[Nfbofsc] Positive Note 1713

[David Houck]

June 12, 2019

Memo To:  Executive Officers, Board Members, Chapter & Division Presidents &
Others

From:  Frank Coppel, President

Positive Note 1713

Greetings Fellow Federationists:

 

              This week a very important program is taking place in the NFB
of SC.  The program occurring this week is Children's Camp which is being
held at RBRCCB.  The camp began June 9, and will conclude on June 15.  The
camp is under the direction of Jennifer Bazer who appears to have assembled
an excellent staff of blind and sighted volunteers who are assisting her in
providing a meaningful and fun filled camping experience for the
approximately thirty children attending camp.  

              There are only a few weeks remaining to make your hotel
reservations for the 2019 NFB of SC State Convention which will be held at
the Marriott Hotel in Columbia August 9-11.  Room rates are very affordable.
Rates for this year's convention are $112 per night for up to four in a
room.  In addition to the room rates, there will be a tax, which at present
is 14 percent.  The deadline to make reservations will be July 15, 2019
which is only four and a half weeks away.  There will also be a limited
number of rooms available for the $112 rate Thursday, August 8, for those
individuals wanting to arrive to the hotel a day prior to the official start
of the convention.  If you pay in advance, your reservation will be
guaranteed: however, you will not have to pay as long as you arrive by 6:00
p.m.  Any amount you pay, of course, will be applied toward your bill.  The
Marriott Hotel has given the NFB of SC a block of rooms to reserve until
July 15.  If you wait until after July 15, to make your hotel reservation,
the hotel may not have an available room for you and you will not be
eligible for the convention room rate of $112.  For those of you who will be
attending the NFB National convention from July 6-13, I would strongly
encourage you to go ahead and make your room reservations for the state
convention now and not wait until you return from Las Vegas.  If you wait
until July 13, to make your room reservation, you could forget to do it, and
thereby, miss the July 15 deadline.  You can make your room reservations by
calling the Marriott toll free reservation telephone number (800) 593-6465
or (803) 771-7000 and inform the reservationist you are reserving a room for
the National Federation of the Blind of South Carolina state convention.  At
this year's state convention, we will be celebrating the seventy-fifth
anniversary of our organization.  We are planning special activities
throughout the weekend to commemorate this wonderful milestone.  We are
expecting a large turnout for this convention so you may want to make your
hotel reservations early.  This will be a very special and historic
convention you do not want to miss!  

              Also, please continue to preregister for the NFB of SC 2019
state convention.  The total preregistration package is $80 which includes a
very special Friday evening reception, continental breakfast Saturday and
Sunday morning of the convention, the Saturday Luncheon and the Saturday
evening Banquet. The preregistration period will end August 2, after which
time the cost to register for the state convention will be $100.  We will
again offer a discount for families with children during the preregistration
period.  Parents will pay the $80 preregistration fee and each child
eighteen years of age and younger will pay $20.  There will also be a
discounted rate for college students in the amount of $50 during the
preregistration period.  

 

              The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is
not the characteristic that defines you or your future.  Every day, we raise
the expectations of blind people because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams.  You can live the life you want:
blindness is not what holds you back.  Joining me for comments in this
Positive Note is the President Emeritus of the NFB of SC.  Here is Dr.
Capps.  

              This week we turn our spotlight to just across the creek from
Rocky Bottom onto our community resident member of the RBRCCB Board of
Directors, Dr. Tom Bowen.  Thomas Otis Bowen, Jr., was born on New Year's
Day, at Tuomey Hospital, in Sumter, S. C.  He was celebrated as the first
baby born in Sumter on January 1, 1940, the son of Senator Thomas Otis
Bowen, Sr. and mother Julia Westbrook Bowen.

              Tom graduated from Edmonds High School in Sumter, in 1958.  He
entered Clemson A&M College that year, majoring in Biology.  Tom graduated
Clemson College in June of 1962, with a Bachelor of Science Degree.  He
entered dental school at the Medical University of Virginia in Richmond,
Virginia.  Tom graduated with his Doctor of Dental degree in 1966.

              Tom married Caroline McLeod from Beaufort, S. C. in 1963.
They have three children (all Clemson University graduates), and, six
grandchildren (two at Clemson University, one at Winthrop University and
three in High School).

              Tom started his dental practice in Sumter, S. C., in 1966.  In
1989, he retired and moved his family into their family home in Rocky
Bottom.  Tom Bowen says, "I got tired of sitting around and began helping in
a dental practice in Walhalla, S. C. where I practiced for 25 years as an
associate dentist. "  Tom is now retired and living in Rocky Bottom.

              "My grandfather, Thomas A. Bowen, was a founding father in
building the Camp, first known as the 4-H camp, as he was the County Agent
in Pickens County.  Later, when my father, Thomas O. Bowen, Sr., found out
that the 4-H Camp was going to be moved to Camp Long on Santee Cooper, he
and others in Rocky Bottom were looking for a group to restore and
revitalize the 4-H Camp at Rocky Bottom."

              Dr. Donald Capps was visiting friends of ours, Roy & Lib
Nichols from Sumter in Rocky Bottom, and he had the vision of a Camp for the
sight impaired to be at Rocky Bottom.  With the help of my father, Tom
Bowen, Sr. (and, later State Senator), and other politicians, Rocky Bottom
began becoming what it is today.

              Dr. Tom Bowen is honored to serve as the Rocky Bottom
representative on the Rocky Bottom Board at the Camp to relay any concerns
of the Rocky Bottom community, and the Camp which is for the benefit of both
groups. 

              He and his wife are members of Pickens Presbyterian Church.
Rocky Bottom is a very special place to Dr. Bowen and to his family. He
states that he has been coming here since he was six months old!  Rocky
Bottom has been host to many famous people like Lyndon Baines Johnson, the
then Vice President and President of the United States, to name one.  "We
All love Rocky Bottom.  We hope it exists forever!"  The blind of South
Carolina strongly agree with Dr. Tom Bowen and we salute him for all his
many years of support in helping to change what it means to be blind for
generations of blind people.

 

Final Thought:   The 75th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy invasion was
celebrated on June 6.  Isn't it interesting the NFB of SC is celebrating its
75th anniversary this year as well!

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