[nagdu] Did anyone here my interview with Joe Ruffalo onthruoureyes.org

Wed Dec 8 22:25:52 UTC 2010

Cheryl,

Got it!  Fighting with senile computer so I can get caught up and listen to
it!  I'm interested to hear what you have to say.  /smile/

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of cheryl echevarria
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 6:49 AM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Did anyone here my interview with Joe Ruffalo
onthruoureyes.org

I don't know if anyone got my e-mail since it was on hold from NAGDU. 

did anyone get to hear me on the Thruoureyes.org the internet radio show
hosted by our own Joe Ruffalo, President of the NJ Affiliate.

If not, you can go to www.thruoureyes.org<http://www.thruoureyes.org/> and
listen to it. It is show 231 I do mention NAGDU and traveling with a guide
dog as well.

Also Jean Brown, who is married to Ron Brown, who is the President of the
Indiana Chapter of the NFB.

The biggest compliment you can pay me is to recommend my services!

Cheryl Echevarria 
http://Echevarriatravel.com<http://echevarriatravel.com/>
1-866-580-5574
Reservations at echevarriatravel.com<mailto:Reservations at echevarriatravel.com>

Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Montrose Travel CST-1018299-10
Affiliated as an Independent Contractor with Absolute Cruise and Travel Inc.

join my yahoogroup 
echevarriatravel-subscribe at yahoogroups.com<mailto:echevarriatravel-subscribe
@yahoogroups.com>
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Sherrill O'Brien<mailto:sherrill.obrien at verizon.net> 
  To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog
Users<mailto:nagdu at nfbnet.org> ; Performing Arts
List<mailto:perform-talk at nfbnet.org> ; Music
List<mailto:musictlk at nfbnet.org> ; Human Services
List<mailto:humanser at nfbnet.org> 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 9:24 AM
  Subject: Re: [nagdu] Article from the Tampa Tribune

  My dear friend Marion,

  Great article!!  Finally, a really well written piece.  Congratulations,
and
  cudos to the reporter who got it right.

  Sherrill

  -----Original Message-----
  From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org<mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org>
[mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org]On
  Behalf Of Marion Gwizdala
  Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 8:58 AM
  To: NAGDU List; Performing Arts List; Music List; Human Services List
  Subject: [nagdu] Article from the Tampa Tribune

  Dear All,
      Thanks to Barbara Routen for writing this great article about me and
my
  work!

  Fraternally yours,
  Marion Gwizdala, President
  National Association of Guide Dog Users
  National Federation of the Blind
  813-626-2789
  President at NAGDU.ORG<mailto:President at NAGDU.ORG>
  HTTP://NAGDU.ORG<http://nagdu.org/>

  Local musician offers acoustic Christmas concert

  by Barbara Routen

  Reprinted from the Tampa Tribune, December 8, 2010

  BRANDON - Marion & Martin - 55-year-old singer songwriter Marion Gwizdala
  and his Martin D-35 guitar - will perform "An Acoustic Christmas" in a
cozy
  venue with a fireplace and wood-planked floors.

  Gwizdala's acoustic, finger-style guitar music will accompany his tenor
  vocal renderings of secular seasonal songs and religious Christmas carols.

  The concert at 7 p.m. Saturday  will include a sale of baked goods and
  holiday crafts to benefit Brandon Unity, and an opportunity to meet
Gwizdala
  after the show.

  The venue, the Brandon Women's Center at 129 N. Moon Ave., is an historic
  building and only acoustic music is allowed to be performed in it, said
  Gwizdala, who prefers the pure sound and doesn't even use a pick.

  The Florida native started playing piano at 6 and guitar at 14. Although
he
  always wanted to play guitar, his mother insisted he learn piano first.

  His stage debut was in theater in third grade as the emperor in "The
  Emperor's New Clothes.

  "I think I got the role because I was the only one in my class willing to
  walk around in underwear!" he said.

  He performed in community theater and toured for a while with a Christian
  rock troupe called The Joyful Noise Ensemble.

