[Massachusetts-NFB] EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!!!

[sharawinton at gmail.com]

This morning I received the great news that Tom Page, the President of the
Kansas Affiliate and a National Board member will be Our National
Representative for our 2025 State Convention!! 

I am truly looking forward to getting to know Tom better. Not  only is he an
amazing leader, but he is quite the musician! We will definitely be asking
him to show us some of his finest skills. 

Here is his bio from the National website:

Tom" Page was born on December 28, 1972, in Gainesville, Florida, the first
of three
children born to Thomas L. and Leslie Page. His eyesight issues first became
obvious when he was a toddler, around two to three years old, as he
struggled with tracking in the dark. However, intervention did not come
until he reached the first or second grade when he was prescribed glasses,
which, he recalls, did not improve matters much. At the age of fourteen,
"when I started wanting to drive," he remembers, Tom learned his diagnosis
of retinitis pigmentosa.

Throughout his early education, Tom's family moved a lot, residing in
Florida, Kansas, and Illinois, among other places. Once diagnosed, he was
exempted from school activities that seemed inappropriate to administrators
(such as photography and sports) rather than being accommodated to
participate in them. Although there was consideration of him attending a
nearby school for the blind in Jacksonville, Illinois, when he lived in
nearby Springfield, he decided against it.

Tom attended Wichita State University and earned a degree in experimental
psychology. He then accepted a job at his alma mater as a statistics
liaison. His journey towards adopting blindness techniques and becoming a
Federationist began when, seemingly from one day to the next, he found it
increasingly difficult to read job-related materials, even with the most
powerful magnification he could access. "People had been telling me I was
blind for years," he says, "and I finally decided that maybe I needed to
listen and figure out how it is that blind people survive." He connected
with a rehabilitation teacher named Donna Wood, also a leader in the
National Federation of the Blind of Kansas. Initially, she visited him every
two weeks at his home for one to two hours. During one of these visits, he
recalls, she made it clear that he would never fully develop good cane
travel skills with such limited instruction. She advised him to put on sleep
shades and practice walking in his neighborhood. As time passed, he
graduated to moving beyond his own block, crossing busier streets, and
becoming a truly proficient traveler.

While Tom worked on his blindness skills, he also began his career in music
following the end of his employment with the university. He formed a guitar
duo with a sighted guitar teacher and friend, and they began to seek paid
gigs wherever they could. Donna Wood, who had been encouraging Tom to
investigate the Federation, shrewdly hired the duo, known as Grandpa's .38,
to perform at Federation meetings and state conventions. "She worked it
pretty well," Tom recalls with a chuckle. His involvement was further
cemented when he won an NFB scholarship in 2004 while pursuing his master's
degree in interdisciplinary research methodology at Wichita State. Like many
other Federationists, Tom says attending that national convention in Atlanta
was a critical turning point for him. "I barely knew myself as a blind
person, but suddenly I was fully immersed in the world of blind people," he
remembers. "It was quite an experience, and I decided I wanted more of it."

Tom was elected to the Kansas affiliate board shortly after. He became first
vice president when Donna Wood was elected president, and when her health no
longer permitted her to serve in that role, he was elected to succeed her in
2013 and has held the position ever since. He was elected to the national
board of directors at the 2023 National Convention in Houston, Texas.

Outside of his Federation involvement, Tom completed his master's degree,
but by that time his music career was allowing him to make a living, and in
2009 he was able to purchase a local commercial building to house his own
recording studio as well. For the past several years, he has been touring
with the band Haymakers, which has released four albums. The latest of these
are Waconda Flyer, which contains primarily original material, and 100 Years
of Hank, the band's tribute to the legendary Hank Williams. Their website is
www.haymakersict.com, and their music is also available on digital
platforms. Many Federationists had a chance to enjoy their performance at
the 2023 National Convention. Tom also makes recordings for other musicians
at his studio, as well as occasionally taking other voiceover and audio
engineering jobs.

While Tom enjoys leading the Kansas affiliate, serving on the national
scholarship committee, and his new role as a national board member, he finds
the greatest meaning through mentoring others. He fondly recalls recently
celebrating the achievements of a young Kansan who graduated from a cooking
program and secured her first job. "The big things we do are of course
critically important, like advocating for systemic change at the national
and even international level," Tom says. "It's gratifying and gives me a
huge sense of pride in our movement when years of effort pays off in a big
way. But what I really appreciate most are those small moments that
demonstrate how we make a difference in the lives of blind people."

Tom and his partner, Nicole Taylor, live in Wichita. His sister Katie is the
associate dean of the architecture and design school at Kansas State
University, and his brother Will works as an appellate attorney in New York.
"As a musician, I guess I'm the black sheep of the family," he jokes. But
Tom is, in reality, pleased with where his life journey has led him so far,
and his mentees and peers throughout the Federation are certainly enjoying
and benefitting from his many talents.

We a can't wait to see you  in Massachusetts in March!! 

 

With Love, hope and determination, 

 

Shara Winton

President, National federation of the Blind of Massachusetts

 <http://www.nfbma.org/> www.nfbma.org

 <mailto:sharawinton at gmail.com> sharawinton at gmail.com

617-304-0347

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/massachusetts-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20250113/3ed3e6fd/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 48973 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/massachusetts-nfb_nfbnet.org/attachments/20250113/3ed3e6fd/attachment.jpg>