[nfbwatlk] Inland Northwest Lighthouse Braille Rally

[mjc59 at q.com]

Ben,

What a great braille promotion! I really like the fact that the blind folks were in charge of directions.

Marci

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bennett Prows (HHS/OCR)" <Bennett.Prows at HHS.GOV>
To: "NFB of Washington Talk Mailing List" <nfbwatlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 1:52:45 PM
Subject: [nfbwatlk] Inland Northwest Lighthouse Braille Rally

Well Listers, I made it.  The Braille car rally, held on Saturday in Spokane for the INL was excellent.  It was well attended, and a great deal of fun.

I went over with Kirk and Ros Adams on Friday from Seattle in order to tour the facility. As Maria can probably attest, the facility is pretty impressive. It was once a large, (probably fifty thousand square foot) grocery store that has been converted to the manufacturing plant for five different product lines at present, all made for the government.  The workers seem really invested in the INL, and the work as well. I was able to talk with a number of folks who showed me their machines and how to work them. I was impressed the Kirk, the CEO of the whole thing was put on a frame stapling machine for wall board, and performed the tasks for about an hour to get a feel for what's happening.  He says he does something on the machine area each month.

Before the tour, we had an awards luncheon for the MVP employees who have encapsulated the values of the organization for the year.  The winners had all been nominated by their fellow employees, and so the awards meant a lot to each of them.

So, on Saturday, the fund raising car rally began at 9:00 A.M .  It was raining, and didn't really stop all day. There were sixteen cars and drivers involved this year, and of course each had a navigator, reading the specific directions in Braille. Before the event, Kirk addressed the crowd, and told everyone that we are turning the tables on those dependent on vision. Blind folks were in charge, since we had the directions. Each car and occupants had a number.  I was in car #3. It was a 2003 Porche 911 convertible. (of course the top was up, grin.)  The local Porche club contributed several cars and drivers for the event. They apparently do a lot of fund raising for nonprofits in the area, and were excellent partners in this event.  The 40 mile course took us about 2 hours to complete. My driver, Barry and I were the second car back, but we didn't win anything on points. I speculate that we went too fast, coming to several check points much ahead of schedule. The ride was awesome, the car's handling in the turns and with speed was beyond amazing. I loved every minute of the ride.

Afterwards, we had another lunch to declare the winners, hear from some speakers about blindness, Braille and of course the INL. The event was a tremendous success, even in spite of the rain, and I think the INL and we all have benefitted from the experience. Not only did we demonstrate the capabilities of blind persons, but showed how Braille can help level the playing field, or road as it were.

Thanks goes to all who helped with all aspects of planning organizing, setting up and participating in the Braille Rally.

Kevin Daniel, the director in Spokane is moving to Seattle to take a senior position with the Seattle Lighthouse. His replacement, Sean Dobbs and Kevin were both there, and I certainly enjoyed meeting them both. This was essentially Kevin's last event with the INL in particular, so he went out with a bang. Sean is taking the reins, and will also do an excellent job.

Oh, while there, I saw Debbie, and Maria, as well as Monika Stuglemeyer (SP) and to see how happy she seems working there.

I was glad to be part of the whole weekend's activities.

/s/

Bennett Prows
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