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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>November 13, 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 1735<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> I am certain by now Board members of RBRCCB and the NFB of SC as well as Chapter and Division Presidents have received their letter regarding the Rocky Bottom Christmas Board Retreat on December 6-8. If you have not done so already, please notify the State Office as soon as possible of your intentions for attending this Retreat, in order that we may have an accurate head count to purchase food for the four meals being served (Saturday breakfast, lunch, dinner, and Sunday breakfast) as well as making the necessary sleeping accommodations. We will celebrate the Christmas season together on Saturday evening. If you would like to participate in the gift exchange, please bring a gift with a value of at least $10 to be placed under the Christmas tree. Men should bring a man’s gift, and women should bring a woman’s gift. Additionally, it would be wonderful if people would bring baked items for the Christmas party such as cookies, cakes and pies. As stated in the letter written to board members and chapter and division presidents a week or so ago, I am asking each of you who are planning to attend the Christmas Board Retreat to contribute $20 which will greatly help to defray much of the cost for the food and travel for the weekend. Your support regarding this matter is greatly appreciated. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> I am confident we will have near 100 percent of our board members in attendance and we will have a wonderful time Saturday evening as we celebrate the Christmas season together. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for not reporting in last week’s Positive Note the death of Leon Hines Sr., who was a longtime member of the Columbia chapter. Mr. Hines was a hard worker in the chapter especially during the chapter’s annual chicken BBQ fundraiser where he always finished in the top three in ticket sales. All of us in the NFB of SC need to keep the Hines’ family in our thoughts and prayers. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> I am sure many of you know my now Donald Capps, our longtime leader in the NFB of SC, passed away Wednesday night, November 6. On Monday, November 11, the funeral was held for Dr. Capps. I was very honored to be one of the pallbearers and also to make remarks during the funeral service. I have asked Parnell Diggs, the immediate past President of the NFB of SC, to share with us in this week’s Positive Note his thoughts regarding Dr. Capps. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> This week’s spotlight falls on perhaps the most distinguished Federation leader South Carolina has ever produced, Dr. Donald C. Capps. But this is not to tell the story of his long life of 91 years in sequence of events from start to finish. Instead, I will use this opportunity to convey a few thoughts about Dr. Capps, the man in retrospect in 2019.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> Dr. Capps absolutely, dearly loved the National Federation of the Blind. It was so connected with his life that it could not be separated from his being. He first came to the Federation in the mid 1950’swhen he was but in his 20’s. He attended his first chapter meeting at about the age of 25and his first national convention at the age of 27.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> He attended his last meeting in October of 2019. In recent years, it had been increasingly difficult for Dr. Capps to attend Federation meetings due to a number of health issues. For him to get out of the house and get to the Federation Center, in October 2019 for example, required tremendous exertional effort on his part. We now know that the October meeting was to be his last, as he passed away some 27 days later. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> It was not always physically difficult for Dr. Capps to attend meetings. At the age of 27, he and Mrs. Capps traveled cross country by car to attend the San Francisco convention in 1956. There he met Dr. tenBroek (then President and Founder of the NFB) and Kenneth Jernigan who would become one of Dr. Capp’s best friends until Dr. Jernigan’s death in 1998. Within ten years of attending his first national convention, Dr. Capps had begun working on initiatives that many of us now take for granted. For example, the Federation Center was dedicated in 1961, when Dr. Capps was 33 years old. Dr. Capps saw the need to improve programs for the blind in South Carolina. The person who was running the Division for the Blind which was in the South Carolina Department of Public Welfare said that, “That young Don Capps had better watch his step.” But Dr. Capps was not to be deterred. Along with his brother-in-law Gene Rogers, Dr. Capps wrote the legislation creating the SC Commission for the Blind, which was established in May of 1966. At that time Dr. Capps was 37 years old. Over the next five decades, Dr. Capps continued to work tirelessly on initiatives that would improve the quality of life for blind people across the nation and around the world. You do not have to be a longtime member of the Federation to know of the dozens of bills enacted in South Carolina in which Dr. Capps played an essential part.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> Dr. Capps was about 50 years of age when we established what was then Rocky Bottom Camp of the Blind (later Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center of the Blind). Dr. Capps was about 55 when , in his wisdom, he was responsible for hiring a young aspiring professional, David Houck, and these two gentlemen worked closely together for the next 36 years.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> I could easily work this into a book, but there will be other opportunities to talk about the life of Dr. Capps, so I will end my remarks by telling you one more thing that you should know about Dr. Capps. He believed in young people and the importance of bringing youth into the Federation. At his funeral, Dan Frye articulately shared memories of his childhood, having met Dr. Capps when Dan was about 13. Dr. Capps while attending a Columbia Chapter membership banquet in April of 1989 was the first person to approach me, shake my hand, and welcome me to the Federation Center on that fateful evening. I was a 20 year old student at the University of South Carolina, and Dr. Capps (at the age of 60) had already enjoyed a successful career of nearly four decades at Colonial Life and Accident Insurance Company. Dr. Capps had retired from Colonial Life just a few years before. He was involved in the work of the Federation on a full-time basis, spending many hours each day working to improve the quality of life of his blind brothers and sisters. He never missed an opportunity to lead a blind person to the Federation, but this was especially true when it came to young blind people. There are Federation leaders in South Carolina and across the nation who came to be part of the Federation after being recruited by Dr. Capps. He will be known as one of the greatest chapter organizers and membership recruiters that the Federation has ever known. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> From the age of 25 to the age of 91, Dr. Capps gave every ounce of energy he could muster to the work of the National Federation of the Blind. I hope that others will follow the example set by Donald Capps on giving of our time, energy and talent to this big program of work with the blind. But the bar set by Dr. Capps is very high, as 66 years of dedicated service is a long time to spend in the furtherance of any cause. But from what I have learned from Dr. Capps in my 30 years of working with him, I think it would be safe to make the following estimation. Dr. Capps would be pleased with those who commit to work with the National Federation of the Blind if they would simply do their fair share and then some.<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. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Final Thought: Transforming our dreams into reality: A unique leader in the federation, Dr. Donald C. Capps touched the lives of thousands of blind people in Columbia, South Carolina, the nation and the world. He will be remembered as a builder of local chapters, state affiliates, Founder of the Federation Center of the Blind in 1961 and Rocky Bottom Retreat and Conference Center of the Blind in 1979 as well as a master recruiter of blind people into the Federation.<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>