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--></style></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Hello everyone. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Because of the situation we are currently in with Covid19, I thought it would be nice for me to extend to all of you to join my Kernels of Hope Peer Support group. Usually, we hold our meetings on the second Thursday of every month. However, throughout the pandemic, we will be holding them every Thursday. Although we are from the Canadian Federation of the Blind, we want you all to know that Kernels of Hope is open to all blind people and those who support them. It doesn’t matter whether they are from Canada or not. It doesn’t matter whether they are from the federation or not. All that matters is that we reach as many blind folks as possible so we can make this service available to them. So, pleas, everybody, come and check it out. If you have any questions, you can reply to this email or call me at 519-350-7756. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks in advance: </p><p class=MsoNormal>Maggie Bray. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Ps. Below is the aganda for tonight’s meeting. </p><p class=MsoNormal>I hope to see you there. </p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sent from <a href="https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986">Mail</a> for Windows 10</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0cm'><b>From: </b><a href="mailto:purrformers@gmail.com">Maggie Bray</a><br><b>Sent: </b>March 30, 2020 10:47 AM<br><b>To: </b><a href="mailto:list@cfb.ca">list@cfb.ca</a><br><b>Subject: </b>Agenda for special Kernels of Hope meeting Thursday April 2</p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-indent:36.0pt'>Hey everybody. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>It’s Maggie again with the agenda for our second special Kernels of Hope meeting of the covid19 pandemic. We are going to do something a bit different this time. We are going to have a topic that spreads out over the next two meetings. This means we will have an agenda that works for both weeks. This should make promotion way easier as no one will have to wait until next Monday for next weeks agenda. As well, we will be discussing the book CARE AND FEEDING OF THE LONG WHITE CANE which can be found by clicking the following link. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>CARE AND FEEDING OF THE LONG WHITE CANE ...<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>https://www.nfb.org › images › nfb › publications › issue1<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><ol style='margin-top:0cm' start=1 type=1><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>Both meetings will open at seven P.M. eastern time. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>The numbers to call in are as follows. 3. Non toll free B.C. 1-604-359-3232 <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>4. Non toll free Ontario 1-365-800-5232<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>5. Toll free 1-844-714-1232. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>6. When you get to the mane menu press three. Then, when asked for the conference pin, hit 7124. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'> 2. If there are any new people, we will go over the rules of peer support. <o:p></o:p></li></ol><p class=MsoNormal>3. We will discuss whether or not anyone completed the challenges and hear their stories. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>4. We will discuss our topic, which is, “Raising cane.” We will discuss the ins and outs of cane travel and how the covid19 situation is affecting it. We will compare some of our own experiences and how they relate to the book, CARE AND FEEDING OF THE LONG WHITE CANE. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:3.75pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><ol style='margin-top:0cm' start=5 type=1><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>For week 1 we will be reading the following article. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>HOW DIFFERENT IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>by Barbara Pierce<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>Barbara Pierce was a teenager in the fifties. There was no Parents of Blind Children Division of the National Federation of the Blind then. Parents did the best they could, but most of what they did they had to do alone. Without help it was hard to escape prevailing negative attitudes, and sometimes (even with the best intentions) terrible mistakes were made. Here, with sensitivity and love, Barbara Pierce shares with us the intimate details of one such mistake her parents made.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>When I was small, it was very important to my mother that I look at the people with whom I was speaking, whether or not I could actually see them. She also insisted that I be neatly and appropriately dressed. As I grew up, paging through Seventeen did not interest me at all since I could not see the pictures, but she taught me to care about fashion, color, and style as well as the importance of making as good a visual impression as possible. All these values my mother communicated to me in a thousand little ways. She did not indulge in long lectures, though I got my share of sermonettes after lapses in my behavior or my dress, and for these and the life-long impact they had on me I am extremely grateful.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>But I also remember what happened when my father announced to me that I was to begin learning to use the long white cane. I was sixteen, and my sight had been so poor for a number of years that I had never begun the normal process of going places by myself. My first reaction was keen anticipation. My friends were getting their drivers' licenses; I was being given something roughly equivalent, though more precious because it was so personal and so long-delayed. I yearned for the independence that is the birthright of us all. Like all teenagers, I wanted freedom, but until now that impulse had been stifled by my inability to move around confidently on my own. I could hardly wait to begin my lessons, but there was a two-week delay. And during those fourteen days the damage was done.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>It was no one's fault. My parents had had no contact with competent blind adults. There was no Parents of Blind Children Division; in fact, they hadn't even heard about the National Federation of the Blind. All they understood was that blind beggars carried white canes. They had seen pathetic blind people creeping along the streets of Pittsburgh, randomly poking their white canes at objects and other people. They must have been appalled at the prospect of their bright, well-adjusted daughter being reduced to such a means of mobility.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>I don't remember that they said a word about these impressions to me. My father did warn me that my mother was upset about the cane, and he suggested that I keep it out of sight as much as possible. I began to realize that there was to be no excited chatter about what I was learning and where I was going. I would not be given errands to run for my mother. We were to pretend that the cane did not exist. I would use it only when there was no other option, and in my loving family, there was always another option.