dog relief area outside of the Naper room. Exit  and walk a short  way, then make a forty-five-degree left turn. There is a  cement patio area  on the left about thirty feet up. At the end of the patio,  you will find a  grassy area with trees; it will work well for dog relief.
 There is even a
 hydrant!

 Both breakfasts and our lunch are scheduled to be held in  Conference Room A.
 Hospitality before and after the banquet will be offered in  the banquet  room, Bailey-Hobson. The parents' meeting will be held in  Conference Room C.
 Kids Camp is planned for Conference Room F. The scholarship  dinner will be  held in Conference Room E. IABS Idol and General Sessions  for Friday and  Saturday will be in Naper 2 and 3. The banquet and the  Sunday General  Sessions are in Bailey-Hobson. Registration is outside of  the Naper room.

 Set-up for Naper Room: When you enter the Naper Room it is  wider from left  to right and shorter going ahead from the doors. You enter  at the back of  the room. We will have information and IABS tables in the  back of the room,  and the head table will be furthest from the doors by the  windows. If you  face the head table, audio will be on your right and door  prizes on the  left.

 COME SPIN WITH ME

 by Cathy Randall

 Exercise has been an important part of my busy life for over  forty years.
 Dr. Kenneth Jernigan, my dear NFB mentor, advised me to lead  a balanced  life--and I have always tried to do that. Too much of any  one activity can  make a person one-dimensional and possibly less interesting  to herself and  to others.

 Over the years, I have enjoyed various forms of exercise,  including running  and fast walking with guides, floor exercise classes,  swimming laps, and  water aerobics. I have taken part in all these activities as  a totally blind  person.

 Now, let me introduce you to spinning. To take part in this  exercise, you  ride a modified bicycle without wheels in a gym with a  number of other  people who are doing the same thing. First you stand beside  the bike and  learn to adjust the seat to the height of your hip. Next you  sit on the bike  seat, lean over, and put one foot in the stirrup, which is  attached to the  pedal. Then you tighten the stirrup as you are shown by the  teacher and  repeat the process for your other foot. It is very important  to have the  stirrups tight, because you either stand or sit for all  spinning exercises.

 Once you have adjusted the stirrups, you increase or release  tension on the  pedals by turning a knob between your knees. The tension  knob is where the  bar would be on a standard boy's bike. The more you increase  the tension on  the pedals, the harder you will need to work! When your  instructor asks you  to "put on more road," he or she is asking you to add more  tension.

 Spinning class is very verbal, and you don't have to learn  many commands. It  is important that you pace yourself as you learn this  exercise. You have to  work through either a thirty- or forty-five-minute class,  and you want to  work steadily throughout that period. As your conditioning  improves, you  will be able to put more tension on your pedals.

 When you go to a spin class, take at least a thirty-ounce  bottle of water  with you. Learn to stretch your water supply so it lasts to  the end of  class. Your water bottle is probably the most important part  of your  spinning equipment.

 For class I wear comfortable shorts, a T-shirt, good  athletic socks, and  tennis shoes. I tuck a bandana loosely around my neck inside  the T-shirt to  absorb sweat. I also wear a terrycloth headband, which is  another good sweat  absorber. It is handy to wear a fannypack holding your keys  and phone. Bring  a towel and several sets of earplugs. Without earplugs I  find that the music  can be uncomfortably loud. I can hear the instructor's  commands easily  through the plugs. During late fall and winter, you may want  to wear  loose-fitting yoga pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt.

 Year round you will really get hot from spinning, so dress  for your own  comfort. Personally, I don't like real biking shorts because  of the tight  band around the thigh.

 I have been spinning for over nine years with friends, and  they are now very  dear friends indeed. Have fun and get fit!

 SKIING WITH THE VIKINGS

 by Denise R. Avant

 I was deep in preparations for the 2015 NFBI convention when  I received an  unexpected call from Miriam Omquist, one of the US  coordinators of Ski for  Light. She told me I had been selected as one of two US  crosscountry  skiers  to take part in a week-long skiing event in Norway, all  expenses paid!

 I had never traveled outside the United States before, and I  was thrilled to  be offered this amazing opportunity. Immediately I began to  prepare for the  trip, which would take place in early April of 2016. I  thought carefully  about my NFBI commitments, knowing that I would have very  little email or  telephone communication for the ten days while I was away.
 The toughest part
 was that I was sworn to secrecy until my selection was  announced publicly,  and that wouldn't happen until the end of January. I was  totally excited  about my trip, but for months I couldn't say a word to  anyone.

