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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>June 12, 2019<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Memo To: Executive Officers, Board Members, Chapter & Division Presidents & Others<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>From: Frank Coppel, President<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Positive Note 1713<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Greetings Fellow Federationists:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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! <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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).<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> "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.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> 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.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>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!<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>