[Nfbf-l] FW: [Brl-coordinators] NEWSPAPER STORY ON LOCAL PARTICIPANT IN COINCEREMONY

[Sherrill O'Brien]

I've read lots of newspaper articles about Braille and the coin which I
haven't passed along, but this one is fun and worth your time.  Enjoy.

Sherrill

The story below appeared in the Wednesday, April 8, edition of the
Cumberland (Maryland) Times-News:


Brandon's Braille
Sarah Moses
Cumberland Times-News


April 08, 2009 09:05 am

- MCHENRY - Seven-year-old Brandon Pickrel was one of three children to
speak at the unveiling of the Louis Braille 200th birthday commemorative
silver dollar coin.
"It was a very prideful moment for us," Trudy Pickrel, Brandon's mother,
said of the event held at the U.S. Mint in Washington. "He worked very hard
on (the speech.) It was a proclamation that he and two other children read.
To have a first-grader reading, there were people who were just very proud
of how he'd done reading Braille."
Brandon, a McHenry resident and first-grader at Accident Elementary, has
been learning to read Braille since he was 2 years old, Trudy said, but he
is still learning what is called contracted Braille. Contracted Braille,
rather than spelling out individual letters, has a specific symbol for a
word. Brandon has knowledge of phonics and first-grade Braille.
"I don't like to read, but my favorite book is 'Where the Wild Things Are,'
but I can't read it myself," Brandon said. "That's because the big books are
hard."
His favorite book, like many others, is printed in contracted Braille, his
mother said, but he is continuing to learn, which was especially important
for the proclamation he read when the National Federation for the Blind
unveiled the commemorative coin.
Brandon said he was just a little nervous when he went up to speak, but that
he was very excited before and had even bounced on the hotel beds. Both his
parents and his two younger sisters attended the unveiling ceremony with
him.
Part of Brandon's speech, Trudy said, was to express concern that only about
10 percent of blind children in America are being taught Braille. She added
that 90 percent of employed blind people use Braille and that $10 from the
sale of each coin will go toward Braille Literacy in America.
Brandon was the youngest of the three who spoke, and many people in
attendance reportedly were impressed with the larger words he had to read
from the proclamation.
Children who are neither fully blind nor fully sighted are made to rely on
the little sight they have, Trudy said, and that was part of the reason she
has advocated bringing a vision teacher to Garrett County. Many of these
children learn to read faster with Braille and could use it as an added
tool.
This was not the first time Brandon has been asked to speak, and he has not
only spoken at other events but recently was the recipient of a gift to help
him purchase a laptop and software from the Deep Creek and Friendsville
Lions clubs.
To Trudy, one of the best parts of having Brandon speak at the coin
unveiling was that it gave him the opportunity to meet a variety of people,
including a NASA engineer, the special assistant to President Barack Obama
for disability policy, a singer, doctors, lawyers and parents who were all
legally blind.
"I liked it," Brandon said. "I can read and write. I can go to college."
Because of his recent speech, Brandon and his sisters were invited to the
White House on Thursday to participate in the annual egg roll.
Contact Sarah Moses at smoses at times-news.com.

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.

Photos


Brandon Pickrel, 7, reads a proclamation in Braille during the unveiling of
the Louis Braille 200th birthday commemorative silver dollar coin at the
U.S. Mint in Washington recently. Pickrel is learning to read contracted
Braille, which doesn't spell out individual letters and instead uses a
specific symbol for a word. Cumberland Times-News


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