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>By the time I met my travel teacher, I was frightened of the ordeal ahead and repelled by the idea of the white cane. He was going to make me travel places alone. People were going to stare at me. Students who did not realize that I was blind would know the truth. If I could have swallowed that cane, I would have done so. I became an expert at getting rid of it. As soon as I got to school on the days when I was to have a travel lesson, I would get permission to go early to my locker to dump it I certainly would not have been seen dead carrying it on other days. When I returned from school at the end of travel lesson days, I slid the cane quickly down along the wall beside the front door where it lay concealed behind the curtains until I could spirit it off to my room later. On days when my lesson kept me tied up on expeditions after school, I agonized because I knew that my mother was at home worrying about what might be happening to me. There was no triumph in these small victories over dependence; they were paid for by my mother's anguish. And the cost seemed to me entirely too high. On balance, however, I was very lucky. The travel instruction I received was very good, and even though after I finished my three months of lessons I did not use it again until I went to college, I managed to remember what I had been taught. Above all I am lucky because twelve years later I found the National Federation of the Blind. There, for the first time, I met healthy attitudes about blindness, Braille, and the white cane. Though delayed, I finally found again the satisfaction in independence that had been snuffed out fourteen years before.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>Now that I am a parent I know with painful clarity that all of us make mistakes in raising our children. For the most part my parents did it right. They were determined that I should have every chance they could give me to succeed in life. Their instincts were largely sound and their attitudes healthy. But how different it might have been if only they had known the National Federation of the Blind.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'>Back to Contents<o:p></o:p></li></ol><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>For week two we will be reading the following article. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>HOW DIFFERENT IT IS<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>by Carol Castellano<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>I urge you to think carefully about the story you are about to read and to compare it to the one you have just read "How Different it Might Have Been," by Barbara Pierce. Today, there is a Parents Division of the National Federation of the Blind and Serena Castellano's life is forever changed because of its existence and her parents' participation in it. I've named Serena's story "How Different It Is," and I think you will see why.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>Last Christmas, when she was five years old, our daughter Serena received a cane from Santa Claus. To be sure, her father and I were a lot more excited about it than she was that first day, but it wasn't long before Serena discovered just what it would mean to have a cane in her life.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>She realized immediately that by holding that long object out in front of her, she could avoid bumping into things with her nose. She also found that she could get advance warning of steps, curbs, changes in the terrain, and the like. She no longer had to rely on holding someone's hand to avoid potential danger. Suddenly she was free!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>It took her about a week and a half to incorporate the new tool into her existing repertoire of travel skills and then there was no stopping her. The sidewalk was hers. Unfamiliar stairways no problem. The way to our neighbors' house was easily learned and Serena strolled over to deliver a package. At the mall she was free to explore corridors and enjoy the echoes. Finding elevator doors was a snap; escalators provided great amusement (for her, not me). We were able to begin teaching her how to cross our quiet street alone. We began to walk to the park like other families, holding hands sometimes for the pure pleasure of it and not because we had to.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>One day my husband and I walked over with the children to the local school to vote. While we were busy signing in, Serena went off exploring. She followed the strains of an orchestra which was rehearsing in the school auditorium, a few hallways away. Halfway down the aisle, heading for the stage, was the new Miss Independence. What possibilities the cane opened up! I recall how it used to strike me as a little odd to see in the National Federation of the Blind's magazine, the Braille Monitor, picture after picture of people posing with their canes. Were they showing pride in being blind, I wondered? Were they trying to prove a point? Eventually I came to understand that the white cane is both a symbol of independence for blind people and a basic tool of making independence a reality. Matter-of-factly showing the cane in a photograph expresses the fundamental normalcy of blind people's lives.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>In this year's Halloween picture of my children, the Queen of the Prom stands holding her cane next to brother Superman. It's not a display; it's not a soapbox issue. To us, a cane in Serena's hand is just the most normal thing. When our NFB friends gathered for a picnic in our backyard, Serena at one point was hanging around in the kitchen comparing canes with the rest of the gang. Just the most natural thing.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>When I look back, I realize that getting the cane was the most significant event to happen to our family this year. It vastly changed Serena's level of independence; it changed mine. At Grandma's house, we can simply direct her to the steps; no longer do I have to hang onto her along with anything else I might be carrying; she can proceed independently at her own pace. At the library I can rush ahead with my pile of books, without worrying about her tripping on the steps or falling into the fountain. When we arrive at friends' houses, she can navigate the front walks and stairways herself. Serena goes from our car in the driveway, along the walk, up the front steps, and into the house alone; I do not have to walk her. Since we are in and out of the car so many times each day, this skill was very important to my freedom.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>The cane greatly raised our expectations. It is natural now for Serena to move along independently. We expect this of her; more importantly, she expects it of herself. Would Serena have progressed as much if she hadn't had a cane? I think not. Her curiosity and urge to explore would have been thwarted; she would not have been able to move about nearly as freely beyond the four walls of our home. Her development would have been needlessly hampered.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>It is hard to believe that canes are not given as a matter of course to young blind children, since the cane is probably the most important external factor in the development of independence. It is impossible to understand and chilling to ponder why anyone would argue against normal, natural independence in a child's life. That is what the cane makes possible. It provides the opportunity for the blind child to make the normal moves away from his or her parents, to be just like any other child, expected and encouraged to venture with increasing independence into the world. One day a few weeks ago, Serena's cane got stuck in a crack, and when she pulled it out it broke. The magnitude of the disaster suddenly struck her.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'>"Ooooh," she whined, "now we're going to have to hold hands."<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:7.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></p><ol style='margin-top:0cm' start=7 type=1><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>We will discuss ways in which the article may have changed our perspective on the topic. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'> We will issue the next week’s challenge. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'> We will discuss future topic ideas. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'> Meeting will adjorn. <o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-14.25pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'> <o:p></o:p></li></ol><ol style='margin-top:0cm' start=16 type=1><li class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:-10.5pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'><o:p> </o:p></li></ol><p class=MsoNormal>Sent from <a href="https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986">Mail</a> for Windows 10<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>