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<DIV>Greetings to all!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Raising expectations for consideration is provided below.</DIV>
<DIV>Think out of the box, challenge yourself and live the life you
want!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Congratulations Dawn and Josh!</DIV>
<DIV>Warmly,</DIV>
<DIV>Joe ruffalo, President </DIV>
<DIV>National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey </DIV>
<DIV>973 743 0075</DIV>
<DIV><A href="mailto:nfbnj1@verizon.net">nfbnj1@verizon.net</A></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.nfbnj.org">www.nfbnj.org</A></DIV>
<DIV>Raising Expectations To Live The Life You Want!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>** </DIV>
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<DIV>Bloomfield friends establish bowling league for the blind</DIV>
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<DIV>Essex News Daily, May 21, 2018-By: Daniel Jackovino</DIV>
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<DIV>[cid:image001.jpg@01D3F423.1D943040]Members of the new NJ Federation of
the
Blind bowling league at the lanes in Belleville last week. At far right is
Dawn
Ferrara, a BHS graduate who helped start the league. To her right is Josh
Valese, who proposed the league.</DIV>
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<DIV>[cid:image002.jpg@01D3F423.1D943040]Sister and brother Tara Invidiato
and
Jeff Werner. The object Tara is holding was made by her husband, Paul. The
small
pegs slide up and down to let her know what pins are still standing.</DIV>
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<DIV>BLOOMFIELD, NJ - The reason things happen may be in the stars, but by a
confluence of worldly factors a Bloomfield High School graduate, Dawn
Ferrara,
Class of 1989, has created what may be the first bowling league in the state
for
people who are blind and visually impaired.</DIV>
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<DIV>The teams will be meeting every Wednesday evening this summer at the
Brunswick Zone Bowling Lanes, in Belleville. In addition to Ferrara, who is
sighted, two other sighted individuals living in Bloomfield, Amy Glick and
Rachael Lepiscopo, will be assisting her. Ferrara currently lives in
Roselle.</DIV>
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<DIV>"I have a lot of connections in Bloomfield," she said. "I grew up there
and
was part of the Ladies VFW Auxiliary Post 711."</DIV>
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<DIV>The league started this past November with four people.</DIV>
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<DIV>"Three were visually impaired and one was totally blind," Ferrara said
at
the lanes last week over the din of clattering pins.</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV>But through word-of-mouth and social media, the league got noticed and
things expanded.</DIV>
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<DIV>"In February, we had 17 people," she continued. "Nine were visually
impaired, one was blind and two were also hearing impaired. Now we have 14
people and three teams."</DIV>
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<DIV>The individuals with hearing impairment, she said, belong to an
organization that told them of the league. Players make it to the lanes by
carpooling or Access-A-Ride.</DIV>
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<DIV>Glick and Lepiscopo bowl in the league. There is a hand railing, which
Ferrara designed from PVC piping, near one lane to assist players.</DIV>
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<DIV>"I went to the Home Depot in Bloomfield and they built it on the spot,"
she
said.</DIV>
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<DIV>Ferrara does not bowl.</DIV>
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<DIV>"I am the team administrator, secretary and treasurer," she said. "In
other
words, another paper-pusher. I just run the league along with my boyfriend,
Josh. It was his vision and dream. I am just the one who knows which buttons
to
push in order to make it happen and help it grow."</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The league began in November after she met her boyfriend, Josh Valese.
Ferrara said he can see with only one eye and just 20 feet in front of
himself.
As a 13-year-old, she said he was shot in the head by a neighbor who went
berserk.</DIV>
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<DIV>"Google his name," she said.</DIV>
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<DIV>The incident occurred March 1989 in West Orange. According to a
published
report, Valese was shot with a handgun fired by George Proctor after
teenagers
allegedly threw stones at his "mint-condition" 1983 Cadillac and punched him
in
the face when he exited the vehicle. Proctor also killed a 10-year-old girl,
wounded another child and the police officer who finally killed him.</DIV>
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<DIV>Ferrara said Valese and a friend wanted to start a league for the
blind.</DIV>
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<DIV>"But he didn't know how to put it out there," she said. "That's when I
became involved with the NJ Federation for the Blind."</DIV>
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<DIV>The NJ Federation for the Blind had only recently established a sports
and
recreation division. This past January, Ferrara connected with the division
president, Linda Melendez.</DIV>
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<DIV>"She said it was ironic," Ferrara said. "They had an interest in
bowling."</DIV>
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<DIV>And last month Ferrara was elected to the board of the division.</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The president of the NJ Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind
is
Joe Ruffalo, another BHS graduate, Class of 1967. Ruffalo resides in the
township and has been the chapter president since 1993. He has been totally
blind since 1976 as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, a deterioration of the
retina. He said the recreation and sports division for the NJ chapter began
this
past November.</DIV>
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<DIV>"It's new," he said. "We want to get feedback from our members."</DIV>
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<DIV>There are other sports in which people who are blind and visually
impaired
can participate, he said.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"I went surfing last year," he said. "Not very well."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In June, he said there is going to be a National Federation for the
Blind
6K race. It will be run in Baltimore and is called the "Six Dot Dash."
Ruffalo
explained that there are six dots in a Braille cell, such as one sees on
elevator panels and restroom doors, to tactiley inform people with a visual
disability of what is before them. Ruffalo said, like everyone else, after a
race, blind people have sore legs and back aches.</DIV>
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<DIV>"We are people that want to fit into society," he said. "Some people
think
blind people should sit on the street corner."</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There is also audio archery, he said. This is where an individual hears
a
target move on their smartphone and releases an "arrow" by tapping the
screen
when the sound target is centered - a bull's eye. Ruffalo said the purpose
of
people who are blind engaging in sports is not competition.</DIV>
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<DIV>"It's just getting out there and doing it," he said. "It's getting out
there and doing something positive."</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Back at the bowling alley, one person who does it for fun and to
compete
was Anita Lisica, of Clifton. She is visually impaired and said she can see
perceive light and shadows. She ordinarily bowls through the Special Olympic
program of the Clifton Department of Recreation. That program is currently
dormant but will start up again Oct. 2.</DIV>
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<DIV>"I've been doing it for a long time, every Saturday," she said. "It's
like
practice and they have competition in February."</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Lisica said she joined the new league because she loves bowling. Her
average this year is 136. Her all-time high game is 157. In bowling, a
perfect
score is 300. She interrupts the interview to knock down seven pins with one
roll and then with the next roll, the three standing. That is called a
spare.</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ferrara said she hopes to grow the league, but she is also thinking
outside
north Jersey.</DIV>
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<DIV>"By the fall, Josh and my goal is to start another team in south or
central
New Jersey," she said. "A lot of people are showing interest. And there's a
bigger organization - the American Blind Bowling Association. Jersey was one
of
the few states that had no blind bowling association."</DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>That has been changed.</DIV>
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<DIV>Anyone interested in learning more about the NJFB bowling league can go
to
the league Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NNJBLINDBOWLERS<<A
href="http://www.facebook.com/NNJBLINDBOWLERS">http://www.facebook.com/NNJBLINDBOWLERS</A>>
or contact Ferrara directly at
BlindAtHeart1@gmail.com<mailto:BlindAtHeart1@gmail.com></DIV>
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