 Ski for Light (SFL) is a nonprofit organization that was  founded in Norway  in 1964. It came to the United States in 1975, but has  always had very  strong Norwegian connections. The mission of SKI for Light  is to give blind,  visually impaired, and orthopedically impaired persons the  opportunity to  enjoy crosscountry skiing. Each skier is paired with a guide  throughout  every Ski for Light event. Skiers and guides tend to form  close bonds,  developing rapport as they ski together, and joining the  other participants  and guides at the lodge for fun in the evenings. 

 I had been taking part in SFL events in the United States  for five years  before I was invited to go to Norway. As one of only two US  participants at  the Norwegian event, I felt I had a certain responsibility  as an ambassador.
 I hoped to repay the generous hospitality of my hosts and to  make a positive  impression, both as an American and as a blind American.
 People from
 fourteen countries took part in the event, and it was  exciting to get to  know them.

 When I arrived in Oslo I was surrounded by people speaking  Norwegian and  other languages. It was unsettling to hear a barrage of  words that I could  not understand. As a blind person, I could not pick up on  the cues of body  language that would have given me at least some rudimentary  information  about what was going on. I was almost wholly dependent upon  people who could  speak to me in English.

 Hotel buffets posed another challenge. Even when foods were  described to me,  most of them were unfamiliar. I had no idea what I should  put on my plate.
 In the end I took my chances and sampled nearly everything.
 Stretching
 myself in this way was part of the adventure of travel  abroad.

 Many of the street crossings in Oslo are equipped with  audible traffic  signals. However, hotel rooms do not have Braille numbers on  their doors. I  was shocked when the hotel staff refused to clean our room  because of my  roommate's guide dog.

 Although Norway is in many ways a highly advanced country, I  discovered that  very few blind people are employed. Blind people  automatically receive a  government stipend. I only met one blind Norwegian who had a  job; she worked  at a university.

 After a night in Oslo we went north to the snow fields. We  skied every day  from Monday through Saturday. When we returned to Oslo to  catch our flights,  I had time for a bit of sightseeing. I visited the  Resistance Museum, which  documented Norway's history during World War II. I also went  to the Skiing  Museum.

 Crosscountry skiing is a wonderful experience. It's great to  be outdoors,  having fun and getting healthy exercise. You can learn more  about Ski for  Light by visiting their website, www.skiforlight.org. 

 PLAYING WITH CLAY

 by Deborah Kent Stein

 When I was four years old, my mother set up a child-sized  table in the  corner of the kitchen. On the table she put some plastic  forks and knives, a  few alluminum dishes, and a box of Plasticene, a brand of  modeling clay  commonly sold in toy stores. She explained that while she  was cooking dinner  I could make believe I was preparing a meal, too.

 I was the oldest of three children, with two noisy,  rambunctious little  brothers. My mother hoped the clay would keep me occupied  while she juggled  between cooking and caring for the younger children. As far  as keeping me  busy, the plan exceeded her expectations.

 I didn't care about pretending to cook, but I loved playing  with clay. I  rolled long coils between my hands and twisted them into  snakes. I learned  to make a ball by rolling the clay between my palms. If I  pressed a smaller  ball onto a big one, I had the basis for a variety of  animals. I could add  long ears and a tiny tail to make a rabbit, or I could stick  on short ears  and a snake of a tail to create a cat.

 Plasticene came in sticks, each one a different color. I was  totally blind,  and at first I didn't care whether I made a green dog or a  red banana. My  mother used my interest in clay to help me understand the  role of color in  the world. When I unwrapped a new package of Plasticene, she  showed me which  stick was blue, which was red, which was green, and which  was brown. "Brown  is a good color for a dog," she told me. "You can use green  and blue and red  for birds." Soon I was interrupting her dinner preparations  to ask, "What  color is a rhinoceros?" and "What color is a sea monster?"

 Over the years I acquired more clay, more tools, and more  space, with my own  table in the basement. I made towns with cardboard houses  and clay people. I  made clay forests filled with multicolored birds. I made a  castle with clay  walls, a drawbridge of Popsicle sticks, and tall clay  watchtowers.

