[Nfbmo] Fw: [nfbmi-talk] Front page of Daily News Greenville 7-17-2010

Fred Olver goodfolks at charter.net
Mon Jul 19 01:16:17 UTC 2010


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry Posont" <president.nfb.mi at gmail.com>
To: "NFBofMichigan List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 6:34 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Front page of Daily News Greenville 7-17-2010


> Front page of Daily News Greenville 7-17-2010
>
>
>
> Blind campers get work training
>
>
>
> BY MATT ERSPAMER
>
> Daily News intern
>
> GREENVILLE - In a dark job market, several area blind children are 
> beginning to see a ray of light.
>
> Camp Tuhsmehta, a sum-mer camp for blind children on Lincoln Lake Road in 
> O a k f i e l d Township, helped six y o u n g adults
> enter the job mar-ket this s u m m e r with a job shadowing pro-gram.
>
> "Seventy percent of blind Americans are unemployed because of negative 
> stigmas that both they and employers have," said Camp
> Director Jackie Paulding. "Our goal is to change that perception that 
> blind people can't work."
>
> Companies from around the area, including Stafford Media Solutions and 
> Rockford's Rosie's Diner, have taken on job shadowers this
> week.
>
> Greg Botting, a 16-year-old who has been attending Camp Tuhsmeheta since 
> he was 2, was a temporary employee at The Daily News. While
> there, he worked on and observed many aspects of the newspa-per, from its 
> assembly and printing to writing for it.
>
> "It's always been my dream to be a journalist and this experience has 
> taught me that anything's possible," Botting said.
>
> Another Tuhsmehta job shadower, 14-year-old Haley Cone, has been attending 
> the camp for five years and chose to do her shadowing at
> Rosie's Diner.
>
> "While I was there I got to wash dishes, take orders and put them into the 
> computer," Cone said. "It was a really exciting
> experience for me."
>
> After her job shadowing was finished, the restaurant offered her a job 
> when she turns 15.
>
> "I think I'll be doing the same basic things when I go back," she said. 
> "And that's fine with me."
>
> In preparation for this job shadowing experience, he and the five other 
> campers went through training. They were taught the basics
> about inter-viewing for a job, important questions to ask and the 
> importance of disclosing their disability.
>
> SEE CAMPERS, PAGE 2A
>
> SEE PAGE 4A
>
> Page 2A
>
> CAMPERS
>
>
>
> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2A
>
> "Most of what we taught them is stuff they would learn in any kind of 
> training to enter the job market," said Paulding.
>
> Camp Tuhsmeheta typi-cally sees campers from ages 7 to 17, but the special 
> two-week camp was geared for campers between the ages of
> 14 and 23.
>
> The camp also offers sever-al typical summer camps for young adults with 
> outdoor activities such as canoeing and hiking.
>
> merspamer at staffordgroup.com
>
> Page 4A
>
>
> Changes for the better
>
>
> With nearly 70 per-cent of blind adults unemployed, the Michigan 
> Commission for the Blind, ( MCB) decided to do something about this
> prob-lem. They decid-ed to assist Camp Tuhsmeheta, a camp for the blind 
> near Greenville, by funding a two-week pilot pro-gram to
> teach job skills to clients. That program took wing this summer and 
> incorporated job skill training and actual job- shadowing.
>
> The initial training took up Tuesday through Thursday of the week of July 
> 5. Both staff and campers worked on writing resumes,
> proper handshakes and whether to disclose the fact that they are blind or 
> visually impaired in a job situation. The campers also did
> some work on cooking, both buying and using materials for meals that they 
> planned. This was a great project for all concerned, and,
> in addition to the training, made the first week a great accomplishment.
>
> While all this had been going on, other staff had been working around the 
> clock to make certain that everyone that attended had at
> least one job experience dur-ing the second week of the pro-gram. They 
> contacted such plac-es as the Greenville Community Center,
> Habitat for Humanity and the offices of this newspaper. In the end, they 
> managed to secure experiences for the half-a-dozen students
> that attended the camp. All in all, it looks like it's going to be a great 
> success.
>
> While reactions from the stu-dents were mixed about their positions, they 
> were generally pleased with what had been done for them.
> On Monday morning, bright and early, I set out with an accompanying staff 
> member. I was going to be working at The Daily News, a
> dream come true.
>
> Since middle school, journalism has always seemed like a good career to 
> me. It seems to run in the family. My great-grandfather was
> a journalist in New York before and during World War II.
>
> Here was my chance to get an insight into a dream job, if only for a short 
> time.
>
> The first order of business was to shadow a reporter. With the paper's 
> permission, I shadowed Elisabeth Waldon, one of the
> reporters. At that time, she was covering the Montcalm County 
> Commissioners meeting in the old courthouse of Stanton. So, on Monday,
> July 12, I showed up at the meeting.
>
> The meeting was fairly boring until some animal rights activists began 
> going on about how they had been slighted. According to what
> I heard at the meeting, one of the activists implied that ani-mals were 
> still being held in poor conditions, and were not being held
> at the shelter for the proper amount of time. That little reve-lation was 
> enough of a catalyst for me to attempt to write an op-ed
> in response. In brief, my op-ed stated that change comes because of 
> peaceful conversation, not as a result of loud and vocal
> criticism. Sometimes, that blar-ing criticism is needed, but I don't think 
> it is necessary in this situation. Look at the civil
> rights movement. They affected change despite overwhelming odds.
>
> The next three days were spent at The Daily News ( Tuesday and Thursday), 
> and News Web ( Wednesday.) Of particular interest, at
> least to me, was the printing of the paper at News Web, and the editing 
> work that goes into making the paper presentable to the
> public. This experience has made me aware of all kinds of jobs in the 
> jour-nalism industry, from staff writer to working the
> printing press units in a factory. I have gained a lot of knowledge over 
> the four days that I've spent in this field, and I hope to
> be able to get a job in journalism after college.
>
> There is an old saying, "Where there's a will, there's a way."
>
> Despite the fact that so much of the blind adult population is unemployed, 
> it can be done. Will and way come together every time
> anyone gets a job, no matter how small. That is especially true for all 
> those who have a "differ-ent ability," be it physical or
> mental. This program funded by MCB and put on by Camp Tuhsmeheta showed 
> that more clearly than anything I have wit-nessed so far. I
> would like to end my column by saying thank you to all those who 
> participated, and also thank you to all who made this experience
> possible.
>
> Greg Botting is a junior at Ionia High School.
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> PERSONALLY SPEAKING
>
>
>


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