[Nfb-krafters-korner] Mitsy kits

[Becky Frankeberger]

Our featured speaker on Branco Broadcast this week will be Tammy Rousell.
She will appear Monday, July 6 at 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time.  To participate,
please do the following.  Call 712-432-3645.  When you hear the man's voice
after the computer voice, press 1 for the main menu, 1 for the rooms menu,
and 6 for my conference room.  After you hear the greeting, it will ask for
your name.  You don't need to say it.  Hit pound and you will be in the
conference.  Here is some information about our guest.

Prior to initiating the Mitsy Kit, Tammy Roussell was an Information
Technology manager with over 25 years' experience solving business
information system challenges  for organizations including UNUM Provident,
LL Bean, Keane consulting, Southwest Airlines, and Liberty Mutual Insurance
.  Tammy holds a BAS in Psychology and Management from Dallas Baptist
University, and has earned her Lean Six Sigma Master Black belt certificate
from Villanova University.

Responding to her desire to serve those in need, Tammy left the corporate
world, giving up her six figure salary to pursue a career in which she could
improve the quality of life for the elderly and disabled.  Seeking to take
advantage of her natural problem solving skills and passion to help people,
she initially sought out an Occupational Therapy Master's degree.  However,
her plans shifted as she was increasingly drawn to care for her elderly
mother who was healthy in so many ways, but found her life
limited/restricted due to her blindness.

Upon taking a leave of absence from the Occupational Therapy Master's
program, Tammy discovered a method to help her blind mother sew and quilt
with tactile guides.  What started as an effort to help her mother maintain
independence developed into a vision that the greater blind and visually
impaired community might also benefit from this tactile guided sewing and
quilting method. Tammy's mom good-naturedly "ran trials" and gave feedback
that was used to improve the tactile guided quilting method, now called the
Mitsy Kit, after Tammy's mom.

Moving towards developing a nonprofit, Tammy recently submitted a
provisional utility patent application for the Mitsy Kit.  Her mom continues
to thrive and maintain independence, enjoying her personal success with the
Mitsy Kit to produce a multitude of small to full size quilts, quilted
pillows, and quilted wall hangings. Other like-minded, passionate, dedicated
volunteers have contributed to the development of new Mitsy Kit quilting
designs for individual purchase and use in group workshops at Senior
Centers, Centers for the blind and other community and faith based
organizations.  Additionally, a MitsyKit.com e-commerce web site is being
developed to make kits available for a nominal price and to provide a
revenue source for the blind through sales of their quilted, Mitsy Kit
creations.

 

Tammy will give a brief presentation, and then take questions from our
participants.  If you need help getting into the conference, please let me
know and I will assist you.  We look forward to hearing from you on Monday
night.

 

    Bob Branco