 One summer day my family visited the boardwalk at Asbury  Park on the New  Jersey shore. We kids stuffed ourselves with saltwater  taffy, shrieked our  way through the fun-house, and visited the Ripley's  Believe-It-or-Not  Museum. My cousin gave me lurid descriptions of the  two-headed calf, the  tentacle of the giant squid, and the baby with transparent  skin, all out of  my reach in glass jars.

 At last we came upon an object that was out in the open,  something I could  experience for myself. It was a life-sized, sculpted head. I  studied the  regular features, the thick, curly hair, and the intricate  whorls of the  ears. What was this head doing here, among the oddities of  nature?

 My cousin read the printed caption. "This head was fashioned  by a man who  was totally blind," it stated. "He made this likeness using  only his sense  of touch. Believe it or not!"

 I wondered how the nameless blind man felt about having his  piece on exhibit  in the Ripley's Museum. Did people really think a blind  artist was as  bizarre as a two-headed calf?

 On my thirteenth birthday my grandfather gave me six big  blocks of clay--not  from a toy store, but from a store that sold real art  supplies. He explained  that this was an oil-based clay that never dried out and  could be used over  and over again. If I took care of it, he promised, it would  last as long as  I lived.

 A few months later my mother and I visited a local art  gallery. Without  hesitation, the proprietor allowed me to touch all of the  pieces on display.
 I studied life-sized ceramic heads, bronze nudes, and an  assortment of  animal figures. I discovered that art was not confined to  realistic forms,  and I found that artists worked in media as varied as balsa  wood, papier  maché, plaster, brass wire, and welded steel.

 Inspired by a series of animal sculptures I'd seen at the  gallery, I went  home to my blocks of birthday clay. Night after night I  rushed through my  homework, eager to get back to my work in progress. It was  the detailed  figure of a lion, its head lifted above its outstretched  front paws. When it  was finished, my mother set it on a shelf in the living room  and showed it  proudly to any friends who dropped in.

 One of the family friends who saw the lion was a  professional artist named  Don Miller. To my amazement he offered to buy the lion from  me for five  dollars. A few weeks later he returned with a plaster cast  of the original  clay figure. It resided on top of the television for the  next twenty years.

 Don Miller's interest transformed the way my family and I  thought about my  hobby. No longer did I play with clay. From that time  forward, I did  sculpture!

 At college I majored in English, but for one of my electives  I signed up to  take a studio sculpture course. I looked forward to  exploring fresh  possibilities and learning new techniques. When I arrived at  the first  class, however, the instructor, Mr. D., announced that I  would have to drop  the course. "Sculpture is very visual," he explained. "You  won't be able to  participate. It would be a waste of your time and mine for  you to enroll in  this class."

 I was shocked by Mr. D.'s narrow perspective. He utterly  dismissed the idea  that anyone could create or appreciate sculpture without  eyesight. Even when  I showed him some of my previous work, he insisted that  there was no place  for me in his class.

 I was so angry that I refused to give up. I was determined  to take the  class, even if Mr. D. made me hate every moment of it. I  went to the head of  the art department, who sent me up the ladder to the dean.
 The dean ruled
 that I could take Mr. D.'s class, with the condition that I  would have an  assistant with me at all times--essentially a classroom  aide. According to  the dean, the assistant would help me find the art supplies  in the  classroom. In reality, he was there as a buffer between me  and Mr. D. The  instructor and I barely spoke to each other all semester.

 Despite this unpromising arrangement, I learned a great deal  in Mr. D.'s  class. I experimented with wood carving and made mobiles  with dangling wire  figures. Most important of all, I gained an invaluable  lesson in  self-advocacy. I learned not to give up when a person in  authority told me  no. I discovered that I could fight my way past barriers to  education and  experience.

 My interest in sculpture has never flagged, though I've  encountered plenty  of believe-it-or-not reactions along the way. I create  three-dimensional  works with my hands, yet vision-oriented friends and  strangers often find it  amazing and inexplicable. I strive to be judged not as a  blind sculptor, but  as a sculptor.

 In my study of sculpture I always felt that blindness posed  one  insurmountable obstacle. My fellow students worked by  looking at live human  models. The only way I could use a model was through touch,  and I couldn't  conceive of touching someone's nude body in order to make a  clay figure. I  worked from imagination or used plastic models that I found  in art supply  stores. I studied a human skeleton to learn about structure  and proportion.
 Nevertheless, I knew I was missing an aspect of training  that is critical to  most serious students of art.

