[NFB-Braille-Discussion] Celebrate Helen Keller's birthday this month, June 27th

[Debbe Gabe]

Celebrate Helen Keller's birthday on June 27.
>From the Braille Division of the NFB of Hawaii:
June 27 is Helen Keller's birthday.

Helen Keller - American Author born on June 27, 1880, died on June 01, 1968

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker. Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama is now a museum and sponsors an annual "Helen Keller Day". Her birthday on June 27 is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and was authorized at the federal level by presidential proclamation by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, the 100th anniversary of her birth... (Wikipedia)<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller>

How can we celebrate her birthday?
Some ideas:

  1.  Write or read braille - a story, a book, a letter or card, a poem, a braille label, or a shopping or to-do list.
  2.  Do something new or something that you have not done since going blind - challenge yourself.
  3.  If you are only partially blind, put on sleep shades and do something totally blind.
  4.  Become familiar with some of Helen Keller's quotes. She had many good ones. Below are some of our favorites.

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."
Helen Keller, The Open Door<https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/7276877>

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.

The highest result of education is tolerance.
People don't like to think, if one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

If you have other ideas, let us know by emailing me.
Have a great day.
Debbie Gabe
Braille Division
NFB of Hawaii