  He attended high school seminary and a semester at St. Vincent de Paul
  Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach before deciding the priesthood was not
  his calling.

  Gwizdala majored in music in college before earning a bachelor's degree in
  psychology from the University of South Florida and a master's degree

  in mental health counseling from Nova Southeastern University.

  At 17 he learned he had inherited retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative
  condition that gradually stole his sight. At 25, after hitting a
  tractor-trailer he didn't see in the dark, he gave up driving.

  "My cousins, whose father was blind with the same condition, came down
from
  Michigan and told me about the National Federation of the Blind and other
  resources,"

  he said.

  "They introduced me to other blind people who showed me I could become
  successful and pursue the dreams I had. These blind people were ordinary,
  average,

  everyday people living ordinary, average, everyday lives. They were not
  extraordinary people."

  "I had been told that my uncle was extraordinary, amazing, because he
lived
  a normal life even though he was blind," Gwizdala said. "I saw myself as
  average - a C student, a little above average athletically and musically -
  so I didn't think I could be successful if I admitted I was blind."

  He chuckled. "Not admitting it didn't change the fact that I was blind!"

  He has been married twice and has a daughter, 24-year-old Aislinn Woody.
She
  is a personal trainer and Coast Guard reservist in San Francisco.

  Gwizdala is employed as music director at New Life Unity in North Tampa
and
  has a private practice as a certified hypnotherapist.

  He performs what he calls positive acoustic rock, a combination of
original
  music and covers of folk and contemporary songs with an upbeat message.

  He also is a public speaker and advocate for the blind.

  Gwizdala served for many years as president of the East Hillsborough
Chapter
  of the National Federation of the Blind, but because of his greater
  involvement

  on the national level now, the chapter has been disbanded, he said.

  Gwizdala currently is president of the National Association of Guide Dog
  Users, a division of the National Federation of the Blind.

  In March he got Sergeant, a 100-pound German shepherd from the Guide Dog
  Foundation for the Blind in Smithtown, N.Y. Sergeant is working out well,
  Gwizdala

  said.

  "He's still got a lot of puppy in him. He's a really good dog with quite a
  personality, and I've found my music puts him to sleep."

  Gwizdala said people have misconceptions about blindness. They expect
blind
  people to wear dark glasses and walk hesitatingly with their arms extended
  in front of them, and for the blindness to be visible in their eyes.

  Gwizdala's condition is inside his eyes, so there is no cloudy film across
  them and they move in unison.

  Because of that, and also his confidence and independent lifestyle, people
  from time to time question whether he's really blind, particularly on or
  around the local buses he rides everywhere he goes.

  "With my characteristics," Gwizdala said, "I feel I'm on stage all the
time.
  I'm blind, go around with a dog, I'm tall, redheaded - people are always
  looking

  at me. And people recognize me from all the advocacy work I've done."

  For more information, contact

  Marion Gwizdala

  813-626-2789

  SwampFox1833 at Verizon.net<mailto:SwampFox1833 at Verizon.net>

Neighbors at tampabay.rr.com">name="signature">Neighbors at tampabay.rr.com<mailto
:Neighbors at tampabay.rr.com%22%3Ename=%22signature%22%3ENeighbors at tampabay.rr
.com> .
  _______________________________________________
  nagdu mailing list
  nagdu at nfbnet.org<mailto:nagdu at nfbnet.org>

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org<http://www.nfbnet.or
g/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org>
  To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nagdu:

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/sherrill.obrien%40ver
<http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/sherrill.obrien%40ve
r>
  izon.net

  _______________________________________________
  nagdu mailing list
  nagdu at nfbnet.org<mailto:nagdu at nfbnet.org>

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org<http://www.nfbnet.or
g/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org>
  To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nagdu:

http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/cherylandmaxx%40hotma
il.com<http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/cherylandmaxx%
40hotmail.com>
_______________________________________________
nagdu mailing list
nagdu at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/tamara.8024%40comcast
.net