 In 2011 I enrolled in a sculpture class at the Palette and  Chisel, a  long-established art school in Chicago. Ralph Cossentino,  the instructor,  had taught other blind students, and he welcomed me into his  class. I began  by sculpting the head of Michaelangelo, basing my piece on a  large plastic  model that belonged to the school. From there I moved on to  a self-portrait,  exploring my own face and using myself as a model. But Ralph  was determined  that I should have the same opportunities as his sighted  students. He asked  me if I would like to work with a live model.

 I was stunned by the question. On one hand I was thrilled to  find an  instructor so eager to broaden my learning opportunities. On  the other hand,  I felt apprehensive and uncertain. Society has strong  prohibitions against  touching other people. Artists' models are very comfortable  with being  observed visually, but touch would cross a boundary that,  under most  circumstances, is strictly forbidden. I worried about how  both the model and  I would feel, no matter how professionally we treated the  situation. 

 In spite of my reservations, I knew this was a chance that  might never come  to me again. Ralph talked with the model, a young woman  named Jessica. He  suggested that I begin by doing a hand study, and Jessica  said that would be  fine with her. As I worked with the clay, I paused  frequently to examine  Jessica's outstretched hand. Step by step I worked to  replicate the complex  mechanics of muscle and bone. Yet a precise reproduction  wasn't enough. The  idea was to convey some form of emotional expression, the  subtle difference  between anatomy and art.

 I sculpted another hand piece, followed by a foot study.
 Then I did a
 sculpture of Jessica's head, complete with her magnificent  braid. At last  Ralph suggested that I was ready to attempt a full, seated  figure. By that  time Jessica and I were very comfortable working together,  and we both said  we were ready to give it a try.

 As it turned out, Ralph was more nervous than Jessica and I.
 He confessed
 later that he was worried about the administrators of the  Palette and  Chisel. What would they say when they found out that a  student was touching  the nude model in one of the sculpture classes? To his  relief and mine, the  director of the school had no objections. In fact, he  commended Ralph for  his flexibility and spirit of innovation.

 I have now worked with several models, both female and male.
 Each has been
 generously receptive to working with me. The models have  always approached  our work together as experienced professionals, and I owe  them my deepest  appreciation. 

 I have met many blind people who are convinced that they do  not understand  sculpture or raised-line drawings. They are intimidated by  the thought of  working with clay or other art materials. To my delight, a  growing number of  people in the National Federation of the Blind are working  to break down the  notion that art is out of bounds for us as blind people.
 Some have even
 suggested that we expand our efforts in the STEM fields to  include art. STEM  could become STEAM--science, technology, engineering, art,  and math. Few  people, blind or sighted, ever become professional artists,  but art can  enrich life for us all.

 When my mother set up that little table in the kitchen, she  couldn't have  imagined where my love of clay would lead me. And my  grandfather was right  about that oil-based clay he gave me for my thirteenth  birthday. I still  have a three-pound package of it, carefully wrapped, and it  is as moist and  moldable as ever. It looks as though it will last for as  long as I live.

 IN MEMORIAM: LEANNE MAYNE

 Federationists were saddened to learn of the passing of  LeAnne M. Mayne on  June 28, 2016. She died at the Leonard Memorial Home in Glen  Ellyn,  Illinois, after a long illness. She was sixty-two years  old.

 LeAnne was born in New York City on December 4, 1953. When  she was only  three days old her father brought her to Illinois, where she  was raised by  aunts in the Chicago area. She attended the Illinois School  for the Blind  (now the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired) in  Jacksonville.
 Diagnosed with juvenile diabetes as a small child, she was  not expected to  live beyond her thirties. LeAnne defied the expectations of  the doctors and  lived a full and active life for as long as she could.

 After she finished school LeAnne operated the Mayneway  Vending Company,  which had multiple locations. For a time she and her  husband, Jeff, ran a  pizza parlor in Rockville, Illinois.

 LeAnne Mayne was a dedicated member of the NFB of Illinois.
 She worked
 diligently on many state and national fundraising campaigns.
 At chapter
 meetings and conventions she was always ready to pitch in  wherever a pair of  hands was needed.

 LeAnne was predeceased by her brother, Michael Cramer, who  was also a  dedicated Illinois Federationist. She is survived by her  stepmother,  Patricia Mayne; and by her boyfriend of sixteen years, Blair  Alper. 

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