[Nebraska-students] Braille Readers are Leaders!

[Karen Anderson]

I encourage any of you who are eligible to sign up for and participate in
the Braille Readers are Leaders contest for 2008 and 2009. Last year we had
one of the nation's top Braille readers here in Nebraska, and I bet we could
do it again. All of the details are below, and as always feel free to ask me
any questions you might have.

 

Changes we made to the Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest last year were
resoundingly successful--therefore we are doing it all again this year.
Contest

Awards include the expense-paid trip to the NFB national convention, many
cash prizes, T-shirts, and more. We've even brought back the most improved
category.

Read on for all the details you'll need to know about the 2008-2009 Braille
Readers Are Leaders Contest.

 

The contest is two months long, beginning November 1 and ending January
4-which happens to be Louis Braille's 200th birthday. Reading during the
school

winter break is strongly encouraged, and it's a great time to build up the
total number of pages read. 

 

Every participant who registers in advance for the contest will get a
special Braille Readers Are Leaders T-shirt. Students who do not register in
advance

but who get the registration and entry form in by the January 23 deadline
will still be eligible for all awards, recognition ribbons, and cash prizes,

but they are not guaranteed a T-shirt.

 

Again this year twelve of the top contestants will win an eight-day,
seven-night trip for themselves and a parent (or an adult chaperone) to the
2009 NFB

convention in Detroit, Michigan. The trip will include transportation, hotel
room, and other expenses for eight days, beginning with the parents'
seminar,

continuing through the banquet, and ending on the day after the final
convention session. (No substitution in place of the convention trip.) The
winners

will also have the opportunity to speak briefly at the NAPUB and NOPBC
meetings. We couldn't think of a better way to reward these bright,
competitive

young Braille readers from all over the country than to offer them the
opportunity to join the excitement, the fun, and the camaraderie of the
National

Federation of the Blind in convention assembled. 

 

Trip not your thing? It's not required that you compete for the trip to be
considered for the other prizes. One offer that has always worked as an
incentive

in the contest is cash prizes. The top three contestants in each of six
categories will win a $50 cash prize. The six categories are grades K-1;
2-3; 4-5;

6-8 (middle school); 9-12 (high school); and, back again this year, most
improved (those reading the greatest percentage more pages this year than
they

did last year). The most improved prizes will be awarded to students not
winning another award this year or previously, so more children will have a
chance

to be recognized, competing against their own personal best.

 

Every contestant will be automatically considered for an award in his or her
age-appropriate grade category. This includes delayed readers and ungraded

students. We have found that even students with delays can be competitive in
their grade category because we do not put restrictions on the grade level

of the materials the contestant reads. For example, we expect that a high
school student who reads at a third-grade level will read third-grade-level
material,

or even below, for the competition and therefore, with motivation and
diligence, could beat out an average or even better than average student who
reads

at grade level. Students with reading delays may also submit information to
be considered for the Jennifer Baker Award, one of three special awards for

which qualified students may choose to compete. 

 

Braille Leaders Community Service Award: This award most closely reflects
the ultimate mission of the contest. Braille literacy enhances the ability
of

blind children of all ages to demonstrate leadership through service to
others. For example, a blind teen may use Braille to read to lonely
residents in

a nursing home or use his or her Braille skills to organize and conduct a
food drive for a school project. The opportunities for service, if you are
literate,

are endless. The goal of this award is to encourage contestants who have
developed good Braille skills to reach out into the community and use those
skills

for the good of others.

 

This award is restricted to students in grades six through twelve. To be
considered for this award, the student must read a minimum of 500 pages for
the

contest and submit a letter of nomination. Up to five students will be
selected for this award, and all winners of this award will automatically
win a

trip to the convention.

 

Twin VisionR Awards for dual print-and-Braille readers or print-to-Braille
readers: Funded by the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults,
the

award is for elementary students who have learned and used both print and
Braille from an early age and also for students who were print readers and
have

switched to, or are in the process of switching to, Braille. No fewer than
one student and no more than five will be selected for this award. To
nominate

a student for this award, a teacher or other individual intimately familiar
with that student's literacy development must write a letter. The student
must

also participate in the regular competition.

 

2009 Jennifer Baker Awards: These awards were named after Jennifer Baker, a
young woman from Maryland who overcame many severe additional disabilities
to

become Braille literate and was a frequent national winner in the Braille
Readers Are Leaders program. Jennifer was an avid reader who traveled the
world

in her mind with the help of Amelia Bedelia and other characters from her
beloved Braille storybooks. She died of kidney failure shortly before her
twenty-first

birthday. This award is given in her memory to no fewer than one student and
no more than five based on a letter of nomination with information
documenting

the obstacles the student has overcome to become Braille literate. Examples
of those eligible for this award might be students with cognitive or
physical

disabilities, English-as-second-language learners, students with brain
injuries, or students who have been otherwise educationally disadvantaged.
To nominate

a student for this award, a teacher or other individual who is intimately
familiar with that student's literacy development must submit a letter of
nomination.

The student must also participate in the regular competition. 

 

If you have been counting the number of possible winners, you know that we
offer a minimum of eighteen and a maximum of thirty-three cash awards, which

means that not every contestant will win a trip. If more than twelve of the
winners have elected to compete for the trip, then a run-off Braille essay

competition will be supervised by Jennifer Dunnam, the manager of Braille
programs in the education department of the NFB Jernigan Institute. Jennifer

will also be managing the day-to-day operations of registration, processing
entry forms, sending out certificates and prizes, and collaborating with
NOPBC

and NAPUB to judge the contest.

 

All participants will get certificates, and different-colored print-Braille
ribbons will be awarded to contestants who read 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000,
8,000,

and 12,000 pages. We will also give special recognition to residential or
day schools for the blind that enroll a significant percentage of their
students

in the contest and in other ways promote Braille literacy and the Braille
Readers Are Leaders program. The contest is cosponsored by the National
Federation

of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the National Association to Promote the Use
of Braille, and the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children. We

will continue to work with state affiliates, as we have for the past
twenty-six years, to promote and build this program with pride, energy, and
all of

the creative and financial resources available to us.