[Nfbv-historic-fredericksburg] {Spam?} Please Remember our Walk and Join Us

[Holly Frisch]

As you have already been reminded several times, our Walk With the Blind is this Saturday, April 16, two days from today.  We will gather by 9:30 at the Fredericksburg City Dock.  After opening ceremonies and distribution of gift certificates, the walk will begin at approximately 10:30.  Without interruptions, your walk from the dock to the library should take approximately 30 minutes.  Please walk directly to the library since the access service staff will be awaiting for us.  Then, as you walk back to the dock, if you win a gift certificate, we hope you visit the shop which donated it.  Currently, we know we will have at least 30 gift certificates.  

Please remember, this walk is our one and only annual fund raising activity.  Without money in our treasury, we cannot provide assistance to those who, in some cases, urgently require it.  We cannot help people develop their leadership potential by inviting them to our invaluable training sessions and seminars.  We cannot assist people who recently became blind by sending them to a convention to meet with and learn from those of us with more experience.  This is the most important occasion annually when we urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to do everything you can to obtain financial support for NFB from your family, friends, and personal as well as professional acquaintances.  We suggest doing this by letting them know how important the organization is to you.

Here is what I would say if asked why NFB is important to me.  I attended my first convention in 1972.  I was so fascinated to meet people who were blind and engaged in challenging pursuits such as teaching physics in New York City's roughest public schools.  As a college student majoring in French, I was also excited to meet a man who spoke seven languages fluently.  Everything intrigued me;   I was 19 years old.

One of our most perceptive members realized all this unbridled curiosity might get me into situations beyond my limited experience to handle.  He invited me to attend the resolutions committee meeting with him.

Another  member explained what was occurring.  People who were blind could not take the federal civil service examinations which were a prerequisite qualification for government positions.  I sat at the table while the committee wrote the resolution which addressed this issue.  Eight years later, because of that resolution and subsequent NFB actions, I competed on terms of equality by taking the Professional Administrative and Career Examination, the test required to qualify for mid-level federal positions. This marked the beginning of a monumental change in my life.  NFB helped me move from Illinois to Washington, D.C., interview for Federal government positions and secure one!  I could not have made the trip, moved a quarter of the way across the  country or maintained myself during more than three months of unemployment without financial support from NFB.  Six years later, NFB once again helped me compete on terms of equality by purchasing my first computer,  the software considered standard at that time to operate it and the training to use this gift productively.