[New-york-news] NFB of Ohio Fundraiser

[telzey at twc.com]

Good evening! Our fellow NFB Members in Ohio are conducting a fundraising for a special project at the Ohio State School for the Blind (OSSB).  I am sharing information about this fundraiser with my fellow members of the NFB of New York because I spent most of my school years at the OSSB. Last June thanks to a good friend (Eric Duffy) I had the opportunity to visit the school for the first time in over 30 years. I was struck by how some things have changed greatly, but I was also pleased to see that much of what I knew from school still also remained. I noticed when I arrived at the school that they had a tactile model sitting in the lobby and learned that it was one of the models we used to learn from when I attended OSSB in the 70s and early 80s. These models were used to educate us about what famous places like the White House, U.S. Capitol, the Empire State Building, etc. looked like. I have many fond memories of learning from these models. After speaking with school staff I learned that almost all of these models had fallen into serious disrepair over the years. This wasn't surprising since the models were built during the 1930s and 1940s as part of a Work Projects Administration (WPA) program. The school has been trying to have the models restored so that current students can also benefit from them and so that this piece of our history can be preserved. Unfortunately, they don't have money allocated in their budget for this project, so they have been doing it slowly via donations. They need approximately $5,000 to complete the project. The NFB of Ohio is conducting a fundraiser to raise the needed money. This is such an important program to me that I have already written a check for $100 to donate for the restoration of the models. Via this email, I am asking my fellow New Yorkers to support this important fundraising project with any donation you can spare. To donate please make a check payable to the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio (NFB of Ohio) and write OSSB Models in the memo line or in your cover letter. You can send the check to:

NFB of Ohio
C/O Sherry Ruth, Treasurer
6922 Murray Ridge Road
Elyria, OH 44035. 

Thanks for any support you can offer, and if you would like to learn more about the models you can check out the book written about them at: 

http://drc.ohiolink.edu/…/…/186736/models-for-the-blind.txt…

Thanks again and please let know if you have any questions. And please spread the word about this effort by sharing this message with your networks!

Sincerely,

Todd Elzey, Secretary-Treasurer
NFB of New York At-Large Chapter
toddelzey at gmail.com